Teams kind of do this already. The Spurs were especially famous for “DNP - Old” (DNP = Did not play) at the end of the Duncan/Manu/Parker era. They would leave

Teams kind of do this already. The Spurs were especially famous for “DNP - Old” (DNP = Did not play) at the end of the Duncan/Manu/Parker era. They would leave those guys at home for short road trips and/or back to backs. This all hit a tipping point when ABC was scheduled to air the Heat v Spurs and the Spurs left all their stars in San Antonio. IIRC the Spurs won or came close to doing so anyway. The league has then encouraged teams to sit players for rest at home (road fans, especially in the opposite conference only get one chance to see a guy play) and not for nationally televised games, but it is hard to make that a policy. In addition, due to conference imbalance, it is easier to rest stars in the East (see Raps and Kawhi last year) than it is in the West.