Game 8: Bucks at Clips - 9:00 - FSN/ESPN - Kawhi Out

[Chuck Diesel]

You can’t keep charging exorbitant prices for a “meaningless product.” Sooner or later the consumer will smarten up. Ratings indicate that’s already happening.

[MickeyDavis]

Eliminating back to backs would be great but extending an already way too long season is not good either. Cutting back to 60 games or even 70 would be great but will never happen.

[DingleJerry]

The one lockout year was 66. you'd have 4 vs your division. Two vs everyone else in that scenario. It would make it a completely balanced schedule then as well. It's just never going to happen though, no way they give up the revenue and it messes with stats.

Maybe one that is so small it could happen would be to go to 76. 4 vs division. 2 vs other conference. 3 vs same conf other divisions. It would just eliminate the 6 extra games vs same conference opponents that currently unbalances the schedules. Only remaining imbalance would be on who you get 2/3 homes vs with same conference opponents.

Eliminate divisions and it changes things, I don't want to think about the math and all that then.

As Ron said though, even with this they're still going to load balance. For me, I'd prefer it just to increase the value a smidge on reg season games and speed things up and get to the playoffs.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

meh... people will still see plenty of kawhi this year in the regular season. we should take a lesson and rest our guys more. season is 82 games and for contenders there is only one mission and that mission has not a damn thing to do with a game in november. strategies for your veterans that give lots of mental and physical rest in nba and baseball makes sense. giving bigger oppurtunites to younger players to progress and get minutes in big regular season games pays off later too

[BuckFan25226]

meh... people will still see plenty of kawhi this year in the regular season. we should take a lesson and rest our guys more. season is 82 games and for contenders there is only one mission and that mission has not a damn thing to do with a game in november. strategies for your veterans that give lots of mental and physical rest in nba and baseball makes sense. giving bigger oppurtunites to younger players to progress and get minutes in big regular season games pays off later too

Meh?


I think most on this board understand this from a pure basketball perspective. Being that the ultimate goal of winning a championship is more important than an early November Giannis/Kawhi matchup. But the casual NBA fan doesn't. That fan, who has kids with Kawhi Leonard jersey's and posters all over his wall, who possibly just spent hundreds, maybe thousands on tickets to see this. It's complete BS, especially this early in the year. 2nd time in 8 games.

from a business perspective. If I spend a ton of money with ESPN, TNT, or local TV during this game, only to find out he's sitting out, which affects viewerships and ratings, I'm livid. There several different ways that makes this ridiculous. It's not like the dude is 34 with his knees filling up with fluid. I'm glad Doris Burke spoke out on this without toeing the company line.

[M-C-G]

There is a reality of cutting down the number of games will never happen and here it is; let's say 12,000 people per game and for fun say the average ticket is about $40 (though I suspect it is much, much higher). Let's say each person spends $12 on soda and pretzel (I'd suspect this is also much, much higher).

That is $624,000 of revenue per game, and again, I think that is on the absolute bottom end with all those estimates. I suspect it could be over a million of revenue per game, maybe higher. So if you cut down 10 games, you'd be talking about losing 6-10M dollars of revenue, it just aint happening.

The league fought this battle against Popovich and lost, many years ago. It is what it is now and if they try to penalize the teams, the coaches will just start using vague injuries to give a guy a rest.

[MickeyDavis]

meh... people will still see plenty of kawhi this year in the regular season. we should take a lesson and rest our guys more. season is 82 games and for contenders there is only one mission and that mission has not a damn thing to do with a game in november. strategies for your veterans that give lots of mental and physical rest in nba and baseball makes sense. giving bigger oppurtunites to younger players to progress and get minutes in big regular season games pays off later too

Sure I'll have plenty of opportunities to watch Kawhi play this season. But not against my team. That matters not only to casual fans but to all fans.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

meh... people will still see plenty of kawhi this year in the regular season. we should take a lesson and rest our guys more. season is 82 games and for contenders there is only one mission and that mission has not a damn thing to do with a game in november. strategies for your veterans that give lots of mental and physical rest in nba and baseball makes sense. giving bigger oppurtunites to younger players to progress and get minutes in big regular season games pays off later too

Meh?


I think most on this board understand this from a pure basketball perspective. Being that the ultimate goal of winning a championship is more important than an early November Giannis/Kawhi matchup. But the casual NBA fan doesn't. That fan, who has kids with Kawhi Leonard jersey's and posters all over his wall, who possibly just spent hundreds, maybe thousands on tickets to see this. It's complete BS, especially this early in the year. 2nd time in 8 games.

from a business perspective. If I spend a ton of money with ESPN, TNT, or local TV during this game, only to find out he's sitting out, which affects viewerships and ratings, I'm livid. There several different ways that makes this ridiculous. It's not like the dude is 34 with his knees filling up with fluid. I'm glad Doris Burke spoke out on this without toeing the company line.

then the casual fan needs to get it and dad needs to explain it. basketball players may not play 82 games maybe only 60. pitchers dont get 500 innings anymore. maybe 200. these guys make 30-40-50 million dollars a year to win championships and career longevity is a HUUUUGE concern. kawhi gets hurt or ends his career then that kid doesn't want to come to ANY games.

bottom line is the dad needs to teach the kid and tell him not to throw a **** fit. go root for shamet and the other young guys and talk up how exciting its going to be in april and may for years to come

[Chuck Diesel]

You can’t “talk up” a clearly inferior product. There’s an obvious visceral thing when the best players in basketball are missing from a game. It’s lying to yourself and everyone else to say watching Mo Harkless is as satisfying as watching Kawhi. Promises of an “exciting playoffs” only undercut the current inferior product you’re paying top dollar for.

[Rockmaninoff]

meh... people will still see plenty of kawhi this year in the regular season. we should take a lesson and rest our guys more. season is 82 games and for contenders there is only one mission and that mission has not a damn thing to do with a game in november. strategies for your veterans that give lots of mental and physical rest in nba and baseball makes sense. giving bigger oppurtunites to younger players to progress and get minutes in big regular season games pays off later too

Meh?


I think most on this board understand this from a pure basketball perspective. Being that the ultimate goal of winning a championship is more important than an early November Giannis/Kawhi matchup. But the casual NBA fan doesn't. That fan, who has kids with Kawhi Leonard jersey's and posters all over his wall, who possibly just spent hundreds, maybe thousands on tickets to see this. It's complete BS, especially this early in the year. 2nd time in 8 games.

from a business perspective. If I spend a ton of money with ESPN, TNT, or local TV during this game, only to find out he's sitting out, which affects viewerships and ratings, I'm livid. There several different ways that makes this ridiculous. It's not like the dude is 34 with his knees filling up with fluid. I'm glad Doris Burke spoke out on this without toeing the company line.

ESPN and TNT must be livid about stars resting and missing games televised by their networks, so in a sense Doris did toe the company line?

[emunney]

Don't look now but we're tops in the league in SRS again already. #2 offense, #10 defense.

[emunney]

You can’t “talk up” a clearly inferior product. There’s an obvious visceral thing when the best players in basketball are missing from a game. It’s lying to yourself and everyone else to say watching Mo Harkless is as satisfying as watching Kawhi. Promises of an “exciting playoffs” only undercut the current inferior product you’re paying top dollar for.

This shouldn't be a shock to the NBA, though. We all agree this is one of the premium matchups in the sport, so why the hell are the Clips on a b2b? This is a scheduling snafu. I don't blame the scheduler, either -- the league should have anticipated this and put it in the requirements. Then if Doc still wants to hide his schemes from us in the RS he at least won't have the cover.

[emunney]

It's not like the dude is 34 with his knees filling up with fluid.

Well he's not 34 anyway

[MickeyDavis]

Meh, Jordan played all 82, averaging 37 minutes in his final season at age 39.

[kid idioteque]

Don't care who's playing. Win the game.

[truly]

Don't look now but we're tops in the league in SRS again already. #2 offense, #10 defense.

Looking good.

Read on Twitter

[aboveAverage]

meh... people will still see plenty of kawhi this year in the regular season. we should take a lesson and rest our guys more. season is 82 games and for contenders there is only one mission and that mission has not a damn thing to do with a game in november. strategies for your veterans that give lots of mental and physical rest in nba and baseball makes sense. giving bigger oppurtunites to younger players to progress and get minutes in big regular season games pays off later too

Meh?


I think most on this board understand this from a pure basketball perspective. Being that the ultimate goal of winning a championship is more important than an early November Giannis/Kawhi matchup. But the casual NBA fan doesn't. That fan, who has kids with Kawhi Leonard jersey's and posters all over his wall, who possibly just spent hundreds, maybe thousands on tickets to see this. It's complete BS, especially this early in the year. 2nd time in 8 games.

from a business perspective. If I spend a ton of money with ESPN, TNT, or local TV during this game, only to find out he's sitting out, which affects viewerships and ratings, I'm livid. There several different ways that makes this ridiculous. It's not like the dude is 34 with his knees filling up with fluid. I'm glad Doris Burke spoke out on this without toeing the company line.

then the casual fan needs to get it and dad needs to explain it. basketball players may not play 82 games maybe only 60. pitchers dont get 500 innings anymore. maybe 200. these guys make 30-40-50 million dollars a year to win championships and career longevity is a HUUUUGE concern. kawhi gets hurt or ends his career then that kid doesn't want to come to ANY games.

bottom line is the dad needs to teach the kid and tell him not to throw a **** fit. go root for shamet and the other young guys and talk up how exciting its going to be in april and may for years to come

Couldn't have said it better myself. Ultimately the goal is to win NBA championships. If casual fan Joe doesn't understand that resting Kawhi or Giannis in November to preserve them for the playoffs is very beneficial to a team's chances of winning an NBA championship, I could care less. It's up to the NBA to figure out how to deal with the problem that the regular season has little meaning and that there are too many games. The coaching staff and the players are there to win a championship, not to make money for ESPN.

[humanrefutation]

I think it should be entirely up to the Clippers whether Kawhi plays or not. I don't like the idea of the NBA meddling in the decisions of a coaching/training staff. I do wish he played tonight, just for the Giannis/Kawhi matchup. But the Clippers are invested in their own long-term success, and if that is helped even a tiny bit by having Kawhi rest from time to time, then I understand the rationale for them choosing to do so.

[DingleJerry]

You can’t “talk up” a clearly inferior product. There’s an obvious visceral thing when the best players in basketball are missing from a game. It’s lying to yourself and everyone else to say watching Mo Harkless is as satisfying as watching Kawhi. Promises of an “exciting playoffs” only undercut the current inferior product you’re paying top dollar for.

Sure, but is easily explained away in a sport like baseball. It's an inferior product when Strasburg/Scherzer aren't starting for the Nats, but everyone gets it as part of the game that they can't play every day. Same here. It'll just come with time.

[Chuck Diesel]

You can’t “talk up” a clearly inferior product. There’s an obvious visceral thing when the best players in basketball are missing from a game. It’s lying to yourself and everyone else to say watching Mo Harkless is as satisfying as watching Kawhi. Promises of an “exciting playoffs” only undercut the current inferior product you’re paying top dollar for.

Sure, but is not easily explained away in a sport like baseball. It's an inferior product when Strasburg/Scherzer aren't starting for the Nats, but everyone gets it as part of the game that they can't play every day. Same here. It'll just come with time.

Ethan Strauss of The Athletic had a take on this exact comparison that I wholeheartedly agree with. If you watch a single baseball game, it’s not immediately or obviously apparent who the best players are. You can’t tell what a guy’s overall bating average by his few at bats or or who the best pitcher is by that single game. With NBA basketball there’s an instant gravity and focus towards the stars. You know right away that Lebron or Giannis or Kawhi is the best player on the court and everything revolves around them. That’s why I disagree the NBA will seamlessly follow the MLB’s model in time.