This enables the team to avoid risking injury to the starters, and to give real life playing practice to backup players.
Some analysts argue that it is good for the team by enabling the bodies of the players to be fresh, while others state it could make them more “rusty.”[3] While resting starters may have the advantage of preventing injuries, it may deprive them of various statistics they are trying to accomplish, particularly season records.
The 2009 Indianapolis Colts, after starting 14–0 and clinching home field advantage throughout the playoffs, rested their starters and lost the final two games.
[4] The 2011 Green Bay Packers rested their starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers on the final game of the regular season, as they had already secured the #1 seed in the NFC playoffs.
A notable example of this was when the San Francisco 49ers, who had clinched a playoff berth, rested several starters and lost their regular-season finale in 1988 to the Los Angeles Rams, thereby keeping the New York Giants out of the postseason on tiebreakers (obstinately as the Giants had defeated the 49ers in the playoffs in both 1985 and 1986, also injuring 49er quarterback Joe Montana in the latter year's game); after the 49ers-Rams game, Giants quarterback Phil Simms angrily accused the 49ers of "laying down like dogs.
Teams can be fined for resting players en masse, which is known euphemistically in basketball as "load management".