SI.Com Article - "NBA Regular Season is Meaningless"

This supports my "Keep As-Is" argument. It goes back to the baseball comparison. Not many people watch ALL 162 games in an MLB season. If half the MLB fans watched more than 120 games in a season I'd be surprised.

Also in baseball, for a lot of teams on the Sunday games its the vets getting a rest and all the reserves are starting. (Its convenient, it means don't watch a Sunday game). Catchers don't catch EVERY game, even the star catchers. Your favorite pitcher only pitches every 5 days. MLB players are notorious for missing games for the lightest marginal "injuries". So while the games DO mean something, you're not always watching a team at 100% capacity even in leisure paced baseball.

On the injuries, Yao isnt the best example because case he'd be the BEST beneficiary of lesser games. Yao is official Mr Plays Too Many Games. His injuries are a direct result of constant joint stress and wear and tear throughout a season. Yao starts the year, just doesnt finish it. If you want Yao playing into the Finals, its better that he played 55 reg season games than if he played 80 games.

I personally want the Van Gundy idea of giving players more fouls or getting rid of the foul-out rule. That means MORE minutes a game for players. Which means you have to lessen the season games before all the players break down.

Overall I'm saying the league could stand to shave off a handful of games. Get rid of back-to-back games, way too grueling. That means 15 less games, or making the season 2 weeks longer to not have games on consecutive days. Which would mean shorter and more compacted MEANINGFUL playoffs. And like the NFL, get rid of some preseason games. 1 week of preseason games is all you need. I like watching players trying to make it onto a team. But I'd still rather watch stars starting the season in a real game working off his summer beer gut huffing and puffing.

 

lets watch some games brotha and get blazed :grin:

 

I don't really like watching the NBA anymore, but there are a few things they could do that would really, really liven it up. Bill Simmons has mentioned some of these before but here is my list anyhow:

1) Shorten the season by 1/2.
2) Take the top 8 teams regardless of conference.
2) The remaining 8 teams are chosen via a NCAA style tourney.
3) Make the all star game dictate finals homecourt a la MLB.
4) Penalize flopping, traveling, and shoving on the low block with vigor
5) Hire all new refs - maybe from Europe so that they don't give a **** who is playing who.
6) Make the courts bigger. Much bigger.

 

as big as a soccer field and play 11 on 11?

 

My point with baseball was that they have found a length for their season that works for them. I do agree that the season should stay as it is. In the NBA the stars play everyday (unless injured(.
I don't like the idea of more fouls or not being able to foul out, because I believe that would lead MANY more injuries. Yao did not break down because of the long NBA season, he broke down because of the constant wear and tear on his body from play all year without a break early in his career. I don't think anyone could have sustained that pace.
I do agree about the back to back games though, there are too many. I think two weeks for pre-season would be more appropriate, giving teams more time for preparation (which RA eluded to-the not having enough prep time).

 

You're in the NBA dish but this isn't the first time you've brought this up, see the "more teams make the playoffs than don't" thing.

I did say that I'd like to get rid of the 4 games/5 night sets, and hate the best of 7 first round. Besides, the author did compare the NBA to other sports, so why can't we in response? He says "Can you imagine an NFL player trying this stunt?" and "Teams tank in the regular season to get high draft picks far more than they do in any other sport, because the payoff is bigger than in any other sport."

Another thing - the article never suggests that the problem is the number of games, the length of the regular season, or the number of playoff teams. The issue of tanking would not be resolved by changing any of that in fact. The reason tanking is beneficial is that one player can impact a basketball game more than any other sport. Nothing is ever going to change that reality.

Since the author brought up Brett Favre - I have no doubt the NFL would play 50 games if they could, but the sport is too physically taxing to do so.

Anyway, it's an interesting discussion; I'm glad you posted the article.

 

Wilt, Michael, Magic and Larry were ok with 82 games.


A shorter season would create less drama.


Michael Jordan playing ALL 82 games, and hitting a gamewinning jumper in game 100, collapsing to the floor from exhaustion, is beautiful.

The season is grueling, and beautiful. Only the strong survive the NBA...


Weed out the Tracy McStacy's who would like a nice 42 game season...

 

This goes into the back-to-backs and the no foul-outs.

NBA stars play everyday. Except sometimes they sit out on back-to-backs to rest some bum injuries. Without having back-to-backs, maybe the extra rest days will allow more time to heal.

The point mentioned was that the star players do play, but they dont play HARD. Stars can play all of a 100 game schedule, they can play all of a 40 game schedule, they're probably gonna dog it in the 100 game schedule and play harder in the 40. People think they're dogging it at 82 right now. Thats probably right.

On Yao, its still saying that he played too many games. If there were not so many games early in his career, and not so many back-to-backs, the break downs would come LATER instead of sooner. Or maybe never. Rockets could have Yao more healthier in the prime of his career, helping Rockets get a better seed and not facing the Jazz. The common point is overwork from playing too many games in ANY point of his career.

More fouls or no fouling out is all about keeping the STAR PLAYERS on the court. Its totally about money's worth to the fans. No one wants to see a star player sitting out the game cuz he picked up 2 cheap fouls in the first 2 minutes.

I think it should be a PLAYOFFS rule especially. No one wants to see Kobe Bryant on the bench with foul trouble in game 7 of the Finals.

Talked about the back-to-backs already. Every team would have the same lack of preparation time, so its all relative.

 

The writer did his story a disservice by picking such a terrible example. The injury prone 4th wheel of a championship team that has been at the top of the food chain since the Gasol steal doesn't care about the regular season? Color me surprised.

The Lakers have probably explicitly told him to rest as much as possible through the regular season; his body can't handle the strain. Does it mean the regular season is not important? No, it means their team is good enough without him through the brunt of the season.

The post-season is more important? Is this news?

If Lakers were perennially on the bubble as the 8th/9th team out of the west, Bynum would have a different song.

 

Alot of posters do make up alot of valid points about the NBA. On one hand, the shorten season does make things more exciting and give players more rest times (21 back to backs, that's insane, when you think about it). Remember, the talent in the NBA is not as spread out as the talent pools in MLB, NHL, and the NFL. In the NBA, losing a star player can be the difference between being #1 seed vs. lottery bound (see the Cavs).

In the other leagues, it's pretty much been shown countless of times, where a team is still performing at a high level and capable contender even without a star pitcher; home run king; a quarterback; or etc.

On the other hand, reduce games (or teams) may mean less revenue (several posters mentioned). The NBA as of right now, in 2010, makes a killing of the premium packages with satellite carriers and cable. It's nearly hundreds of millions that the league could lose, reducing the season by 15 or more games. It's the biggest reason, the playoffs were extended to 7 games in the first round (which is ridiculous - given the length of the season).

Even though I think they should also reduce teams that is probably more unlikely than reducing games, as the league is always trying to expand itself. More likely to be NBA teams in Mexico City; Barcelona; or London, before the league retracts itself back to 28 or 24. We'll see more JV level NBA teams in the coming years, especially given who the commissioner, beyond that the NBA is the globalist that the NFL wants to be.

Which means the possibility of more games being played.