Whose common sense? There is a medical team and a player saying the player can play. Wouldn't that be common sense, listening to the doctors and the person? I didn't realize common sense was "I am going to choose not to listen to the player or the doctors." Again, this is different if the medical staff is saying he is able to play but not at full capacity. In that situation yes absolutely you do that. But if not, how is it common sense to ignore what doctors (and the player) are telling you?
Of course there is, and that is what the medical staff and Coots' input is there for. Unless there is something I have missed, neither Coots or the docs wanted to have his minutes or games cut for medical reasons.
Ok, how about a guy like Joel Embiid? They do load management with him and he still gets hurt. You can't prevent it no matter what you are doing. Injuries will happen. It's part of the game. If a player says he is fine and the doctors agree what are we managing? That's what I am saying. Crosby has a history of concussions yet he played all 82 games the last two years at 35 and 36 on shitty teams. There's a laundry list of players that get seriously hurt and comeback and play without missing a beat. If there's a reason to hold them out, that's fine. But holding someone out for the sake of holding them out "just in case" is silly, especially if it is only for certain players. If you're going to hold Coots out just in case why not hold Frost out? He's young we don't want him to get too much wear on the tires while the team sucks. I hope Michkov doesn't expect to play all 82 games, he's never done that before so the first few seasons he should work his way up to it just in case!