[Rockets] Battier's plans for a bigger and better NBA

My first priority would be to do away with the East/West postseason and seed all 16 teams in one bracket.

 

The owner's would never go for that. As well, the idea of a minor league system here is a training ground for a major league team. The priority there is not to win, but to develop players, and fans know this and are ok with it. So what happens if the RGV get premoted to the majors? Can we really then have the Rox be the primary team? Can we premote players from RGV to Rockets?

And what about tv contracts? It's one thing for media to sign a long term contract hoping that the team doesn't suck years from now, killing revenue. It's another to face the possiblity that the team could be playing in the D League where no body cares.


I can't see the Stern cup working either. In order for it to succeed, it has to be given some great prestige on level with the Finals itself...otherwise, who cares. Seriously, as a Rockets fan can you brag about winning this cup? Are owners really going to say we'll risk injury for this? They don't even get any ticket sales for this.

It's kind of like the olympics. It has little value to the NBA, because regardless of how we do, the NBA finals is still the only title that really counts, and owners cringe at the possiblity that a player could get injured and threated the chance of winning the finals.

I'd prefer to see it as a 3 on 3 tournament. Each team picks theirtop 4 players to be involved. Play half court, and play 2 12 min halves. This would reduce the wear on the players and risk of injury, and igve it some unniqueness compared to the NBA finals. As well, I think you also have to give a prize beyond just a title. Perhaps an extra MLE, or collect a large portion of the lux tax. Maybe getting to host the All-Star weekend a set number of years out. I wouldn't want it to be something that really gives the team an advantage in the playoffs or regular season, it has to have a separate motivation, IMO.

 

I don't like this idea at all. Shane's a highly intelligent man but he's a Dookie at heart.

Because of financial considerations, the conference system will always be with us, but I still don't understand why a true 1-16 seeding would be so radical.

But it certainly doesn't help the NBA that the Eastern Conference has been so weak for a decade. And Cleveland & Orlando are the current powers? The population of the northeast in this country alone makes that a nightmare.

 

THIS

and make winning the regular season title worth something. the cavs deserve credit for having the most wins. however, because the season is so long, they could rest their players at the end because of the space created between them and the 2nd best team by that long season. a shorter season would make end of the season MUCH more exciting.

these ideas would make up revenue in that the NBA would become more popular, the sponsors would reach a wider market and pay more money, and TV deals would be much more lucrative. make the stern cup separate, and those TV deals would help too.

the fact of the matter is, the NBA is a mediocre product, and THATS why it's not making more money. make the product better, and the money will follow. I GUARANTEE IT. stern is playing it too safe, trying to make the product better by bullcrap rule changes. that doesn't help, the game gets worse. and the long season makes players not play as hard. why do some people prefer college basketball (i don't but alot do)? its the intensity. shorter season.

learn from other leagues stern, be progressive. if you want your product to be international, learn from what the european leagues do in both basketball and soccer. it WORKS.

 

i understand your criticism of the d-league thing. the d-league is fine how it is. those teams would suck against nba competition.

tv contracts would definitely be helped, more viewing audience. the stern cup would attract a TON of tv audience. and it WOULD matter, it's part of the bragging rights of any team that wins it. there are so many teams that will NEVER win the finals, in the last 30 years, only 9 different teams have won. it's very select company. if you're a raptors fan, why WOULDN'T winning the Stern cup matter? you're introducing a WHOLE NEW market to playoff style basketball. places like charlotte, golden state, memphis, washington etc all have markets that are NOT utilized by the playoffs very often. this helps them. and like you said about the 3 on 3 tournament, you could give the winner an extra MLE. this could help mediocre teams make the jump by winning the cup. it makes a ton of sense dude, and the all-star game sucks right now anyway. my point is that the midseason cup is a proven system that works.

the 3 on 3 thing is kinda lame, sorry... i mean I know one-on-one tournaments would be popular but I just don't see that succeeding.

oh and with the owners not wanting to risk injury in the stern cup, you've gotta believe those mid level teams that qualify knowing they can't win the nba championship will care. owners want banners and stuff. why do we put up divisional winner banners? isn't that a useless thing? there needs to be more to win than just the finals.

 

I like all of his ideas. Smart man.

 

Sounds sort of strange considering that many feel that Battier is considered a ripe candidate for being traded with our picks this off season!

 

The NBA is a mediocre product. It's downright unamerican that a product with more talent and a higher level of play pales in contrast to the NCAAs. Stern is too old and too set in his ways to keep running the league. I understand the NBA is his multimillion dollar mealticket but at this rate he's going for a lifetime appointment as commissioner. When in doubt his approach has been the brute force approach of adding more games to squeeze a little more revenue. He's like walmart he'd rather have another 10 games of half filled arenas than fill up the house for 5 games. Instead of improving the product through a more relevant regular season and more entertaining playoffs he'd rather sell the game to Chinese and others overseas who don't know any better and who dont watch the NCAAs

Who suffers? They players who have to slog through almost 100 games a season.

 

Shane has lost any type of votes from me. He robbed Scola from the karaoke trophy. He would be the next BLACK Bush.

 

I think his ideas about shortening the season and changing the lottery so that everyone has the same odds are great ideas. Maybe not cut back all the way to 58 games, but see if there's a way to shave 10 or 15 games off of the regular season.

I think rotating which division(s) each team plays from the other conference each year would get it done. Just like the NFL and baseball do. Now you have more meaningful games and no reason for teams to blatantly tank, since they have the same odds at the first pick whether they finish last or 17th.

 

82 games plus a single elim 3 round tournament, and then another 4 rounds in the playoffs, that's a grueling season, i think a 50 something game season is more appropriate with this plan

 

Battier is too nice. So basically, he's saying there is no losers in this league. Every team is in the Playoffs.

 

Not a good idea. I believe this would actually encourage more tanking.

Let's say you're a team like the Rockets this year and Battier's playoff idea existed. Why would they not tank? Rockets can win or lose to any team on any given night. Why not tank and get the worse record in the league, a first overall pick, and also a chance to play in the playoffs.

Now they have a choice:

1) Tank and be the last seed and play the 7th seed San Antonio in the first round of the tournament and get John Wall in the process

2) Not tank and play this season as it is and be the 9th seed in the west, playing a lower seed such as Golden State in the first round and then eventually having to play either SA or OKC for the final two spots. While ending up with the 14th pick in the draft.

If I had a choice I would pick option 1. Either way you have to play SA or OKC so why not tank and get a better pick?

 

what if we kept the league the way it is and had the stern cup in the offseason where all teams could compete

 

Always have been a fan of this idea. For everyone saying it wouldn't work because the D Leagues level need to realize the entire D League would obviously be reconfigured. Cities that have been clamoring for an NBA team could get a D League team and build a competitive team that would be promoted to the NBA. Seattle could get their team back, Las Vegas could finally have a team, etc. I'm sure there are willing prospective owners that would love to have an opportunity to own a team, but aren't enough teams to go around. Relegation doesn't even have to happen every season. Maybe every two seasons, with the teams with the worst winning % of the previous two seasons playing a series of 7 with the loser being relegated. Same concept for the winners of the D League. The 2 champions play each other with the winner being promoted.

 

That depends on how you structure it. Maybe instead of every team getting to play in the 7-8 tourney, you take the teams from 7-14 in each conference to that tournament. Then, every team is fighting to stay out of last place, which is the only spot that doesn't give you a chance to make the playoffs.

If we did that, I would give the two teams that didn't make the 7-8 tourney slightly better odds of winning the lottery, with all of the other teams having the same chance they had to make the playoffs. The two teams from each conference that get to the 7 and 8 seeds don't get a place in the lottery, but a place in the playoffs instead.

 

Those are NOT Battier's ideas, they're BS's. Simmons is the man. He makes Rick Reilly and other sportswriter's works look like diarrhea on paper. If you're in need of a good laugh, check out his running diary on Wrestlemania. Priceless.

 

100% is a stretch. There's still fighting for a secure playoff spot as oppose to having to play a tournament. There's also seeding to consider, so it's not completely pointless. Less important, maybe.

I think he's trying to make it more interesting to fans, which makes sense acually since they bring in a big chunk of the revenue for the league. Theoretically speaking it should bring more new fans, and old fans more consistently, to nba games. Same goes for the tv audience.

 

Seeding all the teams 1-16 is a great idea - but people still like the idea of divisional rivalries based on geography. And 82 games are far too many, making the NBA season like baseball: a long, slow, boring marathan. So how about this:

A 62-game season. Everyone plays 3 games against their division rivals, and 2 games against everyone else. There would be no conferences, just 6 divisions of 5 teams each. We'd play the Celtics and Lakers and Cavs twice each, but get home state rivals like SA and Dallas three times. Then seed the playoffs 1-16 and play ball!

(Or, better yet, seeds 1-12 are guaranteed playoff seedings, and teams 13-16 duke it out to determine their final seeding. The NBA is the only sport in which a majority of teams make the playoffs. What's up with that? I thought only the elite teams should make the postseason.)

Keep the playoff series at 7 games each, including the first round. With a season shortened by 20 games, players would still have the legs for 25 playoff games.

I'm sorry, but I just can't get excited about a MID-season single-elimination tournament. Kobe would be like, "Yeah, we lost that 3-day tournament 'cause I sat out with a sore finger, but we won the friggin' NBA Finals!"

Kobe, LeBron, and the other bigshots are playing for history. They're competing with MJ and Magic and Kareem for their place among the immortals. Kobe's keeping score with NBA Finals rings, not mid-season Euro-style tourneys.

I'm sure the King's Cup is a big deal in Spain, and I'm not dogging it. To each his own.

 

It's not just one idea, it's a couple different ones. Plus, that may be why he suggested an equal lottery for all, then tanking doesnt guarantee anything.

You're also missing the point of the playoff format, which is only the top 6 teams get a sure invite to the playoffs. The "tournament" you're refering to is a tourney to get the last two spots, so just having the option to play SA or OKC doesnt mean we're in the first round of the playoffs, it's playing just to get a shot at it.