[pokieParticipant]

 There are, in my opinion, a few problems with the NBA right now. I’ve had some ideas about them and would like to share them here. 

 First, would be the quality of play across the expanse of the regular season. The cellar dwellers tank to secure favorable lottery positions while playoff teams have started to rest players in the middle of the season resulting in fans waiting for certain stars to swing thru their towns only to find them sitting in street clothes at the end of the bench.

Secondly, the playoff seedings this season in the West were ruined by placing Portland fourth, ahead of teams from tougher divisions who still managed to trump the Blazers in the wins column just because Portland played in and won a weaker division. On top of that, the East couldn’t even properly stock their playoff bracket. 

So, what do we do?

Two things:

Number One: Cut the number of playoff teams in each conference to six, then give the top two seeds in each conference a first round bye. Now you have the top tier playoff squads scrapping all season for a weeks rest and the bottom half battling just to get in. This will increase the value of individual regular season games.

But what about the bottom?

Number Two: Increase the Draft Lottery teams to eight, then invert the order. The Association is not served by giving the worst team the best available player in the draft. Let the worst team pick at eight, where they can find a solid starter, a Tony Allen or a Robert Horry, maybe even a Rondo, or an Ibaka, or a Klay Thompson. Then as these players develop, the win totals for their teams increase and they climb up to higher Lottery positions where they can add their Kevin Durant or Anthony Davis, which propel them out of the Lottery for good. This way the cellar dwellers have a reason to claw each others faces off. 

That it? Not quite.

Number Three: The career of an NBA Official should mirror the length of an NBA player. Officiating at the NBA level is very demanding and the rules continue to change. While watching games I have noticed that a lot of NBA refs anticipate the outcome of plays, then blow their whistles and call fouls that have never happened. This reminds me of how some older players, who have lost a step, begin to anticipate plays instead of reacting "in the now" and their assist to turnover rates shoot up. This is an undeniable physiological fact of getting older in a young man’s game. I’ve also watched games recently where each ref seems to be officiating the same game from a different NBA era. The game and its players continue to evolve because they are replenished at a high rate. I feel like the officials are kinda holding the game back right now. 

Anyway, those are my ideas. What do you think?

 

[Author]

Posts