Resting star players has been becoming a hot topic since David Stern fined the San Antonio Spurs $250k in 2012 for not bringing Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, or Danny Green to Miami on the last game of a 6-game road trip. More recently, the Cavs and Warriors have both been resting players during the run-up to the playoffs. This past Saturday, the Cavs didn't play LeBron, Kyrie, or Kevin Love during an ABC primetime game against the Clippers, which ended up being a 108-78 blowout as a result.

Yesterday, league commissioner, Adam Silver, sent out a sternly worded letter to NBA teams and owners (ESPN) regarding this issue. In the letter, he warned the teams of coming "significant penalties" if teams fail to obey league rules by sending "notice to the league office, their opponent, and the media immediately upon a determination that a player will not participate in a game due to rest." He claimed that owners should not delegate this responsibility to others in their organizations, as others "may not have the same awareness of the impact these decisions can have on 'fans and business partners,' the reputation of the league and 'perception of our game.'"

So what I want to know is this, how does the NBA plan on fixing this "problem", if it really is a problem? In my mind, it would be unfair for the NBA to levy punishment against teams if it is solely based on the fact that a team rests its star player(s). As David Griffin said in the ESPN article linked above, his job is to win championships, not earn money for the NBA. He is team-focused, not league-focused. But if this is more of an issue about following protocol, then whatever. I hope that this is what Silver is after; I feel like he has been very good at balancing the best interests of both the owners and the players.

All of that being said, how could the NBA try to fix the resting issue? I can think of two possibilities:

1. Play fewer games. As it currently stands, the NBA season is 82 games. The league has already made plans on playing fewer preseason games in order to fit another week into the schedule so that teams can avoid back-to-back games (or at least many of them). I think that this can go a little ways into helping lessen the physical stress on a player's body throughout the course of a season, but what if they also shortened the schedule by 10 games? I doubt that this will ever happen though, because if 30 teams play 10 less games, that's a total of 300 games in which the league is losing revenue.

2. Incentivize wins in the league's marquee games. Did you notice that the league didn't say anything when the Cavs rested the Big 3 against the Grizzlies earlier this season? On December 14, the Cavs played the second half of a home-away back-to-back series with the Grizzlies. They rested the Big 3, and the league didn't say anything. But then when they rested the Big 3 on the first half of a back-to-back in LA (Clippers, primetime on ABC), Adam Silver writes a letter threatening punishment. So how do you incentivize marquee games? Maybe significant bonuses for the teams that finish with the best regular season record against playoff teams? Some type of home-court advantage during the playoffs?

What do you guys make of this? Is resting players an issue? How do you think the NBA can fix the resting "problem"?

TL;DR= The NBA thinks it's an issue to rest star players. Well, maybe they should play less games or incentivize marquee games to entice players to perform.