OT - Shams: NBA ASG to feature new tournament

[MalagaBulls]

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Thoughts?

[League Circles]

What a weird idea. What the hell are they going to do when the number of all stars from usa and world isn't a nice 16/8 split?

[DuckIII]

Did they add a rule that players will play team basketball, defense and try to win?

[Ice Man]

Did they add a rule that players will play team basketball, defense and try to win?

Yep. Until that happens, all these ASG tweaks are strawberry icing on a cigarette-flavored donut.

[DuckIII]

Did they add a rule that players will play team basketball, defense and try to win?

Yep. Until that happens, all these ASG tweaks are strawberry icing on a cigarette-flavored donut.

Right. The reason people don’t watch is because it’s not basketball. Make it basketball, problem solved.

But I get it obviously. The money is too great for the players to go hard at each other in the middle of the season. So there really is no solution. It’s just always going to suck.

[DuckIII]

What a weird idea. What the hell are they going to do when the number of all stars from usa and world isn't a nice 16/8 split?

Pretty soon the 16 part of that will be the international part.

[League Circles]

What a weird idea. What the hell are they going to do when the number of all stars from usa and world isn't a nice 16/8 split?

Pretty soon the 16 part of that will be the international part.

Exactly. Gotta be a weird dynamic in the nbapa between US and foreign players.

[jnrjr79]

Did they add a rule that players will play team basketball, defense and try to win?

Yep. Until that happens, all these ASG tweaks are strawberry icing on a cigarette-flavored donut.

Right. The reason people don’t watch is because it’s not basketball. Make it basketball, problem solved.

But I get it obviously. The money is too great for the players to go hard at each other in the middle of the season. So there really is no solution. It’s just always going to suck.

Sure, but how do you "make it basketball?"

It would seem like the only way to do that is to offer the winning team an amount of money that would cause them to ball out. Of course, most NBA All-Stars are already making a ton of money, so it would have to be a pretty significant chunk of change, I would think.

[DuckIII]

Yep. Until that happens, all these ASG tweaks are strawberry icing on a cigarette-flavored donut.

Right. The reason people don’t watch is because it’s not basketball. Make it basketball, problem solved.

But I get it obviously. The money is too great for the players to go hard at each other in the middle of the season. So there really is no solution. It’s just always going to suck.

Sure, but how do you "make it basketball?"

I don’t think you can. Not with player salaries as they are and front offices who rightly hold their breath every Allstar weekend.

It will just always be terrible until the end of time. It’s okay. It’s easy to just not watch it. Been doing it for decades.

[League Circles]

Here's an idea: have eastern and western conference teams, and the winning conference gets home court advantage in the nba finals. Not a great idea, but might help a bit.

[DuckIII]

Here's an idea: have eastern and western conference teams, and the winning conference gets home court advantage in the nba finals. Not a great idea, but might help a bit.

They tried that in baseball. Maybe they even still do it. I consider MLB a joke league (not because of their allstar stuff) and stopped following it a very long time ago.

I get it as an incentive but it’s fundamentally unfair to have a team bust its ass for 82 games and then lose home court due to a clownish exhibition played by guys who aren’t on your team.

[Red Larrivee]

Who is this for? They've reached the point where there are too many gimmicks.

There's never going to be incentive for today's players to try hard in these games unless significant money is on the line. And that's not going to happen.

The ASG has never been one of the best and most memorable games of the year even back when players actually competed. So just keep it simple and bring back the traditional pickup game. It's not great basketball, but that's okay.

[jnrjr79]

Who is this for? They've reached the point where there are too many gimmicks.

There's never going to be incentive for today's players to try hard in these games unless significant money is on the line. And that's not going to happen.

The ASG has never been one of the best and most memorable games of the year even back when players actually competed. So just keep it simple and bring back the traditional pickup game. It's not great basketball, but that's okay.

I assume they're doing this because a similar concept worked so well in the NHL last year.

I'm not sure NBA players will be wired to react the same way, though.

[Red Larrivee]

Who is this for? They've reached the point where there are too many gimmicks.

There's never going to be incentive for today's players to try hard in these games unless significant money is on the line. And that's not going to happen.

The ASG has never been one of the best and most memorable games of the year even back when players actually competed. So just keep it simple and bring back the traditional pickup game. It's not great basketball, but that's okay.

I assume they're doing this because a similar concept worked so well in the NHL last year.

I'm not sure NBA players will be wired to react the same way, though.

Yeah, that's the major difference.

It's hard to take it easy in hockey and still be an entertaining product. If you don't compete at a baseline level, you'll get the **** knocked out of you.

Whereas NBA players can play at half speed, and do all sorts of stuff that only a small percentage of the population is capable of.

[molepharmer]

Maybe take the 24 All-Stars and have two captains pick the other 7 for their team. The third team would be made up of the players nobody wanted. Pretty sure that third team might have at least a little bit more competitive intensity. Regardless, I pretty much agree with most everybody here that there's not a good way to get these guys to play basketball with defense.

[kodo]

The NBA ASG might be unique in that by making two teams of the top stars, you end up with two terrible basketball teams. It would be like if the Pro Bowl was completely rostered with only quarterbacks. Might be entertaining but also terrible. This has been a persistent issue when our Team USA keeps getting embarrassed in international play, but sending the OKC Thunder or Celtics would have mopped up those teams.

No all-star wants to do all the dirty work of setting hard screens, settings pin downs, boxing out, playing D. Everyone is used to being the star so they've naturally evolved into this "let's all take turns doing what made us famous" style of play, and who can blame them.

Getting rid of the Center position only exacerbated that.

[DuckIII]

Just have all 24 guys show up and play PIG, knockout, dribble-knockout, etc. Who wouldn't watch NBA players do that? They'd go hard, get creative, and it would be way more interesting - and with a greater competitive spirit - than the exhibition game.

Will never happen of course. But I'd sure consider it an improvement.

[Bulliever2020]

these yearly format changes are just embarassing at this point

[sco]

I think they are just going the pasta route now...throw something new at the wall every year and see if it sticks.

[kulaz3000]

Yawn.

I haven't watched a single All-Star game in several years now and don't feel I've missed out.