How Will the Load Management Rules Impact the Lakers? (Especially with the "LeBron Loophole?")

Earlier in the week, news broke that the NBA would be stiffening its policies against stars missing games for rest. Wednesday, the rules were approved, and Adam Silver is clearly looking to dial back the load management movement and make sure more of the league's best players are on the floor more often.

Among the rules: For teams with two "stars" (defined as All-NBA or All-Star over the last three seasons), only one is allowed to miss a game in a night due to rest. Those games shouldn't be national TV games, or in the mid-season tournament, and preferably not on the road, either. And for teams that might be trying to either tank or move disgruntled stars? The NBA will be paying a lot more attention to that, too. Those guys need to be on the floor, barring injury. (Though, perhaps, not "injury.")

How the league enforces all this is hard to say, but for the Lakers, there are obvious implications for LeBron James and Anthony Davis, two players who certainly will need to be maintained throughout the year. Then again, the league built in a type of grandfather clause for older players, where they can, with some heads up, to the NBA receive permission for scheduled rest days.

That could be important.

It'll be interesting to see how these new rules, combined with the higher standards of games required to be eligible for postseason awards, tilt things in the league. Will guys play more? Does it matter the Lakers have two stars, but the Nuggets (seen as the favorite in the West) only have one? Where will these new tweaks have an influence on the standings in what's expected to be a tight Western Conference race?

Finally, we were asked to dive into the schedule again by a viewer on the YouTube channel, so that's where we head for the final segment. It's a very, very different deal this year for the Lakers than the last two, with potential implications and challenges that haven't been as acute in years past.

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: The NBA hands down it's anti-rest rules.

SEGMENT 2: How much will the new rules impact the Lakers, LeBron and AD?

SEGMENT 3: How the schedule isn't so cooperative this year for the Lakers.

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