2023-24 Running NBA thread

Or just give the players more of a break. That and money are the only things that motivate them.
There are probably more LIV golf fans than NBA fans clamoring for the All-Star game.

 

The one thing they could do that would make everyone watch: 11 foot hoops.
I think they should start experimenting with this and a wider court to allow more spacing and and a longer 3 point line in the G-League and see how it goes. It will never happen, but it would improve the game a lot.

 

The older players are, by and large, the star players, and those are the ones the league has in mind when it comes to rest/load management. The best way to avoid injury is not to play. Guys were playing less and the league felt the need to create an incentive structure for them to play more.

 

The way the game is played now also lends itself to half-assing the ASG, too. Not because guys are soft/lazy/entitled or other oldhead nonsense but because there is so little post or mid-range now. When the game is in a more confined space or a guy is trying to back you down in the post, you play defense because you might as well while you're in the area or because you're going to get absolutely bodied if you don't. When it's all long threes and everyone is spread out, it's so much easier to launch uncontested Js or toss an uncontested lob.

 

Another option is to do what I do and not give a flying fuck about the All-Star Game.

Every single one of them has lost my interest. Baseball finally lost me when Rob Manfred's worst impulses intervened.

I look at All-Star events as a healthy break from whatever sport it is for a few days.

The NBA's health is not going to be determined one way or another on this game. There will be some who pick up their perception of the league from the farce that the All-Star Game is, but I think it's a pretty small minority. Most people don't live or die by any All-Star game. The stars don't need the exposure because they get it anyway, so they take the piss in the game itself.

On a side note, I was amused by the Indy-based writers trying to make a "thing" out of Damian Lillard hogging the ball into winning the MVP over hometown guy Tyrese Haliburton. I mean, I guess you have to make something out of that mess, but the notion that anyone gives the slightest care about who the All-Star MVP is funny.

 

Yeah, if you like final scores of 43-36

https://vault.si.com/vault/1967/12/04/the-case-for-the-12foot-basket

The problem now is not too many dunks, the problem is too many goddamn 3-pointers. And everybody plays exactly the same way.

 

It's both. There's no incentive for any shot besides the 3 or the high percentage dunk. The 10 foot basket was for players who were just different physically. What used to be hard is now easy. And it's not just about height like it was in that article. There are few if any unskilled big men like there used to be. It's somewhat like the pitching clock in baseball. A massive rule change that feels untraditional, that aims to restore the old game, not undermine it. As for 43-36, that would last 10 minutes. These are the best players in the world. They'll adjust.
Yes, I know the players would never go for it and that the owners don't have much of an incentive either, so it will never happen. That said, some of the baseball rule changes seemed unrealistic a while back.

 

The central "problem" is that analytics is right. The percentages all bear out the mathematical realities of why teams play for threes or high-percentage shots at the rim.

So how do you open up the game to make a diversity of offense and shots a reality? I'll hang up and listen.

Short of re-assigning the points, having a 3-point zone between 15-25 feet away from the basket, and making the really long shots a 4-point bucket, a proposal that would likely die on arrival, I'm not sure there's a way you can make the mid-range shot a reality again.

It's a fundamental flaw with the sport itself ... if you're averse to the modern game. I don't mind it, but I do understand the fear that we're basically creating a template that robotizes the sport with a bunch of clones who all do the same thing.

 

If by "make everyone watch," you mean, "in the same way they watch a trainwreck," then sure.
An 11-foot hoop wouldn't just reduce or eliminate dunks, it would throw off all the shooters who have spent a lifetime training their brain to hardwire their reflexes to fling a ball at a 10-foot hoop. These are pros, they'd adjust, but it would be beyond ugly until they did.

 

They should add the 50-foot basket that was worth 25 points from the old MTV Rock ‘n’ Jock tournaments.

 

Right. I think that's a worthwhile front end investment, though I know it will never happen.

 

It's weird, I think because I watch the Suns more than anyone, I don't realize how rare the strong long mid-range shooter is. Phoenix happens to have two players who do that exceptionally well in Booker and Durant.