How should Silver deal with healthy scratches?

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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#101 » by Patches Perry » Mon Mar 20, 2017 3:49 am

Lots of interesting thoughts here. I'll throw in some of my own.

1. The idea of fining teams is on the right track, especially for national TV games, but I would rather them go the incentive route. Throw in bonuses and incentives for players who play the high visibility games. Throw in incentives for players who play all 82, 80+, 75+, etc.

2. Designated "sit" games determined preseason. A lot of the problem here is unpredictability. If before the seasom teams were forced to pick 4-8 games on their schedule where their top players must sit, people wouldn't feel cheated for buying tickets to those games, and they'd schedule a different TV game. If a great player is forced to miss 8 games, the team might be putting itself in a bad spot if they sit him too many more as well.
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#102 » by Vibranium » Mon Mar 20, 2017 3:52 am

Roscoe Sheed wrote:The NBA clearly has a problem. For the second week in a row their marquee match up on Saturday night was ruined by players resting. I know that Cleveland claims two of the players were injured, but we know that is stretching the truth.

I've never seen LeBron play in person so I spent a lot of $ to go to last night's game. I am big Clippers fan, so I'm happy they won because they can use any victory however they can get it right now. However, I'm very upset about paying so much money just to see LeBron sit on his ass.

What should be done to strongly persuade teams not to do this in the future?

1) Substantial fines?

2) Repeated offenses to have more severe consequences like draft pick forfeiture?

3) No back to backs at all as a pre-emptive measure?

Something has to be done because this is a real black eye on the league image.

How about players can rest but not when it's a match-up between the top 8 teams in each conference?
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#103 » by mtron929 » Mon Mar 20, 2017 4:07 am

Some of the suggestions are really stupid as far as I am concerned. I think we should start with minor tweaks. That is, compromise between owners and the players such that 1 week of pre-season games are removed while the season is elongated by 1 week. That gives us 2 more extra weeks to spread around the 82 games schedule. With this expansion in schedule, make it such that some of the marquee national TV games are not part of a back-to-back. Finally, the NBA/owner should encourage the players/teams to not rest during these televised games as this would result in weaker negotiation with ABC/ESPN in the next contract, leading to decrease in revenue for everyone involved.

I think with these minor tweaks, you can solve some of these issues. Of course, I think there is some fundamental problem with the regular season just not being that important to too many teams, but this is another problem altogether.
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#104 » by youngcrev » Mon Mar 20, 2017 4:26 am

I think that's addressing the symptom and not the underlying problem. Don't ask how to stop teams from resting their player, but rather why they feel the need to. There's simply too many games. Cut the games back and you get a better product. Healthier athletes and more importance gets placed on each game.

At the very least they should go with the idea of starting the season earlier (cutting the preseason in half) to reduce back to backs.
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Re: RE: Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#105 » by bubonicphoniks » Mon Mar 20, 2017 4:44 am

CountOnAlex wrote:
bubonicphoniks wrote:Personally. I don't think a thing should be done. Coaching decisions should remain coaching decisions. This is silly.


is it fair for someone to pay $500 for a ticket to see the cavs but when they get there lebron, kyrie and love are "resting"?

no, it's not okay.

ticket prices are set based on who plays on that team and how good that team is.

lebron-less cavs, tickets for the nosebleeds in toronto were $10-$30. since lebron returned to cleveland, that ticket in the nosebleeds is now $100-$130.


Sure it's ok.

No one forced them to buy a ticket to the game.

If you want to make sure you see a certain human being look for a public appearance or something I don't know. If you want to see a basketball team play buy a ticket.

This is rediculous. Let the coaches coach. You really want a league where the commissioner sets the teams lineups?
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#106 » by BloodNinja » Mon Mar 20, 2017 4:48 am

el13adnino wrote:any change made would just result in fake injury reports, nothing will change


Just like when the NBA had the injured reserve list.
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#107 » by MrBaynes » Mon Mar 20, 2017 5:37 am

Reduce the length of the pre-season dramatically, start the season 2 weeks earlier and end a week later. Absolutely no back to backs, PERIOD. It would likely not eliminate all the healthy scratches, but I imagine it would significantly reduce them.

As a fan there is no guarantee unfortunately that what you believe you are purchasing will be what you actually see. It is always a "buyer beware" type situation. It sucks, I empathize with those who get screwed over when Pop, Kerr, Lue or whoever sits half the roster the only time they play in your city. However that is really on the micro level. On the macro level, this has got to be hurting TV ratings, which is a major concern for the league.

I know everyone in the NBA loves rolling around on their piles of money from the recent tv contracts, but if this continues, they could be see a harsh reality the next tv negotiations, ESPN is already losing money on its NBA coverage by a wide margin, and it would not stun me if other companies see that as a warning as-is, considering the lack of marquee matchups on a weekly basis. When there are only 3-4 teams nationally that get any significant press, and everyone of note is sitting for a matchup between two of those teams (ie, Warriors-Spurs), it is time to come up with a solution.
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#108 » by Effigy » Mon Mar 20, 2017 6:20 am

The only rule you can put in would be something like any player who doesn't play at least half their average minutes, the league assumes is injured and is held out with pay for the next two games to make sure he comes back healthy. Are you still going to sit healthy players knowing that they will miss three games each time you do?
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#109 » by soxfan2003 » Mon Mar 20, 2017 7:06 am

Have only 6 games from each conference in the playoffs and the first round of the playoffs be just 5 games....

Then cut the regular season to 75 games. Ideally, I would want even less regular season games then that but just trying to come up with realistic amount that the league and TV partners may go for.

Only 6 teams in each conference in the playoffs mean 2 teams getting first round byes and that should create more regular season competition.

NBA loses playoff money on all of this but probably gains from the regular season being important again which may help increase regular season TV viewership.
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#110 » by Alex DeLarge » Mon Mar 20, 2017 7:14 am

Is interest in the league declining because teams rest players? It certainly doesn't appear so.

The counter argument is that by resting guys we are improving their chances of avoiding major injuries. For me, having 6-12 marquee players on the shelf (as we did 2-3 seasons ago) is the bigger problem. I 100% support teams being smarter with the players' bodies.
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#111 » by SF_Warriors » Mon Mar 20, 2017 7:15 am

Effigy wrote:The only rule you can put in would be something like any player who doesn't play at least half their average minutes, the league assumes is injured and is held out with pay for the next two games to make sure he comes back healthy. Are you still going to sit healthy players knowing that they will miss three games each time you do?


Unfortunately, this wouldnt work. You are basically daring players to play on a minor sprained ankle or with minor knee/back/shoulder soreness to play where one or two games would be an optimal amount of time to miss.

Fans would rather have a player miss a game than to risk playing on an injury, but now you would have a conundrum from coaches who may be in a playoff/seeding race to either play a guy while he is possibly injured and really not suitable to play, or miss 3 games total which could hurt the team even though the player could take 1-2 games off and be perfectly fine. You would also have players who do not want to miss three games worth of pay hiding injuries which could hurt both themselves and their team. There could be disagreements in-game between coaches and players because of this rule.

There could also be some legal ramifications to such a rule forcing totally healthy players to sit out multiple games without pay.
Isn't the whole point of a new rule to prevent players from missing games, not to make them miss more? If a player like lebron really needs to sit out a game because of sickness or what not, you would want him to miss the next two as well to prove some kind of point? If I bought tickets to a game and lebron couldnt pay because of this rule, I would be just as pissed at the nba the same way I would be pissed at a team for sitting out a player for rest purposes.

Honestly, there is really no ethical/legal rule that would fix these kind of issues..there is too much gray area.
The nba cannot force a team to make a player play. The team could cite some kind of bogus injury or just exercise the right to put whichever players they want on the active roster for that specific game.
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#112 » by Black star » Mon Mar 20, 2017 8:09 am

While I agree that making a rule or regulation concerning players resting would not be practical or effective, I still think Silver should talk to the coaches. Its not a good look for the league in the same way that the Philly process wasn't a good look for the league and led to all media outlets focusing on the tanking issue with more force. There is always a fine line to walk and I think its getting close to the point where it turns into a real issue.

Also, one of the main problems isn't just that players are resting but that they are resting for the big pushed and marketed games. You guys can parrot the whole "haha buyer beware" and "shorten the season" excuses but when executives for ABC and TNT call Adam and tell him that the next tv deal will be 10 to 25 percent smaller because their rating didn't meet expectations these star players will suddenly be able to play these marque games every time :lol:
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#113 » by EmperorLocky » Mon Mar 20, 2017 10:04 am

Team fines. Start at 250k and double it each time.

These precious superstars of today need to toughen up and remember why they are there.
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#114 » by Alienware » Mon Mar 20, 2017 11:02 am

They should adjust the schedule, making sure that big nationally televised games don't include teams on b2b games. Doc Rivers said the same the other day, and while I often disagree with him, I think he was definitely right on this.

Every other solution seems way too far fetched in my opinion.

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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#115 » by Effigy » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:21 pm

SF_Warriors wrote:
Effigy wrote:The only rule you can put in would be something like any player who doesn't play at least half their average minutes, the league assumes is injured and is held out with pay for the next two games to make sure he comes back healthy. Are you still going to sit healthy players knowing that they will miss three games each time you do?


Unfortunately, this wouldnt work. You are basically daring players to play on a minor sprained ankle or with minor knee/back/shoulder soreness to play where one or two games would be an optimal amount of time to miss.

Fans would rather have a player miss a game than to risk playing on an injury, but now you would have a conundrum from coaches who may be in a playoff/seeding race to either play a guy while he is possibly injured and really not suitable to play, or miss 3 games total which could hurt the team even though the player could take 1-2 games off and be perfectly fine. You would also have players who do not want to miss three games worth of pay hiding injuries which could hurt both themselves and their team. There could be disagreements in-game between coaches and players because of this rule.

There could also be some legal ramifications to such a rule forcing totally healthy players to sit out multiple games without pay.
Isn't the whole point of a new rule to prevent players from missing games, not to make them miss more? If a player like lebron really needs to sit out a game because of sickness or what not, you would want him to miss the next two as well to prove some kind of point? If I bought tickets to a game and lebron couldnt pay because of this rule, I would be just as pissed at the nba the same way I would be pissed at a team for sitting out a player for rest purposes.

Honestly, there is really no ethical/legal rule that would fix these kind of issues..there is too much gray area.
The nba cannot force a team to make a player play. The team could cite some kind of bogus injury or just exercise the right to put whichever players they want on the active roster for that specific game.


I Specifically said with pay. Of course you pay them.

The team could make any excuse they want. If the player misses one game, he misses two more, to make sure he's healthy.
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#116 » by bmurph128 » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:28 pm

Realistically, the only way would be to penalize injured players too. Something like 10 "sick days" players can use throughout the year, and their pay changes to game-by-game. That would suck for injury prone players, but there's no other way around it. Kyrie and Love weren't even healthy scratches, technically, and people are freaking out about it.
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#117 » by bmurph128 » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:36 pm

It's the back to backs. But it seems that it's only really an issue with the nationally televised games...so here's a thought...stop televising back to backs? Especially considering that nearly all teams aren't as good in that situation. So even if the guys to all play, you're not providing your fans with the best product possible. And folks...the Cavs are just getting started thanks to the NBA schedule, so if you have an issue with this, get ready to be mad:

Saturday March 25th - VS Wizards - 2nd night of back to back - NBA TV

Thursday March 30th - at Bulls - 1st night of back to back - TNT

Wednesday April 5th - at Celtics - 2nd night of back to back - ESPN

Sunday April 9th - at Hawks - 1st night of back to back - NBA TV

Four instances coming up in a 2 week period where the Cavs are on TV, but on either 1st or 2nd night of a back to back. And going back the last week we had @Rockets and @Clippers. Six instances of this in LESS than one month.

Cavs generally don't rest players at home though - so Friday March 24th at Hornets, then the Bulls, Celtics, Hawks games referenced above - I imagine the big 3 will rest. So Hornets, Bulls, Celtics, Hawks fans - you've been warned. Sell your tickets now.
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#118 » by jeeph » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:44 pm

Cyrusman122000 wrote:Is it possible to implement a rule where a player doesn't get his game check unless a medical exam shows he's clearly injured and not able to play?

Therefore you could still rest players if you want but healthy players who don't play won't get paid for that game?


As you can see from the game, Kyrie and LeBron were dressed. But here is the back story....They were 2 minutes late for a meeting and were benched for the game for team discipline reasons. If they continue this behavior then they will benched up to 20 times a season for this and then will receive fines. It's all in the team charter. The Cavs organization was just following the team rules.

Catch what I'm throwing down? Legislating morals is always a slippery slope and is able to be bypassed without hardly any effort. You need incentives to fix it, not empty threats.
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#119 » by duppyy » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:49 pm

Increase the length of the season to eliminate back to backs and 4 games in 5 nights BS. Cutting the amount of games in the regular season is not the answer.
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Re: How should Silver deal with healthy scratches? 

Post#120 » by draftnightsuit » Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:51 pm

People assume Lebron is still young because he's still the best player in the league, but he's been in the league 14 seasons. It makes sense to rest him.

Irving is 24, there's no reason for him to be resting.

You shouldn't be able to rest unless you've played at least 1000 games.

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