The Nets bolstered their starting lineup this summer by gutting a rebuilding Celtics team and adding Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to fill out what should be one of the most formidable starting lineups in all of basketball next season.
Age is a legitimate concern, however, as Pierce is 35 and Garnett is 37.
The regular season is a long grind for veteran players, and making sure that the team is as close to full strength as possible for the playoffs is an important part of managing the team throughout the year.
It’s not surprising, then, that first time head coach Jason Kidd is already having discussions about resting one of his new key players.
From Mike Mazzeo of ESPN New York:Brooklyn Nets coach Jason Kidd has discussed the possibility of power forward Kevin Garnett not playing in both games of back-to-back sets this season.
“When you look at KG, probably no back-to-backs, but those are just topics right now that are being thrown around,” Kidd said Friday.
The Nets will play 20 sets of back-to-back games. Garnett is 37, and the Nets want to make sure their newly acquired veteran stays healthy throughout the regular season.
Good luck with that, coach.
Garnett is as competitive as they come, and if he’s feeling at or near 100 percent, it’s going to be tough to convince him to willingly wear a suit on the bench 20 times out of 82.
Even Tim Duncan, also 37, didn’t rest that much last year; he missed only 13 of San Antonio’s regular season contests. And we know how overly-cautious Gregg Popovich can be with resting his starters.
With that being said, Garnett did miss 14 games while with the Celtics last season. Kidd may be able to convince him to sit out some of those back-to-backs (to be clear, we’re talking about the second night of a back-to-back set), but getting Garnett on board with missing 20 games if he’s healthy at the time seems like a bit of a stretch.
