ESPN article on how to make the NBA better

[gouki88]

My opinion:

1.  Elam ending is stupid and gimmicky.

2.  Expanding the court would make sense.  It gives players more room to operate, and would lead to true spacing.  As nick said, it will never happen.  Too much money would be lost.

3.  Relegation is impossible in the major American sports. 

4.  In-season tournaments / shortening the season are gimmicky

5.  Training academies could help, but it would take a huge investment.  Otherwise you're just getting a different version of the NCAA mixed with the G-League.

The single best solution to improve the health of the league as a whole:  institute a hard cap while also getting rid of max contracts.  My guess is that an NFL model would lead to more parity and more teams with a chance at a title.

I agree pretty much fully with this. I think some minor rule tweaks (coaches challenges, FIBA goaltending, physicality on defence) would also help.

[Silas]

I would really like to see a hard cap but doubt that the Union would go for it.  What I do think could be done for next season without a lot of problems would be to increase the number of coach challenges on fouls/out of bounds to three per half.  If the challenge rule happened the owners must require the refs to take a decision within a specific time; maybe two minutes.   

[sgrogan]

What about the "take" foul?
As a kid I was coached to "go for the steal"
If your beat and its a basket anyway, make a "desperate" attempt at the ball. By desperate I don't mean hard foul, just don't worry about the call. Also when I was a kid, free throw shooting was more emphasized.

[sgrogan]

Here are my thoughts, and I'm looking at this purely in terms of my ideal (in other words, I'm not factoring in how likely or unlikely something might be in reality):

• It's never made sense to me why the 3pt line is different distances from different spots; it should be the same all the way around, in a smooth semicircle. If the court needs to be widened to make that happen, so be it.

• I love kraidstar's idea of teams getting a first-round pick as compensation for losing a max/supermax free agent.

• I would LOVE for the league to contract. By at least a half dozen teams. My picks: Orlando, Charlotte, Sacramento, New Orleans, Memphis, and Toronto. I'd also be fine with the T-Wolves and Clippers. And I'd like to see OKC go back to Seattle.

• Definitely don't want the Elam Ending. Feels contrived and illegitimate, not like real basketball.

• I feel like a hard cap is necessary if "giving every team a real chance" is an actual goal. I don't think the NBA really cares about giving every team a real chance—the league wants as many teams as possible, so they have as many fan bases as possible and thus as much revenue as possible, but there are only a half-dozen or so teams the league ever really wants to see in the Finals, and there are some teams the NBA definitely does NOT want to see in the Finals. If there's a hard cap, richer teams won't have a wealth advantage (though certain markets, like LA, NY, and Miami, will still have an unfair weather/glitz advantage). And as nebist said: It would be fascinating to see the various team-building strategies that arise from a hard cap: do you spend 75% of your cap on a 1st team ALL-NBA guy? Or do you sign 3 fringe All-stars at 25% of the cap each? Etc.

I actually like that it's different. The corner can't use the backboard, the shooter is further from getting back on defense. I would like to see the court widened slightly, size 15's just barely fit without going out of bounds. But a shorter shot from a more difficult position on the floor I'm for keeping.

[NHHillbilly]

Eliminating tanking would help the league, no more "process". The Celtics proposed a system where a rotation of draft picks would let each team know for certain its draft order forever. Every team would get the #1 pick sometime. once every 5-7 years, every team would have a top 5 pick. Trades would be easier to negotiate and teams that make poor picks wouldn't get multiple chances at high picks by stinking.

Eliminate the need for agents entirely. Give each team 15 slots of salary, say 5 starter salaries: all the same amount, 5 bench salaries, 3 end of the bench salaries, 2 two way salaries. The slots are flexible for the team: a player can be cut, but still paid and the team can offer the open slot at full salary to any free agent (or move a current player to a higher spot and fill a lower spot. If a cut player signs with a new team, the old team only pays the difference if the cut player goes in a lower slot. All teams have the same budget all the time and bad luck like a player being injured for a year will not affect a team as much. Get rid of the tampering nonsense and just let teams and players talk as much as they want about where they want to play and who they would like to play with.
Teams would have no reason to lose. Players would be attracted by fit and team culture, and a bit by location. A team might still decide to rebuild with a youth movement, but it need not be so extreme.

And third: the players association should be in charge of hiring, training, and evaluating the performance of the refs. The job of the refs should be to make the game safe and fair. Maybe players like Jaylen Brown and Zion Williamson will have longer careers. It seems to me that Jaylen is smashed in the face at least 5 times a game with no foul calls. Giannis speared Rob Williams in the chest on a drive with an elbow and wasn't even called for a foul. Why? Because he is a star and Williams is not.

Of course, the NBA will never accept any of these simple changes. The NBA is less a sport now and more of an entertainment business based on star worship and elements of gambling. The refs have only a little more integrity than the World Wrestling Federation the way the games are called now.

[LilRip]

I don’t think changing salary structure would have much of an impact in terms of parity. But this is because in general, I think parity is very hard to achieve in basketball. This is because 1) it’s such a small court, 2) players play both ends of the floor, and 3) there are only 5 guys on the court at any given time

The team with a generational talent like Lebron James will always have a massive advantage because Lebron affects so many factors on the court.

[Celtics2021]

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I really like the NBA product right now.  Covid made it a little rough in December, but the games are fun to watch and generally very competitive.  If I had to do one thing it would be to change the 3-point line such that the corner three were eliminated, but it doesn’t terribly bother me as the spacing it creates gives room for players to attack the rim and make some spectacular finishes.

Tanking is myeh, but I didn’t mind it when the C’s did it for Brad’s first season as coach, and watched all the games I could.

[PhoSita]

My number one suggestion re: the salary cap, which I've said before:

Players that have only ever played for the team that drafted them should be able to earn as much as the team is willing to pay them, but they should not count against the cap beyond a certain point.

Example -- maybe a homegrown All NBA player could get his team to pay him $40 million a year. That's max money these days. But for cap purposes he would only count $25 million, which is a bit more than what a good starter makes.

Let players earn more while not penalizing a team for paying to keep its homegrown talent. In fact, give greater incentive to teams to keep their home grown stars.

It sucks that a team can draft really well and end up in a situation where they're going to be deep in the luxury tax and basically financially crippled if they try to pay fair value to keep their guys past a rookie deal.

[LatterDayCelticsfan]

Some of the ideas aren't exactly out of the world crazy. I don't see the logic of relegation and promotion between a major league and its own minor league, all 30 G league teams belong to an NBA team, right?


Also, the arguments for each of the proposals were pretty soft. That's feels more like ESPN's level though

[CFAN38]

My number one suggestion re: the salary cap, which I've said before:

Players that have only ever played for the team that drafted them should be able to earn as much as the team is willing to pay them, but they should not count against the cap beyond a certain point.

Example -- maybe a homegrown All NBA player could get his team to pay him $40 million a year. That's max money these days. But for cap purposes he would only count $25 million, which is a bit more than what a good starter makes.

Let players earn more while not penalizing a team for paying to keep its homegrown talent. In fact, give greater incentive to teams to keep their home grown stars.

It sucks that a team can draft really well and end up in a situation where they're going to be deep in the luxury tax and basically financially crippled if they try to pay fair value to keep their guys past a rookie deal.

I agree and have said for years that the NBA needs to have some type of tenure structure built into the luxury tax. I would suggest the cap him on the lux tax be pro rated based on consecutive years with the team after second NBA contract. Ex Tatum signs rookie deal (4 yrs), signs max extension (4 yr + 1 yr player option), then his 3rd contract (start of 9th season with team) only 75% of his deal is included in the luxury tax cap, 65% after 10th season, and 50% after 12th season. This would incentivize keeping and developing players, I think the added continuity would help the on court product

I also think the league needs to continue the evolution of how they handle/develop young players.

I'm not sure how its viewed across the league but I like the idea of the G league ignite and could see it expanded to a second team.

As for the young players who are drafted the Players association would fight it but I think rookie contracts need to be adjusted by the players age. If the drafted player is under the age of 20 on draft night he has one additional year added to his rookie deal that only counts against the teams cap if the players plays a set number of games or minutes. I think this is a good way to promote the development of young players and protect teams from developing guys just to lose them as free agents.

[Moranis]

Do teams actually need an incentive to keep their homegrown stars?  Isn't it the stars that want to leave?

[Celtics4ever]

ESPN could make NBA better by firing Doris Burke, who has amazing insight and knowledge of the game but is really hard to listen, too

[slamtheking]

Do teams actually need an incentive to keep their homegrown stars?  Isn't it the stars that want to leave?

exactly.  it's players typically looking for a winning situation, a better fanbase, a bigger city, or in rarer circumstances, a team that will pay them more than their current team because they don't want to pay a max deal

[Vermont Green]

The idea of hard cap and eliminating a max on contracts works in the NFL because contracts are not guaranteed.  Otherwise, it doesn't work and that is why the NBA has gotten to where they are with all the cap exclusions and things.

One hard a$$ thing I think they could do is put restrictions on players talking about contracts and FA.  If a team has a player under contract, they should not be able to discuss their FA status with another player under contract with another team.  To me, that should be a breach of contract, similar to how GMs can't discuss players under contract with another team.

For the draft, I have always liked the idea of the "snake" draft where you reverse the order in the second round.  That would reduce the value of tanking.  It wouldn't eliminate the problem of course, but it would reduce the incentive some.

And yes, increase the size of the court.  And let defenders defend.  This is improved this year but still too many fouls.  Make it harder for an offensive player to "draw" a foul.  If you are legitimately trying to make a shot and there is contact, fine, but if the offensive player is leaning in or whatever, trying to get fouled vs. truly trying to make a shot, the threshold for a foul should be adjusted.

[CFAN38]

The idea of hard cap and eliminating a max on contracts works in the NFL because contracts are not guaranteed.  Otherwise, it doesn't work and that is why the NBA has gotten to where they are with all the cap exclusions and things.

One hard a$$ thing I think they could do is put restrictions on players talking about contracts and FA.  If a team has a player under contract, they should not be able to discuss their FA status with another player under contract with another team.  To me, that should be a breach of contract, similar to how GMs can't discuss players under contract with another team.

For the draft, I have always liked the idea of the "snake" draft where you reverse the order in the second round.  That would reduce the value of tanking.  It wouldn't eliminate the problem of course, but it would reduce the incentive some.

And yes, increase the size of the court.  And let defenders defend.  This is improved this year but still too many fouls.  Make it harder for an offensive player to "draw" a foul.  If you are legitimately trying to make a shot and there is contact, fine, but if the offensive player is leaning in or whatever, trying to get fouled vs. truly trying to make a shot, the threshold for a foul should be adjusted.

I agree the contract drama and free agency side of the NBA has become to prevalent. Simmons gets upset sits out, Harden gets annoyed forces a trade, Zion isn't happy he isn't in NY, Lebron builds the team he wanted it doesn't work and he puts the Lakers on notice.... Its all consuming and the media loves it. I agree its fun to speculate about trades and free agent landing spots but we have reached a tipping point. I don't see it being fixed because the owners have lost control and given it to the elite players.