In recent years, the NBA has had to deal with a very complicated issue. Due to the nature of the long 82-game season, contending teams like the Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs have been notorious for resting their star players in the hopes of preserving their health and stamina for the playoffs.However, some of these “DNP-Rest” designations have come in primetime contests on major networks, which certainly didn’t translate well for the league’s overall product. Also, since the price of tickets around the league has risen year after year, fans shell out a pretty penny to attend games. Therefore, if the big-named players sit on the bench, it is recognized as a major disappointment to not only the viewing audience on television, but those actually at the game as well.As a result, the league decided to do something about it. On Tuesday evening, the NBA sent a memo to all 30 teams, and Brian Windhorst of ESPN obtained a copy and shared its contents. Here are the ways in which the league will improve the upcoming 2017-2018 schedule in an attempt to eliminate rest games.*LIVE COVERAGE*GIVEMESPORT will broadcast live coverage of the US PGA Championship on Facebook from 10-13 August. Live coverage starts Thursday 10 August, 18:00-00:15 HEREThe league will eliminate stretches of four games in five days and 18 games in 30 days. It will also reduce the presence of five games in seven nights to just 40 instances (1.3 per team), which is down from last year’s mark of 90. Also, back-to-backs will occur 14.9 times per team, compared to 16.3 per squad last year. In all, 40 back-to-backs will be eliminated from last season’s total.In an effort to make traveling less burdensome, the Association also will reduce single-game road trips by 17 percent and reduce single-game road trips over 2,000 miles by 67 percent. That’ll happen just 11 times all season.

Also, the league is making a push to become more visible on the weekend. Games on Saturday and Sunday will increase from 549 last year to 568 this season, with most of the new games coming on Saturday.

While there is no word on whether or not teams will be penalized in any way for resting players, it seems as though the league addressed the existing problem in a very direct way. Now it’s up to the discretion of front offices, coaches and players to determine how much rest is needed throughout the season under the new-and-improved schedule.

If teams still elect to rest their stars at the same rate, it will likely be met with more opposition than in the past based on the changes that were made.