The Denver Nuggets are skating by on a technicality this week.
Denver made the decision on Monday to sit almost all of their key players for a nationally-televised game against the Philadelphia 76ers that night. Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, Aaron Gordon, and Tim Hardaway Jr. were all ruled out for rest/maintenance purposes.
Bennett Durando of The Denver Post shared an interesting insight into how the Nuggets were able to do this despite the NBA’s rules on load management (which state that teams cannot rest their otherwise-healthy star players for nationally televised games). Durando notes that the league will not be able to fine Denver since none of the aforementioned players count as a “star” according to the NBA’s Player Participation Policy.
Most notably, Murray (despite being a 25-ppg scorer as well as one of the better-known names in the league) has never made an All-Star appearance or an All-NBA team. Thus, he does not meet the league’s criteria for a “star player” as it relates to load management rules.
Nikola Jokic (knee), Jonas Valanciunas (calf), and Cameron Johnson (knee) are all also in the middle of extended injury absences for Denver. Thus, the Nuggets took the floor on Monday against the 76ers without a whopping seven of their biggest rotation pieces.
The NBA formally implemented the “new” rules against load management back in 2023 in an attempt to crack down on the growing trend of resting healthy star players. While the league was also punishing teams for load management in the years prior, they won’t be able to do so with Denver with regard to Monday’s spectacle.
