Sure, send me an email. (USATSI)
Steve Kerr loves to get your email. (USATSI)

Despite never being a head coach before, his experience playing for great coaches like Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich qualified Steve Kerr to become the head coach of the Golden State Warriors. Kerr has used bits and pieces from both of these coaches to get his team to a West-leading 52-13 record.

Against the Denver Nuggets Friday night, Kerr utilized one of Popovich's coaching strategies and rested his top players like Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Kerr's reasoning for this move was well thought out. The Warriors had just played six games in nine nights and actually used science to determine that his players needed rest as he told Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group.

Kerr said he and the team's trainers saw the need for rest for Curry and Thompson in the past couple weeks and made the decision after the team's win Wednesday against Detroit. The Warriors also used SportVU player-tracking cameras and Catapult Sports' GPS technology to determine any risk to continuing to play them without rest. "We can tell when a guy is run-down," Kerr said. "It's not just the eye test. It's scientific data. It can be quickly reversed with a couple of days rest. It can also go south if you overload a guy."

The Spurs have used this strategy to great success but have often gotten criticized for it. Especially by fans who buy tickets to see the Spurs when they come to town. The team has even felt the wrath of the NBA for this decision as in 2012, former NBA Commissioner David Stern fined the team for resting Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Danny Green and Tony Parker in a national TNT matchup against the Miami Heat. 

The Warriors/Nuggets game was not a national televised game but fans in Denver were still irate that they wouldn't get to see Curry and Thompson up close.

Fans even emailed Kerr afterwards to voice their complaints and suprisingly he emailed them back. Kerr empathized with fans but wants to do what is right for his team. Sending a few emails is just part of the cost of doing business.

From the Associated Press:

Steve Kerr took time to email back three disappointed fans who were upset the Golden State coach rested his regulars Friday night at Denver before battering the Knicks125-94 on Saturday night.

"There's two really good sides to the story," Kerr said. "Nobody's wrong here. ... I can't argue with them."

One of the emails Kerr received was from a family that drove from South Dakota to the Mile High City with high hopes of seeing All-Stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson lead the Western Conference's top team. Instead, those two rested along with center Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala.

"I heard from some fans. I received a few emails, stories about driving in from a long distance off and spending a lot of money on tickets," Kerr said. "I have great sympathy for those people. I really do. It's a tricky one. It's something that I think Adam Silver is trying to address through the scheduling shuffling that he's talking about.

"It's real important, because our fans deserve to see the best product out there. If somebody spends a lot of money, they deserve to see the best players, the guy that they came to see. On the other hand, as coaches we have to do what's best to prepare our teams for a really long year."

As Kerr mentions NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has discussed ways of changing the league's schedule to incorporate more rest and fewer back-to-back games. This year the All-Star break was extended so players could get a few more days of rest before entering the second half of the season. Silver has mentioned shortening the preseason and starting the regular season earlier but until these changes are actually put in place, coaches like Kerr will continually to do what is best for their team and rest their players when needed. 

Yet another reminder that the NBA season is a marathon not a sprint.