To every NBA season there are numbers. Old ones and new ones. Those that are revealing and those that are misleading. Those that show worth and growth and efficiency and so on and so forth.
But one number is a constant: 240. It is immutable. It is etched in stone.
Five players on the court. Forty-eight minutes in a game.
Five times 48 equals 240. That is the amount of time a coach must divvy up among the eight or nine guys he will play on any given night, barring overtime.
And that, Jimmy Lynam was saying the other day, is a considerable challenge.