Silver doesn't like teams resting players during road games

With "DNP-Rest" becoming more common in box scores these days, the NBA has a request for teams:

If you're going to rest your guys, don't make fans from other cities suffer.

That's the message from commissioner Adam Silver out of sympathy for people who go to games expecting to see the visiting team's stars, only to find them sitting out while perfectly healthy.

There were no doubt some folks in Indiana were upset last week when Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James sat out against the Pacers.

"I get for those disappointed fans," Silver said recently on SiriusXM NBA Radio. "Part of me would prefer that if you're going to rest a player, rest him for the home fans, because they get to see that player all the time."

That's merely a recommendation, though, rather than a rule the NBA has or plans to enforce because it's more complicated than that, with coaches often considering matchups when resting their men.

"I'm super reluctant to start telling these great coaches how they should manage minutes of players. I think it puts us in an untenable position to try to set rules that say you can't rest a guy," the commissioner explained.

After all, the 82-game schedule takes its toll on players, and some are older or coming off of injuries (or both), so they'll inevitably take some nights off to recuperate.

Silver admitted it's a problem the NBA (and other sports leagues) don't have a solution for.

For its part, the Association has tried to soften the blow of the intense slate by reducing the number of back-to-back sets and occasions when teams take the floor for four games in five nights, Silver noted. The rest is up to the clubs.

"We ultimately have to rely on the good faith of our teams and our players as to what appropriate rest is," he said, before adding that contests will still be competitive despite hoopers resting, given the quality of players and roster depth in today's game.