2023-24 Running NBA thread

All-Star games do, at this point, inherently suck and are not a worthwhile television entertainment product. While it's the responsibility of the leagues and their broadcast partners to advertise them as if they are, they simply aren't and that mismatch between what is being sold and what is ultimately delivered will always be a source of consternation for a couple of days during which there's nothing else to talk about.

For the NBA, the problem may be that, while the ASG doesn't determine the league's health, it could reinforce the incoming perception of it, i.e., players do not care and do not want to play. For die-hards like yours truly, I think this is insane because the night-in, night-out effort is tremendous. Guys have to defend so much more real estate than in the past and aren't putting up 77-74 scores while blazed to the gills on THC.

That said, the perception of rest/load management (and an upcoming TV contract) caused the league to create rules and incentives for missing and playing games. It acknowledged the view that its best are not out there often enough and that fans are getting salty, especially when looking at their season ticket invoices and cable bills.

One of the costs of attempting to solve a problem is calling attention to it, and the new rules and policies did just that. The NBA basically said, "If you miss games you'd better have a good reason. If you rest, do it at home and cheat your own fans. If you want awards and max deals, please play 80% of your games. If you want credit for a game, no more opening tip then benched at the first whistle." Whether it intended to or not, the public message the NBA delivered to its fans was, "We're doing all we can to get these guys to show up."

Fast-forward to All-Star weekend and Jaylen Brown suggests 70% of games should be enough. The skills competition features guys jogging and looking lost like 4th-grade kids learning the 3-man weave, Ant-Man using only his left hand, and Scottie Barnes doing whatever the fuck that was. The dunk contest has judges treating the enterprise like it doesn't matter. The whole thing is capped off in a showcase game of the NBA's best giving credence to the perception the league is trying to rid itself of.

This will pass and be memory-holed by the play-in games, but it was a rough weekend for Adam Silver.

 

It is somewhat perverse than in a league where even the mediocre have guaranteed $40 million (average salary, $9.7 million; average length of contract, four years) that they feel the need to be cautious of injuries for 20-24 minutes of ONE EXHIBITION out of the 400 games (exhibition/regular season/playoffs) they'll play during the length of their contract.

Nobody is going to be Ray Fosse-ed. But then, LeBron bruised his thumb in last year's ASG actually defending a shot, so . . .

 

Until there's a big reason why the players should care about the competition, it won't be one. They're making $40-50 million a season, legacies are defined only by RINGZ anymore, and after the break, there are just 30 games left. I don't know what the answer is, and sure, the players could be more professional about it. Absolutely. But, then again, perhaps they are being most professional about their teams, teammates, season and fans (I know, I know...) by sleepwalking through the ASG and being fresh for the rest of the season, and much more importantly, the playoffs. How many owners, coaches and staff probably texted each all-star before they left, "Hey, don't get hurt. Look out for yourself." And they're right.

 

397 points?

 

24 teams got at least seven days off. They played last Wednesday and don't play until Thursday. And some of those got an extra day because they don't start up until Friday.

How much more time do they need?

 

The only "solution" is probably one that most people would find untenable. Meaning, you pay guys on the winning team $X million each, with X > 10, as a starting point. Losing team gets nothing. This would also work for any other all-star competition in the other major professional sports. Guys in past all-star games would play harder because there wasn't really such a huge gap in financial incentive between that and a "normal" game. As others have pointed out, if players are now mostly judged from a legacy standpoint by how many ringz they get, and the max salary is close to $47m per year, then they are not going to risk anything for an exhibition game.

 

Then you'd get players on the apparent losing team literally quitting when defeat becomes likely -- walking off the court.

 

Of all the possible scenarios when money became a singular issue in sports a few decades ago, "players with nine-figure deals taking it easy so as not to jeopardize their next nine-figure deal" just wasn't on my bingo card.

 

I think it was Derek Bell who called that “Operation Shutdown”.

 

I would make the 3 point line a flat line at 25 feet from the basket. It would still allow the shot to be a weapon, but would not make it the default that it is today.

 

A rhombus.

 

The thing I don't get is why players leave the guy in the corner (shorter shot) to run at the guy at the elbow (which is the farthest shot available); do the math!