Discussion on how to improve the NBA "product"

[RedBull23]

In season tournament winner gets pick 15 and runner up gets 31. The prizes need to get more exciting. 2 teams from each group qualify for the knockout round.

[erlim]

Rig a few drafts and big trade for the bulls. Their merch always has solid fashion potential. It would kill if we had some headliners now NBA is back on NBC.

[Evil_Headband]

To me, the most impactful thing is to change to some version of an Elam Ending. The dribbling out of clocks, last minute fouling, last 24 second timeouts and all that stuff is much less enjoyable than a having a game winning basket every night.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elam_Ending

[kodo]

I have not been watching much lately, but used to watch almost all of the bulls game religiously.

I have pretty much lost interest in today's game with the lack of physicality, and also the tendency of analytics in promoting the 3 point shot. Basketball used to be my favorite sport to watch, its not anymore. I make no effort to catch a game, but will enjoy one if its on and I'm available.

With the improvement percentage all around concerning the three point shot. I think to improve play and interest, the easiest way to do accomplish this, would to move the three point shot out further to encourage the value of both the mid range game, and restore physicality, and value to the inside game. If you have to make the court a bit larger, so be it. (I'm okay with that too).

The NBA should even out the value in shot percentage, so both the two point, and 3 point shot have equal value in the statistics. It would make the game exciting again, and allow different teams to approach the competition in different ways restoring excitement.

I think this is the fundamental problem as a watchable sport, the point values are just skewed. The fact that when Derrick Rose does a double crossover and splits two defenders to attack the rim and meets a center there and still dunks over them is worth 2 points, while Keith Bogans just standing in place all possession and then makes a wide open 3 pointer and Bogans is worth 150% of what Rose did is just fundamentally broken.

The NBA is what you would get if the NFL scored 7 points for a field goal and 3 points for a touchdown. We would see teams just getting into range and it would just turn into a kicker contest of who can make it at longer & longer ranges.

But they're not going to change something this fundamental, it's just not realistic.

[Am2626]

To me the 7 game series are the greatest thing on earth and a huge part of what makes the NBA so much better than NCAA. Single elimination is too fluky for my interests. I even think the NFL should go to a best-of-3 for each round of the playoffs, but only have 8 teams make the playoffs.

In a 7 game series the better team almost always wins the series. It usually takes an injury to a key player to give the underdog any realistic chance to win. Experience also plays a big role so there are times where a lesser talented team that has championship experience beats the better and more talented team. While a single elimination tournament is not realistic a best of 3 series would bring some unpredictability into the playoffs. I don’t see anything changing though because the more games means more revenue.

I agree with your assessment, but it's precisely the fact that the (truly) better team wins that makes me love it so much.

For me I don’t like predictability. Unless it is a team that I support or like I’m usually rooting for the underdog or team that hasn’t been at the top before.

[Red Larrivee]

Less games would be a big improvement and force players to value each game more, but it would never happen. 82 games feels more like content than anything of substance these days. I think as long as that's the case, there will never be incentive for players to rethink workload management and to play their hardest all the time.

On that same thought, the only way All-Star Weekend will be meaningful again is with significant monetary awards for winners. Otherwise, players now just want to enjoy a week of partying and being with their family.

To me, the most realistic change should be the league getting rid of conferences and having the 16 best records make the playoffs. I think that can create a little bit more urgency.

Overall, I just think the root issue is that players of this era just don't have the same incentive to care like past eras.

[dice]

as far as lotto goes, FFS make all teams involved w/ 30 lotto balls for the worst team down to 1 for the champs. draw for every draft slot. totally eliminates tanking and creates the best night of TV for the sport. yes, once every 465 years the champ would get the #1 pick. good! why are we so opposed to socialism in real life and so for it in our sports?

eliminate the luxury tax. at least for re-signing own players. or players that have played for the team for, say, more than 5 seasons. do not continue to penalize teams that draft well. give them a reasonable chance to SPEND to keep their team intact. why are we so opposed to socialism in real life and so for it in our sports?

alternately, how about 2 separate caps? 1 for FA/trade acquisitions and another, larger one for drafted/tenured players

widen the courts. at least for every new arena. does the nhl still have different rink dimensions? every baseball field is a little different (including weather!)

go back to 2 FTs for fouls on 3 pt shots. 3 FT is extremely punitive and penalizes defending the 3 pt line

be serious about penalizing flopping. and the euroshuffle (which may be partially responsible for achilles tears). and the shuffle-stepback

forget about load management penalties. no way to realistically do anything. teams need to decide for themselves how to manage their players. and the player needs to decide for HIMself how much sitting hurts his image, his conditioning and future contract potential. league and players need to decide how long the season should be/how much time between games

eliminate max salary

[Mr. Tibbs]

relegation

[League Circles]

To me, the most impactful thing is to change to some version of an Elam Ending. The dribbling out of clocks, last minute fouling, last 24 second timeouts and all that stuff is much less enjoyable than a having a game winning basket every night.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elam_Ending

Yeah I think all games should be to 100 points, gotta win by 2

[sco]

as far as lotto goes, FFS make all teams involved w/ 30 lotto balls for the worst team down to 1 for the champs. draw for every draft slot. totally eliminates tanking and creates the best night of TV for the sport. yes, once every 465 years the champ would get the #1 pick. good! why are we so opposed to socialism in real life and so for it in our sports?

eliminate the luxury tax. at least for re-signing own players. or players that have played for the team for, say, more than 5 seasons. do not continue to penalize teams that draft well. give them a reasonable chance to SPEND to keep their team intact. why are we so opposed to socialism in real life and so for it in our sports?

alternately, how about 2 separate caps? 1 for FA/trade acquisitions and another, larger one for drafted/tenured players

widen the courts. at least for every new arena. does the nhl still have different rink dimensions? every baseball field is a little different (including weather!)

go back to 2 FTs for fouls on 3 pt shots. 3 FT is extremely punitive and penalizes defending the 3 pt line

be serious about penalizing flopping. and the euroshuffle (which may be partially responsible for achilles tears). and the shuffle-stepback

forget about load management penalties. no way to realistically do anything. teams need to decide for themselves how to manage their players. and the player needs to decide for HIMself how much sitting hurts his image, his conditioning and future contract potential. league and players need to decide how long the season should be/how much time between games

eliminate max salary

I like the 2 ft's on 3pt shots.

For lottery, I think that teams rotate getting one of the top 3 picks so that they get one of each every 30 years and one of them every 10 years. Then the lottery continues otherwise as normal. Teams will think twice about tanking for #4, but it will still help bad teams a little more.

I would also do away with the complicated salary matching rules on trades as long as teams operate within the cap.

I would also add the amnesty rule for teams to be able to jettison a contract every 4 years. They still need to pay the guy, but it no longer counts against the cap/tax.

[econprof]

You could keep everything as it is on the court and just change the point allowance for scoring. Make two point shots worth four and three point shots worth five. Free throws are worth two. Or we could help fans master their fractions by keeping everything the same except making three-pointers worth 2 1/2.

[Ccwatercraft]

Lots of interesting ideas here.

I like the usa vs world, all star game, or go back to E:vs W.

A one on one.. hell yes

One full, one 20 sec timeout last two minutes.

Shot clock 20.

Enforce flopping and non basketball moves with fouls and fines after the.game.(even if no foul called)

[Dan Z]

I have not been watching much lately, but used to watch almost all of the bulls game religiously.

I have pretty much lost interest in today's game with the lack of physicality, and also the tendency of analytics in promoting the 3 point shot. Basketball used to be my favorite sport to watch, its not anymore. I make no effort to catch a game, but will enjoy one if its on and I'm available.

With the improvement percentage all around concerning the three point shot. I think to improve play and interest, the easiest way to do accomplish this, would to move the three point shot out further to encourage the value of both the mid range game, and restore physicality, and value to the inside game. If you have to make the court a bit larger, so be it. (I'm okay with that too).

The NBA should even out the value in shot percentage, so both the two point, and 3 point shot have equal value in the statistics. It would make the game exciting again, and allow different teams to approach the competition in different ways restoring excitement.

I think this is the fundamental problem as a watchable sport, the point values are just skewed. The fact that when Derrick Rose does a double crossover and splits two defenders to attack the rim and meets a center there and still dunks over them is worth 2 points, while Keith Bogans just standing in place all possession and then makes a wide open 3 pointer and Bogans is worth 150% of what Rose did is just fundamentally broken.

The NBA is what you would get if the NFL scored 7 points for a field goal and 3 points for a touchdown. We would see teams just getting into range and it would just turn into a kicker contest of who can make it at longer & longer ranges.

But they're not going to change something this fundamental, it's just not realistic.

I'll take this in another direction....it's frustrating that some players are happy to get a foul and not even try to make a basket while someone like Rose actually goes out of his way to make a difficult drive. Rose should be rewarded for his effort, but I'm not sure how to change that.

The NBA should do better with foul baiting and flopping. That might help.

[MGB8]

A fun experiment to deal w/ the 3 pt spamming issue would be to have the 3 pt shot triggered by a certain number of personal fouls or as a “catch up” factor.

Have shots from the 3 count for 2 (though 3 FT if fouled on the shot), until, say, either the opposing team fouls 10 times (including fouls for flopping) or your team goes down 20, or even say 17 (more than 16). Then opposing team has 3 pt unlocked when either the first team hits 10 fouls or ties game up.

Actually, the more that I think about it, forget the foul part. Just have it be a catch up trigger when down more than 16 so refs can’t dictate. Tie back up turns 3s on for the 2nd team. It would create really interesting strategic choices about not going up more than 16 over an opponent or not….

[bledredwine]

Stop players like ANT from thinking they can be Steph Curry.

[RSP83]

Go back to focusing on teams rather than full-on marketing few players. I honestly hate and tired of overly played "who's the best player", "is he a true franchise player" talks.

Don't force the "Michael Jordan face of the league" formula. It worked great because he's Michael Jordan. Like you see Jayson Tatum getting scrutinized being held to a certain standard. This makes me people not appreciating players for who they are. Since MJ, the media narrative has become too much about, "who's the next messiah?"

I think the mainstream media play crucial role in shaping the product. The problem is they're pushing for more topics that's either has nothing to do with basketball, or the easy click bait topics like "who is GOAT?", "is he better than him?". As long as the focus is on revenue and profit instead of basketball, the product will deteriorate.

[Ice Man]

Go back to focusing on teams rather than full-on marketing few players. I honestly hate and tired of overly played "who's the best player", "is he a true franchise player" talks.

Was it ever different? I am not old enough to remember the Wilt/Russell days, but the mere fact that we often remember the era that way suggests that there was massive discussion about who was better. But I am old enough to remember the league in the Eighties, and that discussion went Larry or Magic, Magic or Larry? And then Jordan came to the league and it became, yes Jordan is flashy but he's not as good as Larry/Magic because they win rings and he just collects stats. Then the Bulls won some titles and it became OK now Jordan is the best in the league but I don't know if he was better than those guys when they were in their prime. And then he won more titles and it became OK now Jordan is the best ever.