NBA ratings are at an all time high. The league doesn't care about parity or superteams. In fact, they love them. Nothing's changing.
Just a quick search http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/nba-regular-season-ratings-1202031083/ http://awfulannouncing.com/nba/local-nba-ratings-drop-substantially-2016-17-season.html It seems Sunday TNT and ABC games saw an increase, but thats about it. "ALL-TIME HIGH" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Basketball_Association_on_television
If you want parity, it's not going to happen because that's not what people who watch the NBA want. They want super teams and the ratings are very clear on that. Maybe this will change in the future, if say Golden State and Cleveland are still playing each other in the finals in the year 2043 then I suspect some people may come around and get tired of it, but I wouldn't hold your breath considering this has always been a dynasty sport. Folks really get huge hard-ons simply when they hear the word "dynasty", it just makes everyones day better when they go to work in the morning knowing that they heard that word for some reason. I never much cared for Dynasty the tv series, it was kind of a flop to me but then again there were only about 12 channels on television at the time when that show aired. So what do I know? What I do know is that the NBA isn't going to change. It's recipe has always been the same and they tend to stick to the recipe pretty well. Yes, the flopping has gotten worse, yes the fundamentals such as dribbling are largely irrelevant now, officiating is suspect, but the main stay feature of the NBA has always been about super teams and that hasn't changed since it's inception. And it won't change, Mr. what. Complaining about this in the Dish isn't going to be the Preparation H type solution you're looking for to fix your bad case of butthurt over the Grizzlies losing again.
They should make the first round best of 5 again . More upsets and shorter rest in a sweep vs 7 game series scenario . Ie GS sweeps in 3 games , there are only 2 games in between that and a full 5 game series vs a 3 game difference now .
Which is why ESPN had massive layoffs less than 3 weeks ago. Ratings drive advertising dollars, which drive network revenue, which drives profit. Without ratings, the NBA is nothing more than a bloated cow.
Thing is why wouldn't the NBA be as good or better if it was just every legit super star on their own team? Cavs and Warriors would still be the best teams... Cavs would still have LeBron, Kyrie and a growing Andrew Wiggins(Heat would still be best in the East with LeBron and Whitside and Dragic while Cavs would be Kyrie and Wiggins team of the future) Warriors would still have Curry, Klay and Green bc they had amazing drafts OKC would still have a legit shot every year with KD and Westbrook Rockets are Hardens team Spurs are Kawhi's team Blazers with Lillard and Aldridge and now McCollum would be better Clippers would still be CP3 and Blake and DJ Kings would still be trying to figure out how to build around Cousins Pelicans would still be trying to figure out how to build around Anthony Davis. Pacers would still be trying to figure out how to build around Paul George Knicks would still be trying to figure out how to build around Carmelo Anthony and young Porzingis Bulls would still be trying to figure out how to build around Jimmy Butler Boston would still be where they are. Timberwolves would have Kevin Love and KAT and other young up and comers. Sixers would still be a team with a huge amount of future potential barring health. Jazz would still be a really tough defensive team around Hayward and Gobert Grizz tough team around Gasol and Conley Wizards would still be led by Wall and Beal Bucks with Giannis and other up and comers Raptors with Lowry, DeRozan Pistons, Nuggets, Hawks with decent pieces. This COULD and SHOULD be a really fun and competitive NBA. But...it's not for 2 reasons IMO: The real problem here is contract buyouts. All the depth from veterans who know how to play and could start on most teams belong to only the top teams while the teams that try and build with their star have to rely on d-leaguer scrubs for depth. Spread the wealth of veterans throughout around 15 teams and you'd see many 1 star teams doing much better with Cavs and Warriors still being favorites. The other real issue is 19 year old 1 and done rookies. They don't contribute anything for almost 3 to 4 years. That's why so many lottery teams of the past decade are still bottom feeders til this day. Another overlooked issue is health. Even with so much resting and softer play. It's just been a bad run for a lot of good talent over the past few years DRose, Noah, Embiid, Simmons, Jabari Parker, Dwight Howard, Amare(would be 35 but he's been done since 30 years old), Melo, Bosh, Lopez, Rondo, Gay, Blake and Cp3 cant ever play a full season, and tons of other significant players that just can't stay healthy. I mean every generation has their guys like Penny and Grant Hill and Kemp and T-Mac type of examples. This generation lost a superstar talent in Brandon Roy(he'd be 32 right now), Amare missed about 5 good years of probably still all star level play, Yao at 36 should just now becoming maybe a backup C, DRose of course...youngest MVP and then a nobody. Deron Williams falling off. Dwight completely falling off for like 5 years and hes only 31. Chris Bosh heart problem at 30 years old. PG13 missing that full year with the broken leg. DWade slowing down b4 his time. This generation has been hit pretty hard with the injury bug. Makes you wonder with the increase in injuries if steroids might be an issue.
If they can condense the playoffs down to a month...people will watch again. Guarantee you if march madness was 2 months and multiple games..it wouldn't be as fun. There's no reason for 7 games in round 1 or 2. Do we really need to see GSW and Cavs between up on the 8th seed for 4 games?? Then you add so many days off between games and you lose interest.
The Nba has no one to blame but themselves. I hope the league falters and goes into bankruptcy. Bring back the ABA. Not only are no names getting 16 mil year contracts but had they just veto'd the Pau Gasol trade..Wade, Lebron and velociraptor don't get the idea that joining the g*ngbang is the only way to come away with a championship. No pau and an it's entire butterfly effect. who knows maybe the rockets don't win 22 games in a row miss the playoffs, mcgrady never gets to injure himself against the jazz in the playoffs. Artest still goes to houston with a healthy tmac. Rockets never play the Lakers in the second round because la couldn't get past the first, yao's foot breaks until the nba finals where we take care of the Magic 4-0. Thankfully they did break up the chris paul defection to the lakers but the damage was already done. too late. Now if you excuse me I'm going to go to lsd with bill walton.
So true. You personify ignorance. Parity between the conferences is a bigger problem than superteams. This season is the first year the West has had one... and said team was getting blown off their home floor Game 1, WCF.
The nba is at an all time low and this is probably the worst season of my lifetime except for watching harden of course Every team plays identically The "talent" is severely over rated The youth doesn't really know the game that well All the vets are buried on 3 teams (gsw, cle and sas)
To make the NBA more competitive, you have to make it easier for many teams to have super teams or make it impossible for teams to make super teams. The first option would on some level meaning contraction to limit the ability of players to spread out and chase money and/or increasing the overall salary cap for a few teams to spend as they want. Fewer teams also mean less slices of TV money as well. However that will never happen. The second option would be to make it much harder for star players to move with losing money and preventing teams from going so far over the cap. The other problem with this option is that diluting out star players would make the league more competitive but likely worsen game play. I'm not sure how you solve the problem. Contraction is probably better in the long run but it would never happen because of the money.
The delusion: "Us and Cleveland worked our butts off all year to put ourselves in position to be playing for a championship" - Steph Curry
I've a classic idea that could generate extra money: 2016-2017: GSW vs. Cavs compete for the Gold/Silver medals SA vs Celtics compete for the Bronze medals Imagine if that happen! SA would've only 4 active healthy players on their roster by game 5 in this series
Every champion has a break or a little luck along the way and This was a low key important part of the rockets winning in 1994.
