The Rap Up: Why Raptors will adopt successful trend of resting players before playoffs

There's been a recent trend circulating around the NBA in recent years. Resting players has become a common occurrence around the final stretch of the regular season, and it would be wise for the Raptors to follow the trend.

It started out in 2012, when Spurs coach Gregg Popovich decided to rest his top players in a marquee matchup out of nowhere against the Miami Heat. San Antonio and Pop got fined for that decision, but other teams still took a page out of the Spurs' book and this has become a regular occurence in the League today.

The issue at the time was the fact that fans paid big bucks to attend a highly-anticipated game. Without the likes of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Danny Green, that matchup was a one-sided affair, and fans were upset about not getting their money's worth for the tickets they paid.

Since then, resting players has been a strategy teams use heading into the postseason rather than risk their stars getting hurt. Injuries are a team's worst enemy and can be the defining factor in winning a series and advancing to the next round of the playoffs.

Kyle Lowry was subject to fatigue come playoff time last year, and John Wall ran circles around the Raptors point guard the entire series. Lowry had already begun to run out of gas at the tail-end of the regular season, and averaged a paltry 12.3 ppg, 5.5 boards and just 4.8 assists. Lowry didn't like what happened, took it upon himself to avoid that from happening again, and took part in a now famous offseason body transformation.

Having already clinched a playoff spot on Wednesday night, the Raptors can afford to rest their stars. What's more, is the productivity of the backups. Players like Cory Joseph, Bismack Biyombo, Terrence Ross and Patrick Patterson have been playing like starters all season long, and the drop off would not be as critical as another team resting their starters.

A team like Memphis in the West or Chicago in the East are heading into the postseason limping on one leg, and in Chicago's case, may not even make the second season.

While both those teams suffered injuries before the preferred "resting period", San Antonio, Cleveland, Toronto are all taking advantage of the trend.

One team that isn't: Golden State.

The Warriors have been one of the most blessed teams in the league regarding injuries the past couple seasons. As a result of their success and their health, they have something to play for to close out the year. A record breaking 73-win season.

We've already seen the Raptors give DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry some time off, and we can expect them to give them some more rest in the final three weeks of the season. Not only will the two stars get to sit, coach Dwane Casey has been resting bench players in Cory Joseph as well.

The only players we may see get some looks as the year closes out would be DeMarre Carroll and possibly Jonas Valanciunas.

The Raptors have already stated that they'd like to get Carroll into a rhythm with the team if he's able to return before the playoffs begin, and Valanciunas recently missed a set of games with a hand injury. JV hurt the hand he had surgery on earlier this season in November, and getting him going against teams that have nothing to play for would be important going into the playoffs. JV might need to get surgery on that left hand again this offseason.

The goal is clear for Toronto. Get into the playoffs, win a series, make a deep run and establish yourself as a threat for years to come. But that will be tough to achieve if the team isn't healthy.

The Raptors have already cliched a playoff berth. Now getting healthy is key.

More coverage from Yahoo! Sports: