Minnesota Sports Forum

And just to pile on, KG averaged close to 40 when he was Drew's age, and has gone on to play 20 seasons. I think that gives us some kind of evidence about Flip's approach to minutes...if a guy is a star and appears to have a body that doesn't constantly break down, Flip is going to want him on the court as much as he can. I think Flip sits a star down when he thinks he is tiring, not because he thinks the extra 5 minutes are going to cause an injury.

This is where Drew's lighter frame and more finesse-oriented game comes in handy. LeBron is carrying 250 lbs on his body and guys like Wade are crashing into people all over the place. Drew also plays a more conservative brand of defense, rarely playing ball denial or going for steals (think opposite of Brewer). And he sometimes is dogged for not going 100% in transition. I suppose in his own little way, he conserves energy this way. So I think his playing style and body type lends itself to bigger minutes.

Good point about Wiggins' style of play, q. I don't know how to evaluate a guy like Allen Iverson. Tough as nails, and nobody got pounded in the lane more than he did. But he refused to come out, and he averaged over 41 minutes a game for his entire career! But he regularly missed a lot of games throughout his career, and eventually was done at 34.
I would argue that Iverson was an extreme case, but perhaps his overuse led to a shortened career. Perhaps Iverson is an example of a guy whose minutes should have been limited.

Wade, Iverson, "Crash" Wallace....Their playing styles had a lot to do with their injury issues in my opinion.

I would just like to add that Flip probably wanted to beat Mchale on some level too.

The minutes don't matter until we have some extended playoff runs. Lebron is tired because he has played an extra half-season's worth of games making it to 4 straight finals. They also take away an extra month and a half of rest between seasons. It's the combo of more games and less rest time that leads to the wear and tear. Until we start making some deep runs it won't be a big deal down the line because he'll have plenty of time to recover in the off season.

Just to re-visit a previous topic, Alan Horton reported tonight that Flip said Rubio's ankle has been "bothering him lately and we will have to limit his minutes to 28-30 and give Zach or Lorenzo more run"....

Listen, could be making a mountain out of a mole hill on this, but coming off a serious ankle injury that cost him almost 10 weeks and playing close to 40 minutes a night since the All Star break has been my biggest gripe with Flip. Rubio isn't exactly the elite athlete at his position, and if this stuff is true about his ankle issues flaring up, you HAVE to sit him down and think about the future.

Many on this board think you can simply just rest all your body parts in the summer, but unfortunately that's not how the human body works. Flip burning unnecessary tread on our core players is going to be a real sh*tty topic to look back on if he doesn't figure it out ASAP.

Only Gorgui surpassed 29 minutes last night in Phoenix. A sign of things to come? Probably for the best.