The NBA is broken, Here's how I'd fix it

[Mr. Friscus]

First, let's look at the facts:

The NBA has been in a decline for years for multiple reasons, and I've sized them up to a few reasons:
1. Too many 3 pointers causing an unbalanced game
2. Horrible enforcement of the rules
3. Political involvement (BLM/CRT racist rhetoric)
4. Immoral benefit (Denouncing USA while supporting China/Nike)

How to fix it?

1. Move the 3 pointer back. It currently sits at just over 22 ft. When the 3 point line was installed, it was a sideshow shot, a rarity, something nobody practiced. The idea was to get as close to the basket as possible to get the ball in the basket. Throughout the 80's and 90's, it remained a minority part of the game. However, a few teams expiramented and found that at such a short distance, an in-rythm 3 pointer at 22 ft has just as much chance of going in as any guarded 15 ft shot. So, as long as the 3 pointer is at 22 ft, teams have learned, by the data, to just jack up 3's. We have a generation of players who have spent their whole lives practicing the three, they shoot it not out of exertion but like a foul shot. Move it back to 25+, make it an actual risk. Of course, this means...

2. Widen the court. You can't move the 3 point line back without doing so, and with the advancement in training, strategies, and supplements... players today can cover more ground than those before them (and that's interchangeable.. if you switched MJ for Russell in time, Russell would be far more athletic and MJ wouldn't be able to jump nearly as high or be nearly as quick).

3. Instruct Refs to use some common sense. If a player is clearly trying to draw a foul, don't give it to him. If he pump fakes, gets a player to jump but to the side of him, and then he jumps sideways INTO him.. don't give him that call. Refs constantly act like idiots just to call the foul, I think they are clearly scared to death from orders above so they act out of desperation. It's probably some "player safety" thing that the NBA is implementing based on NFL issues.

4. Drop the BLM BS. They actually implemented players to brand their jerseys with BLM propaganda while reciting disinformation such as that people who were alive after a police encounter were actually dead.

5. Shut up about the USA until they end their partnership with Nike. The NBA kept their All Star game out of Charlotte NC because of a bill that would (GASP) have biological men go into the "mens room" and biological women go into the "womens room"... but yet, when Nike uses slave labor and immoral standards.. they are still allowed to brand their logo on EVERYTHING NBA. The NBA has no room to lecture anyone about morals. They are cowards who are making extremely poor decisions based on twitter/social media results, catering to them, and not listening to the majority of their current/former audiance.

Move the 3 point line back, widen the court, let refs call normal bball and tell stars to the STFU, and STFU about politics/social issues and the NBA would make a big comeback.

 

[candycorn]

The OP is mostly tragic nonsense. Of course, keeping up with the obsession with race, the OP mostly centered not around improving the league but airing grievances.

The real problem with the NBA is the same problem with the NHL and MLB....Too many games on the schedule--not too many games (I'll explain in a moment). The regular season doesn't matter in the NBA and NHL. It matters less and less in baseball. The regular season is just like inventory for a brick and mortar store. Its difficult to assign a higher value to any game that is played when none of them really matter because most teams make the playoffs. So the January game between the Sixers and the Nuggets may as well be a game between the Rockets and the Pistons. They are just as important to the overall outcome of the season. Charles Barkley often stated that the NBA season begins in the playoffs. He was right. So teams that suck are just playing out the string in January, teams that are mediocre are treading water and teams toward the top are resting their horses. Unlike the NFL and MLB, there is no home-field advantage really. All the courts are the same and weather is not a factor. My proposal is to have each team play a 58 game schedule. You play every team twice. Once home and once away. Get the other 24 games off the schedule. This makes each game more important. That may or may not increase ratings for the casual fan but would really increase interest for the guys who are interested in the NBA.

What I would also do is have a mini tournament in the middle of the season. March 1-10; take the top six teams from each conference and 4 wild card teams (determined by a lottery). So for example, in the East as of right now, you'd have the Bucks, Sixers, Cavs, Celtics, Nets, and Knicks and 4 lottery teams--lets say the Hornets, Pacers, Bulls and Raptors. The Hornets play the Pacers, the Bulls play the Raptors and you end up with 8 teams who play a bracketed tournament. The same thing happens in the west. The eventual winner gets the #1 seed in the playoffs at the end of the year regardless of their record. So that would mean that potentially there are only seven slots available for the top 8 teams, if say the Raptors were not in the top 8 but somehow won the tournament. So you have a little more interest in the regular season.

Just an idea.

 

[Couchpotato]

The OP is mostly tragic nonsense. Of course, keeping up with the obsession with race, the OP mostly centered not around improving the league but airing grievances.

3 of the 5 points were directly about how the game is played.

4 of the 5 had nothing to do with anyone's skin color

#4 the only one that is remotely about race is just pointing out the reality that social justice lectures from athletes are not all that popular. They just arent.

It's not their area of expertise and their gifts are typically physical not mental. Are there exceptions? Sure, but their focus intellectually is still about the game by and large. Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a ridiculously intelligent person. He's likely forgotten more things that I've known, but I wouldnt take his insight on how to break down an NBA defense over Lebron James' in much the same way as I would believe Tyson over James' with respect to how the universe works.

The real problem with the NBA is the same problem with the NHL and MLB....Too many games on the schedule--not too many games (I'll explain in a moment). The regular season doesn't matter in the NBA and NHL. It matters less and less in baseball. The regular season is just like inventory for a brick and mortar store. Its difficult to assign a higher value to any game that is played when none of them really matter because most teams make the playoffs. So the January game between the Sixers and the Nuggets may as well be a game between the Rockets and the Pistons. They are just as important to the overall outcome of the season. Charles Barkley often stated that the NBA season begins in the playoffs. He was right. So teams that suck are just playing out the string in January, teams that are mediocre are treading water and teams toward the top are resting their horses. Unlike the NFL and MLB, there is no home-field advantage really. All the courts are the same and weather is not a factor. My proposal is to have each team play a 58 game schedule. You play every team twice. Once home and once away. Get the other 24 games off the schedule. This makes each game more important. That may or may not increase ratings for the casual fan but would really increase interest for the guys who are interested in the NBA.

What I would also do is have a mini tournament in the middle of the season. March 1-10; take the top six teams from each conference and 4 wild card teams (determined by a lottery). So for example, in the East as of right now, you'd have the Bucks, Sixers, Cavs, Celtics, Nets, and Knicks and 4 lottery teams--lets say the Hornets, Pacers, Bulls and Raptors. The Hornets play the Pacers, the Bulls play the Raptors and you end up with 8 teams who play a bracketed tournament. The same thing happens in the west. The eventual winner gets the #1 seed in the playoffs at the end of the year regardless of their record. So that would mean that potentially there are only seven slots available for the top 8 teams, if say the Raptors were not in the top 8 but somehow won the tournament. So you have a little more interest in the regular season.

Just an idea.

The first idea I can get down with the second one would allow a good team to essentially play one a lot fewer games. You just need to be good enough to be in the top 6, and win the Tournament, and you can coast the last month of the season.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

First, let's look at the facts:

The NBA has been in a decline for years for multiple reasons, and I've sized them up to a few reasons:
1. Too many 3 pointers causing an unbalanced game
2. Horrible enforcement of the rules
3. Political involvement (BLM/CRT racist rhetoric)
4. Immoral benefit (Denouncing USA while supporting China/Nike)

How to fix it?

1. Move the 3 pointer back. It currently sits at just over 22 ft. When the 3 point line was installed, it was a sideshow shot, a rarity, something nobody practiced. The idea was to get as close to the basket as possible to get the ball in the basket. Throughout the 80's and 90's, it remained a minority part of the game. However, a few teams expiramented and found that at such a short distance, an in-rythm 3 pointer at 22 ft has just as much chance of going in as any guarded 15 ft shot. So, as long as the 3 pointer is at 22 ft, teams have learned, by the data, to just jack up 3's. We have a generation of players who have spent their whole lives practicing the three, they shoot it not out of exertion but like a foul shot. Move it back to 25+, make it an actual risk. Of course, this means...

2. Widen the court. You can't move the 3 point line back without doing so, and with the advancement in training, strategies, and supplements... players today can cover more ground than those before them (and that's interchangeable.. if you switched MJ for Russell in time, Russell would be far more athletic and MJ wouldn't be able to jump nearly as high or be nearly as quick).

3. Instruct Refs to use some common sense. If a player is clearly trying to draw a foul, don't give it to him. If he pump fakes, gets a player to jump but to the side of him, and then he jumps sideways INTO him.. don't give him that call. Refs constantly act like idiots just to call the foul, I think they are clearly scared to death from orders above so they act out of desperation. It's probably some "player safety" thing that the NBA is implementing based on NFL issues.

4. Drop the BLM BS. They actually implemented players to brand their jerseys with BLM propaganda while reciting disinformation such as that people who were alive after a police encounter were actually dead.

5. Shut up about the USA until they end their partnership with Nike. The NBA kept their All Star game out of Charlotte NC because of a bill that would (GASP) have biological men go into the "mens room" and biological women go into the "womens room"... but yet, when Nike uses slave labor and immoral standards.. they are still allowed to brand their logo on EVERYTHING NBA. The NBA has no room to lecture anyone about morals. They are cowards who are making extremely poor decisions based on twitter/social media results, catering to them, and not listening to the majority of their current/former audiance.

Move the 3 point line back, widen the court, let refs call normal bball and tell stars to the STFU, and STFU about politics/social issues and the NBA would make a big comeback.

They are not diverse enough either. The teams needs to include Asians, Orthodox Jews and Transgenders or I just won't watch another game

 

[Mr. Friscus]

They are not diverse enough either. The teams needs to include Asians, Orthodox Jews and Transgenders or I just won't watch another game

By their stated demands and standards.. yes. It’s nice being on the other side of that and being amused at how ridiculous the quota-based reality is, the one the left, BLM, the KKK, etc subscribe to.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

By their stated demands and standards.. yes. It’s nice being on the other side of that and being amused at how ridiculous the quota-based reality is, the one the left, BLM, the KKK, etc subscribe to.

Where's the diversity?

 

[Mr. Friscus]

Where's the diversity?

My anti-diverse basketball team of 5 tall, fit, black males would dominate any diverse spread of 5 people who check boxes of all genders, body sizes, races, etc.

Diversity wouldn’t a strength, it would be the cause of losing 210-2 by halftime.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

My anti-diverse basketball team of 5 tall, fit, black males would dominate any diverse spread of 5 people who check boxes of all genders, body sizes, races, etc.

Diversity wouldn’t a strength, it would be the cause of losing 210-2 by halftime.

You're too fixated on winning and losing....when LeBron retires he can identify as a Chinese chick and set records in the WNBA

 

[DGS49]

I have written on this subject previously, but MY problem with the NBA is the gradual obliteration of rules that are not compatible with "playground" basketball. For example,

• Since the entry of "Magic" Johnson, the rule against "palming" or "carrying the ball" have been abandoned. Now it happens constantly and to basketball purists, it is nauseating.
• The rule prohibiting going into the "paint" before a foul shot hits the rim has been abandoned. Why? It made sense.
• There is no rational explanation for the situation with personal fouls. Some constant and flagrant fouls are simply not called, simply because if they were called the game would be nothing but a series of foul shots and players fouling out of the game. Some foul calls are made regardless of contact or any affect on the play. Offensive fouls are a joke, and the rule is preposterous - there are times when the offensive player intentionally runs down a defender and the defender is called for a foul.
• It seems that there is simply no limit to the number of steps that can be taken in advance of dunking the ball. The rule is not that complicated. If you catch the ball in the air, you can land with both feed and go aloft again. That's it. The traveling rule is also broken regularly by Mr. Jokic...sorry, but it's true. Watch his feet when he is moving around in the post. It is almost funny.

I think they should simply enforce the rules. The players are talented and not stupid. Within two or three games they will adapt. If I want to watch street basketball, I'll go down to the playground and watch it. These guys are supposed to be the best in the world; they should not be playing street ball.

 

[22lcidw]

Enlarge the court. Width and length. Raise the height of the basket. Enter the realities of the 21st century. The men who play will adjust.

 

[sealybobo]

First, let's look at the facts:

The NBA has been in a decline for years for multiple reasons, and I've sized them up to a few reasons:
1. Too many 3 pointers causing an unbalanced game
2. Horrible enforcement of the rules
3. Political involvement (BLM/CRT racist rhetoric)
4. Immoral benefit (Denouncing USA while supporting China/Nike)

How to fix it?

1. Move the 3 pointer back. It currently sits at just over 22 ft. When the 3 point line was installed, it was a sideshow shot, a rarity, something nobody practiced. The idea was to get as close to the basket as possible to get the ball in the basket. Throughout the 80's and 90's, it remained a minority part of the game. However, a few teams expiramented and found that at such a short distance, an in-rythm 3 pointer at 22 ft has just as much chance of going in as any guarded 15 ft shot. So, as long as the 3 pointer is at 22 ft, teams have learned, by the data, to just jack up 3's. We have a generation of players who have spent their whole lives practicing the three, they shoot it not out of exertion but like a foul shot. Move it back to 25+, make it an actual risk. Of course, this means...

2. Widen the court. You can't move the 3 point line back without doing so, and with the advancement in training, strategies, and supplements... players today can cover more ground than those before them (and that's interchangeable.. if you switched MJ for Russell in time, Russell would be far more athletic and MJ wouldn't be able to jump nearly as high or be nearly as quick).

3. Instruct Refs to use some common sense. If a player is clearly trying to draw a foul, don't give it to him. If he pump fakes, gets a player to jump but to the side of him, and then he jumps sideways INTO him.. don't give him that call. Refs constantly act like idiots just to call the foul, I think they are clearly scared to death from orders above so they act out of desperation. It's probably some "player safety" thing that the NBA is implementing based on NFL issues.

4. Drop the BLM BS. They actually implemented players to brand their jerseys with BLM propaganda while reciting disinformation such as that people who were alive after a police encounter were actually dead.

5. Shut up about the USA until they end their partnership with Nike. The NBA kept their All Star game out of Charlotte NC because of a bill that would (GASP) have biological men go into the "mens room" and biological women go into the "womens room"... but yet, when Nike uses slave labor and immoral standards.. they are still allowed to brand their logo on EVERYTHING NBA. The NBA has no room to lecture anyone about morals. They are cowards who are making extremely poor decisions based on twitter/social media results, catering to them, and not listening to the majority of their current/former audiance.

Move the 3 point line back, widen the court, let refs call normal bball and tell stars to the STFU, and STFU about politics/social issues and the NBA would make a big comeback.

Who is the Steph curry of two pointers? Who had the greatest 2 poin shot or who had the highest percentage from the two?

I suspect Steph would still be an amazing shooter even if those were twos.

You want to fix the game? One team needs to go back to what the lakers did with magic Johnson. Kareem didn’t like it but they ran fast break every time and shot th3 ball as quickly as possible. More shots more points more wins. Not slow boring half Court ball.