NBA -- how can it be fixed?

[slamtheking]

I think the topic is definitely open to each individual's interpretation of 'what needs fixing'.

From my perspective, what "needs" fixing is the way the game is played.  The constant palming and traveling that goes unwhistled makes for a lousy product.  The blatant superstar calls makes for a lousy product. 

I'm no longer a fan of the NBA product even though I maintain a fanatic devotion to the Celtics team for this reason.  I have no interest in watching any game that does not involve the C's simply because I don't care for the style of play.

As for the parity or player movement, I don't think there's really much to address.  This past offseason was truly an aberration in terms of the number of teams that dumped salary hoping to win a prize free agent.  Few teams will have a capacity to do so each year and there's even fewer FA's that would make it worth the gamble for teams to do so.  The vast majority of the time, the best players will resign with their original clubs for the most money they can get simply because it'll be very unlikely any team with major room under the cap will have an all-star on their squad to pair with or any decent kind of roster that has good prospects. 

[greenpride32]

Basketball is much different than NFL MLB and NHL in that the dominant players have a much greater impact.  You only have 5 guys on the floor at once and the stars are going to play 35-45 minute, or the majority of the game.

NHL - Top forwards play 17-18 minutes, top D play 20-25.
MLB - Top pitcher goes every 5 games (maybe 4 in playoffs).  Your top hitter goes to the plate 1 out of 9 times.
NFL - Your top O or D player is on the field less than 50% of time on average (factor in special teams).  On top of that you have a 50-something man squad so your tops guys will not be involved in the majority of plays (how many possesions would a guy like Jordan not touch the ball?).

So in the NBA if you develop a good core that stays together for a 3-7 year stretch you're going to be competing all those years.  That's why you have all these runs with the 76ers, Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, Pistons, Rockets, Spurs, etc.

[greenpride32]

If your question is how to restore competitive balance the answer is hard cap and remove free agency; and FA going away is never going to happen.

[Celtics4ever]

1)  I agree getting refs that ref the game fairly would help the league.  Some of the refs think the fans are watching for them which is a joke.

2)  How about open door Lottery?  No more practice lottos that we won (2) and then one to the team with a new building.

3)  Make it so the league takes only college juniors or older.  I am tired of seeing rooks that can't shoot or defend.

4) Loose guarenteed contracts.  When a guy can't play you should be able to cut him.

[The DarkPassenger]

Creating a better cap system I think is the key to the NBA and its future. The NBA can be annoying sometimes because it's a very trade-happy league. Sometimes it can be hard to keep up with who is on what team and the perfect example is what just happened with the Knicks and Nuggets. One of the people traded by the Knicks was Raymond Felton who they just picked up in free agency.

I know what happens in the NFL can't translate to the NBA because of so many things but I just know that there is more attention on the NFL during the season then the NBA. All last year... during the season it was where is LeBron, Amare, Bosh, Wade, Uncle Sam whoever else going and not much on the season. I guess what I'm trying to say is the NBA is about tomorrow and some other leagues is about today, ya know?

Create a better cap system that might cut down on teams feeling the need to trade to improve because of bad contracts. Out of all the leagues I think the NBA is the only one that makes a HUGE deal out of the trade deadline. Of course there are more things but that is just the one thing that I noticed and the thing I think could be the key.

[bdm860]

I'm with those that say it's not broken.

Nothing wrong with players changing teams.  LeBron James gave 7 years to Cleveland, 6 of those were All-NBA years, and 2 of those were MVP years.

Same thing with Carmelo, he gave 7 years to Denver (not counting this year), 4 of those were All-NBA years.

Both teams were able to make big trades and free agent signings during those years.  Denver signed Kenyon Martin for $85-$95M, Andre Miller for $55M, traded for all-stars Allen Iverson, Chauncy Billups, and DPOY Marcus Camby etc.  While the Cavs were able to sign Larry Hughes to $80M, traded for All-Stars Antawn Jamison, Mo Williams, Shaquille O'Neal, and former All-Stars Ben Wallace and Wally Szczerbiak, teamed him will All-Star Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and were able to offer Michael Redd $70M.

It's not like they bolted after their rookie deals, or refused to sign with those teams in the first place.  Both teams had plenty of opportunities to make big moves, and they both had several years to build a championship team.

People are already talking about Chris Paul and Deron Williams being next, well at the end of the season they will both have given their teams 6 years, and if they play out their contracts they'll have given their teams at least 7 years (if they opt out).  Both the Jazz and Hornets have made big trades, and signed players to big deals.  They've had their opportunities.

It's like if you draft a superstar, you have 7 years to build a championship team around him.  Does that system really seem that broke?  It seems fair enough to me.  7 years is a long time.

If anything, what's broken is the management of some teams.

[incoherent]

Of course it is fixed.

Anything in this world that has $$$ attached to it is most likely fixed or corrupted in one way or the other.

Nothing is safe from human nature.

[birdwatcher]

There's plenty that needs to be fixed. 17 teams in the NBA are losing money. Some of those teams, like Atlanta for instance, is in a huge market but are one of the many teams bleeding cash. Stern is as much to blame for this with his vision for globalization, but he is also to be revered to bringing the game to where it is today. He is just as responsible for the rivalry between Magic & Bird as the players themselves. Stern & Nike combined to make Michael Jordan one of the most recognizable faces on the Earth. Contraction seems like a logical idea--putting a team in Europe or Asia seems like the worst idea ever. It barely makes sense to have a team in Canada.  People say they are worried about superstars banning together to start their own super teams, but really, before all this expansion began, it wasn't uncommon to see multiple stars on the same team. Teams that were successful through out the 80's and 90's had multiple stars--take a look at just the starting line ups of past Celtics, Lakers, Sixers, Bucks, Bulls, & Knicks teams alone and you could probably come up with half the players that are on the Top 50 NBA Players of All Time list. History is cyclical, so why should the NBA be an exception? Go back to what made the league what it is today.

[cornbreadsmart]

With nothing to do at work one day ,I eliminated the seven teams that were added since I began watching the nba(1984). i then did a pretend draft with the worst remaining team getting the top pick and so on.. Wow. The league would be so much better.Sooo competitive.

[cornbreadsmart]

They really should get rid of Toronto. They'll probably never have a contender.

[More Banners]

With nothing to do at work one day ,I eliminated the seven teams that were added since I began watching the nba(1984). i then did a pretend draft with the worst remaining team getting the top pick and so on.. Wow. The league would be so much better.Sooo competitive.

Our own Kevin McHale wrote an op-ed in the 90's asserting that expansion had diluted the league and enabled the Bulls to appear so dominant.  And he was right.

[birdwatcher]

It'd be great too if they required NBA players to have a degree. Why not? How many job postings require a degree--and why should sports be an different. It would make college basketball great again. The "socialist" systems that some sports have adopted like the NBA and NCAA (remember when the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12 were conferences set up geographically, not so teams could capitalize on revenue sharing from TV contracts??) & MLB was supposed to help one another but really has screwed US. Larry Lucchino was on WEEI this morning talking about how the Red Sox paid out $85 mil in revenue sharing for last year. Basically, everytime someone buys a sox hat or $10 Sam adams, you are basically paying a couple bucks to the Washington Nationals & Florida Marlins. Florida's gross revenue in '09 was $139 million and they only paid out $37 mil in salaries 27%). The Yankees revenue for the same year was $375 mil and their payroll $208 mil!! Yes the rich get richer, but so do all the really bad teams! And we pay for that to happen. Also, I'm not anti-union, but society over values entertainment from music to movies to sports. Doctors who save people's lives don't sniff $30 mil a year (good luck, Pujols!). Players make more money than God and then complain that the league doesn't help them much after they retire--take care of all that [dang] money you got paid! Don't buy a 50 karat diamond earring that has your mom's face etched in it, get some health insurance. All the impending lock outs are total BS--rich guys crying cause they aren't rich enough, like Latrell Spreewell who couldn't feed his family. There are times I wish I didn't love sports so much.

[Meadowlark_Scal]

Number one is the refs...they are ruining the game. Look at the NFL refs, see any favoritism there, no. The NBA refs are all control, their way. Different rules for their favs, their stars, the rookies, that is how you set the tone for initial control. The league has let this happen, the league needs to fix it fast. It really looks like championship wrestling now.

[Jon]

Been saving this one up for some time, and I thought it'd be good for my 4000th post. 

Ultimately, I don't think there's nearly as much wrong in the NBA as most people make it out to be. 

People look at the parity in baseball and football and ask why can't we have it in basketball.  The answer in simple: because in basketball, the best team almost always wins.  That doesn't always happen in football and baseball; in fact, I'd argue it often doesn't. 

With baseball, teams seldom dominate.  It's considered to be a good season if you win 90-95 games, which equates to a 45-48 win season in the NBA, which is good, but hardly the record of #1 seeds.  The fact that "great teams" in baseball only win 55-60% of their games, while great NBA teams win north of 80%, truly tells you just how much chance factors into baseball. 

With football, great teams win 80%+ of their games; however, with the 1 game playoff format, bad teams get lucky.  Spin it how you want it, but if the 2001 Patriots played the 2001 Rams in a best of 7, they're losing 4-1.  Same with the 2007 Pats and the 2007 Giants. 

Furthermore, I don't see a lot that can be done about stars dominating the league.  The simple fact of the matter is that in basketball, a guy like KG can play 40+ minutes per game and influence the action on both the offensive end of the floor.  In football, even the best quarterback only plays the offensive snaps and is powerless during special teams and defensive plays.  And in baseball, a great batter can only change a game if he's up and a great pitcher can only influence the game he's pitching on the days he's pitching. 

The only change that I'd consider in the new CBA might be a more tiered salary system by teams.  For instance, only allow each team to have one max deal and then maybe 2-3 slots at 10 million, 4-5 at the 5-7 million range, and then the rest at minimum deals or so.  That way, it'd be very hard for teams to stockpile truly elite players without certain players making major concessions.  I think that would go a long way in giving parity in the league and also preventing teams from giving max deals to "B" level superstars like Joe Johnson. 

[footey]

NBA needs to be more like the NFL and less like MLB. The whole point of sports teams to root for is to have an equal footing. There should be a spending limit by each team, and a cap on salaries per player. A significant percentage of profit spill over should go back to the players as a group to take care of long term issues like pension and health care.  But each team has to have an equal chance to win, and succeed or fail based on its personnel decisions and coaching, not on the extent of its resources.