This season wasn't worse than recent seasons in that regard though.
Like I said, I think it's overblown.
I will however grant the point that stars missing games hits harder in basketball than in the other sports with the exception of QB's in football. Not to belabor the point, but that is especially true when you don't have a team though. Fans will watch a pretty poor product if their team is involved as we've seen throughout much of our life with the O's.
Like how many times did you set aside a block of time for a game and then have a star not play in it? More than never, but probably not a ton of times either.
Ultimately as I said, there are plenty of good matchups to check out each week that aren't marred by load management. Sure though it sucks that Embiid for instance sat out that Nuggets game though with an apparent minor injury.
The bigger issue imo is for those like myself that actually go to a few games a year. It really sucks to spend good money with the hope of seeing star X and then have that guy miss the game.
It was less that I set aside a block of time to watch vs. when I did have the availability to watch... my perception was there were more guys than usual not available.
Also beyond watching the games itself, just in-terms of following the league, I found it harder.
For instance, for all of the Embiid, Jokic, and to a lesser degree Giannis MVP talk.... Embiid played 66 (80%) games, Jokic 69 (84%), Giannis 63 (77%).
Great individual seasons for the games they were available, but each with a lot of time missed.
Beyond that trio...
Other guys that could be All NBA this year...
SGA 68 games
Curry 56 games
Tatum 74 games
Doncic 66 games
Mitchell 68 games
Brown 67 games
Butler 64 games
Fox 73 games
Lillard 58 games
James 55 games
Markkanen 66 games
Sabonis 79 games
Randle 77 games
Maybe I'm wrong and this is typical, but it feels like different to me that out of the 16 or so guys who had the best perceived seasons, that only 4 of them played 70+ games.
Of the Top 50 scorers in the game, 11 played 70+ games. 30 played 66 (80%) or less.
What it told me, is that these guys didn't greatly value the regular season. And it also makes me question the production they did put up individually, when most of them weren't willing to suit up a higher percentage of time.
Just felt different to me this year at-least, and I think it's indicative of a conscious effort to rest stars more often... even though the NBA has taken steps to reduce back-to-backs, and ease travel.