Mark Cuban Agrees with Load Management: It Would Be 'Dumb' to Ignore the Science

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has no problem with resting players for load-management reasons during the regular season.

"The dumb thing would be to ignore the science," he told reporters Monday.

"The problem isn't load management, per se," Cuban said. "I think teams have to be smarter about when to load manage. I'm all for load management. Worse than missing a player in a [regular-season] game is missing him in the playoffs."

He clarified that there are data-specific reasons behind the decisions that go beyond whether a game is on national television.

"It's all data-driven," Cuban said. "We're not going, 'OK, let's just mess with the league and our meal ticket to fans to do something just because it might be interesting. We spend so much money, not just on analytics for predictive reasons, but also for biometrics so we know how smart we can be."

The Mavericks rested Kristaps Porzingis during Saturday's win over the Memphis Grizzlies as he continues to recover from a torn ACL. He returned to the lineup for Monday's loss to the Boston Celtics.

If Dallas can keep Porzingis healthy—even if that means resting him regularly—it can have one of the league's best inside-outside duos with him and Luka Doncic. Cuban believes that is worth potentially sacrificing the occasional game or some playing time leading into the postseason.

"You actually get more of your stars [in the playoffs]," he said. "You get shorter rotations of more of the guys playing in the playoffs, which is what you want to see anyway, right?"

The Los Angeles Clippers, a potential Western Conference playoff foe, have been at the center of the load-management debate because they haven't played Kawhi Leonard on back-to-back nights yet.

He missed nationally televised games against the Milwaukee Bucks and Utah Jazz, although he didn't appear in games on consecutive nights last season while leading the Toronto Raptors to the championship.

While the NBA approved his sitting out because he is still recovering from a knee injury, it also announced it "fined the Clippers $50,000 for statements, including by head coach Doc Rivers, that were inconsistent with Leonard's health status."