Adam Silver Can’t Fix the Biggest Thing Holding Back the NBA

[Deivork]

Interesting article by Jonathan Tjarks on parity, conference realignment, and tanking. I think he's on point with these issues. We often discuss those probably too romantically here on Realgm when at the end of the day the rules are imposed by the owners.

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2017/8/8/16109744/owners-conference-realignment-adam-silver

I thought it was worth sharing. Some extracts:

If Silver were in charge, the playoff format would have changed a while ago. It was one of the first things he addressed as the commissioner, saying the two-conference structure was no longer necessary now that NBA teams fly charter instead of commercial. A year later, he went on record saying that the conference imbalance needed to be fixed. He’s still talking about it in 2017, but he has conceded that it’s no longer “at the top of the agenda,” raising many of the same travel issues he had previously dismissed.

The Donald Sterling saga in 2014, which happened in Silver’s first few months on the job, made Silver appear as someone who would stand up to the owners, but forcing out Sterling was not a matter of social justice outweighing business considerations. The two were working in concert. The Clippers play in one of the biggest markets in the country; they should be one of the NBA’s flagship franchises, not a laughingstock, and they should be generating revenue that can be shared with other owners.

A franchise needs to sell hope on a year-to-year basis. If a team wins fewer than 20 games in a season, they aren’t going to attract any good free agents, and they almost certainly don’t have many players that other teams would want in trades. The only way they can get fans into the arena the following season is with a high draft pick, so a system that makes it harder for them to get those picks is going to create more hopelessness around the league.

There are plenty of cracks in the NBA’s economic model, and they will likely get deeper in the years to come. As Mark Cuban pointed out when talking about why the conference system should be changed, there’s less incentive for teams in the East to get better because the bar for making the playoffs and winning a series or two is much lower.

[vxmike]

Cubans argument is silly. Since the East is so weak we should be seeing more marginal contenders go "all in" for a Finals or ECF run they'd never sniff out West.

The East sucks due to bad owners and management exacerbating a down trend in the natural cycle.

[clyde21]

These artificial conference and divisional alignments need to die a quick death. They're completely arbitrary and irrelevant now.

[Pablo Novi]

Cubans argument is silly. Since the East is so weak we should be seeing more marginal contenders go "all in" for a Finals or ECF run they'd never sniff out West.

The East sucks due to bad owners and management exacerbating a down trend in the natural cycle.

"'California Girls Syndrome', The West ... Has The Sunshine & The Girls All Get So Tan"
I don't think any legitimate argument can be made about supposed "bad owners and management" in the East - NOT for a TWENTY YEAR PERIOD. (It seems to me that they SEEM worse NOT because they ARE worse; but because players, generally, would rather be somewhere else.)

Same for "down trend in the natural cycle". There's nothing "natural" about the Leastern down trend.

What does that leave as the #1 factor in the West being so much stronger than the Least for so long?
I'd guess it comes down to the WEATHER. Why would millionaire-players want to live / hang out in cold climes when there's the "California Girls" enticement, " (on both the West Coast & in Texas): highly hormonized young guys seeing girls that get so tan (and more scantily clad).

I just can't see anything else being so influential. After all, with cities (decidedly) further apart in the West, there's extra travel time constantly (for INTRA-Conference games) - a discomfort that's a competitive disadvantage too.

[ImHeisenberg]

Generally agree with the excerpts from the article. The 16 best teams should be in the playoffs, period.

But, it looks like nothing will ever happen there, as East owners certainly want no change on that front.

[THE J0KER]

...it takes a two-thirds majority vote from the league’s owners to make any changes to the playoff format...

With such rule, I can't see how change is possible. Even if all West teams vote, you need at least 5 teams from East to allow format change, and why any of them would vote against own interests? Playing in a much weaker conference is Bless for every single Eastern team.

[bulliedog8]

The current format actually hurts the east and strengthens the west. If I am an east owner, I vote for top 16. If I am the west, I dont.

[celtics543]

Changing the playoff format would actually make the Eastern Conference stronger in the end. If you just take the top 16 teams then the lottery will be filled with Eastern teams that normally would've been the 8th or 7th seed, slowly making the East stronger by giving them more lottery picks. It actually works out for the East as well, so really owners should vote for it for long term success of struggling Eastern Conference treadmill teams.

[dhsilv2]

Cubans argument is silly. Since the East is so weak we should be seeing more marginal contenders go "all in" for a Finals or ECF run they'd never sniff out West.

The East sucks due to bad owners and management exacerbating a down trend in the natural cycle.

"'California Girls Syndrome', The West ... Has The Sunshine & The Girls All Get So Tan"
I don't think any legitimate argument can be made about supposed "bad owners and management" in the East - NOT for a TWENTY YEAR PERIOD. (It seems to me that they SEEM worse NOT because they ARE worse; but because players, generally, would rather be somewhere else.)

Same for "down trend in the natural cycle". There's nothing "natural" about the Leastern down trend.

What does that leave as the #1 factor in the West being so much stronger than the Least for so long?
I'd guess it comes down to the WEATHER. Why would millionaire-players want to live / hang out in cold climes when there's the "California Girls" enticement, " (on both the West Coast & in Texas): highly hormonized young guys seeing girls that get so tan (and more scantily clad).

I just can't see anything else being so influential. After all, with cities (decidedly) further apart in the West, there's extra travel time constantly (for INTRA-Conference games) - a discomfort that's a competitive disadvantage too.

Who has drafted well in the east? Sure there have been some big names that landed in the east, but the best drafting organizations seem to be in the west. The warriors, Thunder, Spurs, suns even. These teams all seem to draft extremely well and have been doing so far a while. Then the draft day deals, maybe I'm forgetting some east wins, but Dirk Leonard both jump out at east west draft day deals that grossly favored the west.

[Black Jack]

Cubans argument is silly. Since the East is so weak we should be seeing more marginal contenders go "all in" for a Finals or ECF run they'd never sniff out West.

The East sucks due to bad owners and management exacerbating a down trend in the natural cycle.

The East sucks due to GREEDY eastern owners. Exhibit A, your teams' owner who just gave away a star and sold a pick to the Warriors that turned out to be a promising prospect in one offseason. Bulls ownership is a perfect example of greedy Eastern owners who don't care about winning.

West owners are tech money and more interest in winning.

[Mik317]

Bad Ownership plays a major role in the East's ...uh struggles. Many of them are cheap, have other vetures that they care about more (often other sports teams), stupid or incompetent...or worse...satisfied with the status quo. I mean the best team in the conference's owner has often meddled and alienated folks...and is allegedly doing it again. hell, I am pretty pro process but Josh Harris is a spineless wimp regardless of where you stand on that debate (either he allowed Hinkie to do as he pleased or he was too much of a pussy that the NBA had to get involved and was able to basically take over...or both). Wizards fans often complain about their FO's being satisfied with just hanging around. The Bulls fans have complained about their own caring more about the White Sox. And the Knicks....have Dolan. Ever since Sterling got the boot, many of the peeps who could vie for worst owner probably reside in the East sadly. The good owners/FO are the Heat, The Celtics (fu Ainge doe..../salt), and until this offseason, the Cavs. With the Raptors sneaking in there (they have other issues to overcome). Out west its easier to name the "bad" ones and thats mainly due to age and the game passing them by more than anything (Sarver's cheapness isn't the reason for the Suns slide).

So it plays a role...BUT its not the whole picture. Location is also key...New York and Miami are pretty much the only destination cities (off the top of my head) in the Eastern Conference...the Nets are stuck in purgatory and the Knicks....are the Knicks. Philly isn't a destination IMO despite its size..and the rep of the fans probably hurts too. Same goes for Boston but for racial reasons. The West has LA, Houston, Dallas, San Fran. Even their small markets are in rather nice ass places (if not cold as **** or barren outside of that lol) like Salt Lake City, Portland, and Minneapolis. As a young millionaire, that plays a role in where one would want to spend a large chunk of their lives at.

This is why the draft is so important tho...these teams can't be messing up the chance to at least have a "see we can win" selling chip to hold against other suitors come FA time...so it does eventually come back to good ownership/FO.

[Cavsfansince84]

Three things I would change as commish in the first week:
1. No more rewarding tanking. I'd do a straight up draft lotto with one ball for the 14th place team, 2 for the 13th etc with no pick protection whatsoever for the bottom teams. Tanking has been taken way too far in the last 5 years.
2. Make any fouls called in the last minute be unacceptable by the team they are called on. This both would shorten the ends of games greatly and not turn them into the boring ft fests they can be now. If you are down 1 with 24 seconds to go and the other team has the ball then you lost. No more making the final minute last 15 minutes.
3. Shorten season to 76 games. Less b2b's, no more 4 games in 5 nights ever. Eliminate a few preseason games and lengthen season by a week.

[Zaschrona]

Way bigger problem is tanking. The solution is clear: expand the play-offs. Teams placed 5 to 12 in both conferences should play a pre-round. And then change draft order of teams. Pre-lottery: the first and second pick goes to both 15th placed teams in their conference according to their records, then select their picks both 14th placed teams, etc. Then conferences should not be a problem longterm.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Three conferences of 2 divisions
Boston
Brooklyn
New York
Philadelphia
Washington

Toronto
Cleveland
Chicago
Indiana
Detroit
.......................
Atlanta
Miami
Charlotte
Orlando
Memphis

San Antonio
Houston
Dallas
Oklahoma City
New Orleans

......................

Pheonix
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Golden State
Sacramento

Portland
Utah
Denver
Minnesota
Milwaukee

Division Winner plays Division 2nd place and then plays the winner from the other division in their conference.
But their is a wild card conference. The teams with the 2nd best record in their division get an option of playing in the wild card conference instead of playing their division winner. In which case the 3rd best team in the division faces the best team in the division.
If a division Winner chooses to play in the wild card conference thatey can play in the wild card conference and the second place team takes the place of the 1st place team in the division.

Any available spots in the wild card conference will be taken by the remaining teams with the best records.

The team with the best record in the league gets to choice what conference winner they play when only the 4 conference champions remain.

Have a heavily unbalanced schedule. Only play the teams outside your division twice in the regular season.

I am favoring division rivalries over exposure to all the league's stars.
But I am also arranging for the two best teams to meet in the finals.
Also teams get to escape from strong divisions and strong conferences by choosing to play in the wild card conference.

There still are 16 playoff teams but they will most likely be the best 16 teams or at worst 15 of the best 16 teams.

...................
Also there will be less travel.
The worst negative is that I separated Milwaulkie from Chicago.

[Pointgod]

Cubans argument is silly. Since the East is so weak we should be seeing more marginal contenders go "all in" for a Finals or ECF run they'd never sniff out West.

The East sucks due to bad owners and management exacerbating a down trend in the natural cycle.

Actually it makes perfect sense. The futility of the East means the teams need to do less to get further. The reason they don't go all in is that Cleveland is still far and ahead of everyone else in the East that they're better off waiting for the Cavs to grow old.

Geting rid of the conferences or realignment will create more parity.

[Pablo Novi]

These artificial conference and divisional alignments need to die a quick death. They're completely arbitrary and irrelevant now.

For years now, I've been "calling for" the Commish to abolish the Conferences (particularly for Play-Off team selections and seeding). Let's make it much more fair for teams to make it to the Finals. Let's maximize the chances of the two best teams meeting in the Finals; rather than in the Western Conference Finals.

[YaBoyKD]

...it takes a two-thirds majority vote from the league’s owners to make any changes to the playoff format...

With such rule, I can't see how change is possible. Even if all West teams vote, you need at least 5 teams from East to allow format change, and why any of them would vote against own interests? Playing in a much weaker conference is Bless for every single Eastern team.

Like the two guys right after you said, the Eastern conference benefits from a change to top 16, at least in the long run. A 36-46 team making the playoffs will generate an extra 10 million or whatever because of the four games, but being in the lottery and drafting a strong, exciting player that can help to get a better regular record will increase attendance just as much and if they're good enough they can get you even deeper into the playoffs for even more revenue.

[OldCeltics]

Adam Silver is a bafoon. He has no idea what he's doing. He thinks that super teams cannot be avoided, and aren't a problem. Off course they can be avoided.

[NZB2323]

Adam Silver works for the owners. He doesn't have unlimited power, and is hampered by what the owners approve. He can't just make changes.

[Cavsfansince84]

Adam Silver works for the owners. He doesn't have unlimited power, and is hampered by what the owners approve. He can't just make changes.

True but for the most part the owners seem to be backing w/e changes he wants to make.