Around the League: 2022-23 Season 3.0

[Jailblazers7]

Honesty, this is all our fault (fans + media). We’ve all been telling players that only playoffs/rings matter so they’ve prioritized those moments. Now they rest & avoid injury whenever possible because they want to be ready for the games they’ll actually be judged for.

[Kobblehead]

the league needs to actually showcase ALL the teams.

They have the same 8 teams on every national game spot....even when said teams aren't any good. The old guard are on their way out and none of the new guard has risen to that level. When Bron and Curry are out who will lead the way? Giannis might but IDK he comes off a fake and is too freakish to be the headliner. Jokic and Luka don't have the personality. Ja is a moron. Zion is always hurt. So in place of having THE GUY they need to make it so every team is represented...and they have not done that

The League effed up SOOOOO bad with the national televised games over the last handful of years.

They put on all the mercenary superteams (Nets, Lakers, Clippers) who have all sucked and had dudes sit out and not play most of the time. And they put the Pelicans on because of Zion and he's missed nearly all of those games, like you mentioned.

[76ciology]

Honesty, this is all our fault (fans + media). We’ve all been telling players that only playoffs/rings matter so they’ve prioritized those moments. Now they rest & avoid injury whenever possible because they want to be ready for the games they’ll actually be judged for.

I think its because of sports science. Back then nobody is telling players to sit out games because by not doing so they’ll lose something like 20% of their career which translates to $100M of loses. And in effect you get guys playing up till around their 40s and earning enough money to buy a franchise when they retire.

[76ciology]

Regarding load management and reg season being crap, I think you let it be and let “market efficiency” play its role.

The trend right now is most teams have a “maxey” type (in terms of role) as a player whether its Brogdon with the Celts, Quickely with the Knicks, Hyland was with the Nuggets, Coby White with the Bulls, Okogie is with the Suns, Bouknight will be with the Hornets, Cam Thomas with the Nets, Sharpe is with the Blazers, Poole with the Warriors and so on.. that they can stay competitive even when their top players sit out.

Back then only those who are blessed can be scorers, but nowadays scorers are abundant. Yes, they may not be as good as Durant. But teams like the Jazz can play collectively with a bunch of 2-3 16-20ppg scorers and play team ball to beat a heliocentric type basketball.

The way things are going.. game becoming easier while talent is becoming abundant (thanks for guys having skill coaches when they’re young and analytics), the load management can showcase more talents.

And if Biid or someone keep sitting out games, then he’s at risk for someone like Maxey to steal our job as our franchise player. Steal your money with the limited cap space and so on.

And if your franchise player walks away, see Nets and Jazz, while you lose all your picks after trading all of them for your win-now move, you can still compete with a bunch of mediocre 16-20ppg players and play team ball.

Overall the top teams get stronger while the mediocre teams and the feeder teams get stronger

[Eyeamok]

Nate has had more success in the playoffs with Atlanta than Doc has with the 76ers. And he designed the defensive scheme that broke Ben Simmons.

[DCasey91]

It isn’t just the NBA at fault it’s the game itself. Games are by design no matter how difficult made to be broken. In fact if you don’t break it you ain’t doing it right.

It doesn’t help that the commission has soften the rules every year to make it so defence is highly comprised. Add on to the final realisation that 3>>>>2 or a 66+% return then you have a major problem on your hands.

Baseball for example went the other way. The “shift” strategy as been there for decades (same as 3 point spam) but that caught on fast because it’s a death trap for left handers. It ending being broken and rules changes had to be made because it was so bad aesthetically.

NBA personally has to restructure everything.

Some things are just unbeatable it’s as simple as that as every game is flawed by design.

Basketball has been nowhere near the quality since 2019 FIBA champs imo. In fact Fiba rules is exactly what basketball is supposed to be. NBA is just a business model that’s diluted to the masses with now less and less dividends.

Kind of like Netflix in a way. People just get sick of it after awhile.

[Skates]

RJ Hampton to the Pistons makes sense, reminds me of the Process days when guys like that would be top of our radar.

[76ciology]

It isn’t just the NBA at fault it’s the game itself. Games are by design no matter how difficult made to be broken. In fact if you don’t break it you ain’t doing it right.

It doesn’t help that the commission has soften the rules every year to make it so defence is highly comprised. Add on to the final realisation that 3>>>>2 or a 66+% return then you have a major problem on your hands.

Baseball for example went the other way. The “shift” strategy as been there for decades (same as 3 point spam) but that caught on fast because it’s a death trap for left handers. It ending being broken and rules changes had to be made because it was so bad aesthetically.

NBA personally has to restructure everything.

Some things are just unbeatable it’s as simple as that as every game is flawed by design.

Basketball has been nowhere near the quality since 2019 FIBA champs imo. In fact Fiba rules is exactly what basketball is supposed to be. NBA is just a business model that’s diluted to the masses with now less and less dividends.

Kind of like Netflix in a way. People just get sick of it after awhile.

All the tweaks the league made was to put pressure to players and teams to evolve into another level.

For instance, making it easier to score puts pressure for defense to evolve (be more switchable? Play hybrid man and zone? Double big? Double big and a lanky guy with length at the 3?) and for scorers to be more efficient (TS%? 40pts more regular than before?).

If I would have to guess, the end goal is for parity.

Maybe we’ll see more superstar-less squad being as successful as teams with superstars in the future, by a group of switchable players on defense and multiple 20ppg scorers like the Orlando Magic?

Think of how close Raps were in beating us last season despite us having an edge lopsidedly in talent.

Then I think with talent becoming an arms race, teams will have to adapt by not just handing out max contracts easily for you need a deep team to compete. I.E Harden taking a paycut for Tucker and Warriors experiencing the consequence of their high payroll.

If the league didn’t made those tweaks and played FIBA style basketball.. the game will be stale with a lot of post ups (post offense having higher ppp over perimeter ISO given without handcheck or freedom of movement/landing for perimeter players) and zone defense like college basketball.

It will be a slow death. Rather than what we have now were teams and players are pushing the envelope. You get guys like Mikal Bridges dropping 45pts which will put pressure on KD to drop 50-60pts. Than will put pressure on defense to do a better job and prevent role player like Mikal to be able to drop 45pts.

And when defense can’t keep up. Then you get teams realizing.. we dont need KD or Kyrie, we can just let guys like Mikal and Cam Thomas lead our offense and those two can have more scoring skill than Giannis and Middleton.

I think the environment we’re in is best for the league. It’s just we’re used to how the game is played before where defense is more powerful than now that everything seems so superficial. Eventually, the best of the best will evolve as long as it’s applied pressure.

“It is said that the best horses lose when they compete with slower ones, and win against better rivals. Undercompensation from the absence of a stressor, inverse hormesis, absence of challenge, degrades the best of the best.”

[mjkvol]

Regarding load management and reg season being crap, I think you let it be and let “market efficiency” play its role.

The trend right now is most teams have a “maxey” type (in terms of role) as a player whether its Brogdon with the Celts, Quickely with the Knicks, Hyland was with the Nuggets, Coby White with the Bulls, Okogie is with the Suns, Bouknight will be with the Hornets, Cam Thomas with the Nets, Sharpe is with the Blazers, Poole with the Warriors and so on.. that they can stay competitive even when their top players sit out.

Back then only those who are blessed can be scorers, but nowadays scorers are abundant. Yes, they may not be as good as Durant. But teams like the Jazz can play collectively with a bunch of 2-3 16-20ppg scorers and play team ball to beat a heliocentric type basketball.

The way things are going.. game becoming easier while talent is becoming abundant (thanks for guys having skill coaches when they’re young and analytics), the load management can showcase more talents.

And if Biid or someone keep sitting out games, then he’s at risk for someone like Maxey to steal our job as our franchise player. Steal your money with the limited cap space and so on.

And if your franchise player walks away, see Nets and Jazz, while you lose all your picks after trading all of them for your win-now move, you can still compete with a bunch of mediocre 16-20ppg players and play team ball.

Overall the top teams get stronger while the mediocre teams and the feeder teams get stronger

Many good points there, but you also explained why ratings are cratering and will continue to crater as the big stars get older and retire. Much like the late '90's after Jordan until Kobe, Shaq, James, Curry, Durant et al revived the league, you had a drought of starpower, and it is starpower that brings in casual viewers, which is where the money is.

Hardcore fans like us are taken for granted because we'll watch those kinds of middling teams with young talent, but if the top stars aren't 'replaced', overall viewership and attendance will continue to fall off. Idiotic gimmicks like "all star weekend" or mid-season tournaments are seen through by most people as just that, but it's stars and rivalries that create interest and bring in new fans.

Really, what James started with the player empowerment stuff is detrimental to all except the better players and a handful of desirable franchise locations, but that genie left the bottle long ago and isn't about to abate anytime soon.

[mjkvol]

Baseball for example went the other way. The “shift” strategy as been there for decades (same as 3 point spam) but that caught on fast because it’s a death trap for left handers. It ending being broken and rules changes had to be made because it was so bad aesthetically.

Rule changes to make games "shorter" or "more exciting" rarely help the sport draw more viewers, like the silly man on second to start extra innings in MLB, or now the pitch clock and shift ban. These kinds of rule changes are band aids when what is needed is major surgery in many cases.

You're exactly right that games are made to be broken, which is exactly what has happened in all the major sports as very smart people figure a way around any rule and acquire talent to enact their strategies. Pro leagues (and major college sports) are copycat by nature, and soon everyone has broken the game, and more rules have to be piled on.

Let's be very honest - if it wasn't for the complete acceptance of sports gambling, virtually every league would be in cardiac arrest at this point. Gambling has taken over every sport, and is heavily promoted in pre- and post-game as well as during events. You don't even need viewers or attendance for that revenue to roll in, as it is like an annuity that keeps growing.

Problem is, these leagues are businesses first and foremost with owners that are businessmen more than sports fans, and the goal of businesses is constant growth, which can only be achieved at this point with more and more things that have nothing to do with improving the sport or making them affordable and enjoyable for ordinary fans.

This is driving many lifelong sports fans (like me) to cut the cord and just stop watching or going to games. But the emphasis has not been on us for a long time, never more than now as the focus is clearly on the #1 cash cow - gambling revenue and how to expand that.

[mjkvol]

It isn’t just the NBA at fault it’s the game itself. Games are by design no matter how difficult made to be broken. In fact if you don’t break it you ain’t doing it right.

It doesn’t help that the commission has soften the rules every year to make it so defence is highly comprised. Add on to the final realisation that 3>>>>2 or a 66+% return then you have a major problem on your hands.

Baseball for example went the other way. The “shift” strategy as been there for decades (same as 3 point spam) but that caught on fast because it’s a death trap for left handers. It ending being broken and rules changes had to be made because it was so bad aesthetically.

NBA personally has to restructure everything.

Some things are just unbeatable it’s as simple as that as every game is flawed by design.

Basketball has been nowhere near the quality since 2019 FIBA champs imo. In fact Fiba rules is exactly what basketball is supposed to be. NBA is just a business model that’s diluted to the masses with now less and less dividends.

Kind of like Netflix in a way. People just get sick of it after awhile.

All the tweaks the league made was to put pressure to players and teams to evolve into another level.

For instance, making it easier to score puts pressure for defense to evolve (be more switchable? Play hybrid man and zone? Double big? Double big and a lanky guy with length at the 3?) and for scorers to be more efficient (TS%? 40pts more regular than before?).

If I would have to guess, the end goal is for parity.

Maybe we’ll see more superstar-less squad being as successful as teams with superstars in the future, by a group of switchable players on defense and multiple 20ppg scorers like the Orlando Magic?

Think of how close Raps were in beating us last season despite us having an edge lopsidedly in talent.

Then I think with talent becoming an arms race, teams will have to adapt by not just handing out max contracts easily for you need a deep team to compete. I.E Harden taking a paycut for Tucker and Warriors experiencing the consequence of their high payroll.

If the league didn’t made those tweaks and played FIBA style basketball.. the game will be stale with a lot of post ups (post offense having higher ppp over perimeter ISO given without handcheck or freedom of movement/landing for perimeter players) and zone defense like college basketball.

It will be a slow death. Rather than what we have now were teams and players are pushing the envelope. You get guys like Mikal Bridges dropping 45pts which will put pressure on KD to drop 50-60pts. Than will put pressure on defense to do a better job and prevent role player like Mikal to be able to drop 45pts.

And when defense can’t keep up. Then you get teams realizing.. we dont need KD or Kyrie, we can just let guys like Mikal and Cam Thomas lead our offense and those two can have more scoring skill than Giannis and Middleton.

I think the environment we’re in is best for the league. It’s just we’re used to how the game is played before where defense is more powerful than now that everything seems so superficial. Eventually, the best of the best will evolve as long as it’s applied pressure.

“It is said that the best horses lose when they compete with slower ones, and win against better rivals. Undercompensation from the absence of a stressor, inverse hormesis, absence of challenge, degrades the best of the best.”

When you say these changes in the sport are "for the best", you're speaking as a hardcore hoops junkie, which is not ans has not been the target audience of pro sports leagues for a long, long time now. Guys that will tune in out of love of the sport are taken completely for granted by the powers that be.

Without star power, leagues will need to resort to gimmicks to keep people engaged. A league of parity with faceless teams playing "the right way" won't bring the casual sports fan to the game, and without that the league will die a slow death.

That's where gambling comes to play, because even people that don't give a rat's ass about the sport for the most part will gamble, and that is where the emphasis is heading more and more. Creating more gimmicks and ways to bet is a lot easier than finding the next Curry, Durant, Kawhi, Embiid, etc.

[Jailblazers7]

There’s no way that we’re about to enter an era of parity where superstars become less important. The biggest edge in sports is having an true MVP-level NBA superstar because their on-court value dwarfs the max contract. That’s not going to change any time soon and you can already see it playing out with Luka. He’s too damn good and can elevate even a subpar team.

[snoopy13]

Players get rest days to miss regular season games but they can play in the all star game that means nothing is a joke

[mjkvol]

Players get rest days to miss regular season games but they can play in the all star game that means nothing is a joke

Pretty simple, really. They still get paid for games they sit out for rest, but they don't get the huge bonus in most contracts if they sit out the all-star game. It all comes back to the one thing that truly matters in all this.

[mjkvol]

There’s no way that we’re about to enter an era of parity where superstars become less important. The biggest edge in sports is having an true MVP-level NBA superstar because their on-court value dwarfs the max contract. That’s not going to change any time soon and you can already see it playing out with Luka. He’s too damn good and can elevate even a subpar team.

No doubt, but can Luka or Jokic be the face of the league to casual fans the way Curry and James have been? That's the question, and if the answer is no then the league has a problem.

[Negrodamus]

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/270588/Bronny-James-Tabbed-As-Top-10-Pick-In-ESPNs-First-2024-NBA-Mock-Draft

I hope he ends up a superstar. God, there are some haters in this comment section, lol.

[Jailblazers7]

There’s no way that we’re about to enter an era of parity where superstars become less important. The biggest edge in sports is having an true MVP-level NBA superstar because their on-court value dwarfs the max contract. That’s not going to change any time soon and you can already see it playing out with Luka. He’s too damn good and can elevate even a subpar team.

No doubt, but can Luka or Jokic be the face of the league to casual fans the way Curry and James have been? That's the question, and if the answer is no then the league has a problem.

I think that depends heavily on sneaker company marketing & sales. Personally, Luka & Zion made a massive error signing with Jordan Brand because they’ll always be in MJ’s shadow.

Giannis is probably the bridge until another star takes the reigns. Ja Morant is the one with huge potential & could be the face of the league or at least a counter culture icon. It’ll be interesting to see how his signature shoe does & how heavily Nike invests in him.

If I were placing bets, I think there will be a void for 5-6 years after Lebron (similar to the void Jordan left). Ja or LaMelo could potentially be a youth icon like Iverson was to bridge the gap until the next true generational marketing star comes along.

[Bum Adebayo]

Tatum is already that kind of player, he is american, a wing and is already the best player in the league, don't understand why he isn't more hyped.

[Jailblazers7]

Tatum is quiet, corny, and doesn’t even have his own signature shoe. He’s a Kobe clone who was already an MJ clone, it’s boring and played out by now.

If I were an agent, I’d never let my client sign with Jordan. Can’t be the face of the league if you’re always gonna be the 2nd biggest name at your own shoe company.

[SixthStreet]

There’s no way that we’re about to enter an era of parity where superstars become less important. The biggest edge in sports is having an true MVP-level NBA superstar because their on-court value dwarfs the max contract. That’s not going to change any time soon and you can already see it playing out with Luka. He’s too damn good and can elevate even a subpar team.

That’s why my fix for the NBA is very simple and straightforward. No cap on individual player salaries and no contracts more than 3 years. If someone wants to fix their cap sheet and prepare an offer to Doncic 3 yr, $300mil go for it. It’ll end the era of super teams because the real stars will have far too much monetary incentive to be on a team with only one mega contract.

I think the effective distribution of star players is the only real fix. The NBA has tried that with contract structure and Bird rights and tiered max salaries but as the last few years have shown none of that crap matters when someone who is drastically underpaid at the arbitrary max (I.e real stars) wants out.