“One thing we decided is a new rule — the 48-hour rule,” said Rivers. “If we go 48 hours without touching a basketball, we’ll have a [morning] shootaround. We didn’t practice [Wednesday], so if you go game to no practice, to a game the next night, it’s too long without a ball. I think this is, what, our second [shootaround]? Otherwise, there’s no shootarounds.”

As a player, I always hated morning shootarounds.  Waking up when I would otherwise be sleeping seemed pointless and counter-productive to me; I always wanted a good rest before a game, rather than a pointless walkthrough.  I can understand the reasoning behind a shootatound:  Wake everyone up, make sure they don’t go out too late the night before, attempt to focus everyone on the game.  But I was always a fan of that extra couple hours of sleep.

Apparently, Gregg Popovich agrees with me and Doc about considering a morning shootaround to be more or less worthless (via the San Antonio Express-News):

“We’ve been thinking for several years now: How can we maximize their rest and recovery?” Popovich said. “The shootarounds were the beginning. The next step was actually giving them more time to get more sleep.

“You need sleep. Sleep means recovery, mental and physical. Your body rejuvenates. So we felt getting out of the morning practices was important.”

Amen.  I only wish my college coach had felt the same way.  Those 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. wakeup calls were no fun.