Report: NBA owners expected to approve player-resting rules
NBA team owners are expected to approve new rules aimed at reducing the number of healthy players who are rested for games.
The owners are expected to vote in favor of those changes in September at the Board of Governors meetings, a source told USA TODAY Sports' Jeff Zillgitt.
The rules are set to come into effect for the beginning of the 2017-18 season, with penalties handed out to teams that violate them.
It was also reported Wednesday that the league recently sent a memo to all 30 teams to inform them of scheduling modifications made to cut down on the need to rest players.
The scheduling changes include an earlier start to the season that gives teams more time to play 82 games, fewer back-to-backs and single-game road trips, and the complete removal of playing four games in five nights.
It's an overall effort to curb the prevalence of "DNP-rest," which teams resort to in hopes of keeping their players fresh for the postseason and future campaigns. However, resting players has come at the expense of competitiveness and entertainment in the eyes of many, including the league's business partners.
Related - Silver: Resting stars 'an extremely significant issue'
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been critical of clubs that hold out multiple stars who are healthy, especially for marquee matchups on national television. He's also opposed to teams resting big-name players for away games, given the limited opportunities fans from other cities have to see those stars in person. Silver hopes the schedule improvements will lead to the reduction of those issues.
Related - Silver: New guideline to recommend teams only rest players at home