[Youngmisuk] NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says “we need to return to that principle — that this is an 82-game (league).”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says "we need to return to that principle — that this is an 82-game (league)."
— Ohm Youngmisuk (@NotoriousOHM) September 13, 2023
by Kimber80
34 Comments
[deleted]
Kawhi: “Wanna bet?”
If they want to have this many games then AND have everyone play as much as they can they need to make the games more meaningful somehow. Right now it is much much better to save your players for the playoffs to the point it’s foolish to not load manage a significant portion of your games.
Thank goodness!
Regular season indifference by the players/teams is probably only going to increase after a season where 2 play-in teams were in the conference finals. Not sure how they can really fix this problem. 82 regular games is too many games and home court just doesn’t seem to matter much.
Shortening the regular season and reducing the number of playoff teams would obviously help but then that means less money so they’ll never do it.
Man finally dropped some and is starting to act like a commissioner. Although I don’t think this new rule changes anything
Then why there is in season tournament?
Keep the 82 games, *maybe* add something to make them more “meaningful”, but just add an extra few weeks to the damn schedule and space games enough to where there’s no excuse to have scheduled nights off. This could also potentially end that awful overlap between the NBA and NHL playoffs.
I watch almost every game for my team and even I think there are too many games. I have no idea how they think casual fans are supposed to keep engaged.
I am convinced that a 60ish game schedule with zero back to backs would lead to more stars playing harder and more often and more healthy matchups in the playoffs.
Here’s a thought. If players are consistently feeling the need to rest, maybe you should shorten the season a little bit.
If you add 2 new teams (one in the east and one in the west), you can reduce the number of games per team to 76 and still have the same total number of NBA games played in a season.
6 games might not sound like a lot, but it would likely eliminate back-to-backs altogether.
Why cant the players just suck it up and play? They work like 7 months out of the year 3-4 hours a day and make generational wealth. I dont see why they cant play at least 72 games a season
The issue is you want everyone healthy and at their best for the playoffs. The league needs to lengthen the calendar days in a season, work on minimizing back to backs, and try to schedule the season in a way that limits travel.
This isn’t the NFL where every game can shift the playoff picture. The reality is when you have these many games there are going to be meaningless regular season matchups. I’m all for guys playing the full 82, but the league has to help them out as well.
Alright, let’s have Adam Silver get his ass on the court
Must be frustrating to see all of this discussion on load management as a rotation player
So lets think this through for a second:
Teams want to be at 100% fitness going into the playoffs
All-time players are praised and scrutinized by the number of rings they end up winning in their careers
With 7-game series, there is much less of a luck factor in terms of the worse team winning a series, so coasting and finishing 5th means fuck all if you know you’re the best
With play in games, now finishing as high as you can in the seeding is even less important
Tanking has been proven an effective strategy at rebuilding because of NBA draft mechanics
82 fucking games
And the solution is to introduce this stupid rule forcing teams to play their players – where no other sport does this?
Genuinely one if the worst sporting rules I’ve ever seen. Maybe the worst. Calling it now you’re gonna see Stars resting IN GAME by walking and treating games like all star games. Braindead
Reddit nephews in shambles
Regular season championship. Make it matter. Top west vs top east bo3 maybe (less heavy on players) home away neutral
Now u can have regular season mvp and dont need ppl to go (its useless bcuz they didnt perform in playoff) they also just added a championship to their name. No more bad media narratives to choose who they want to win.
Edit. I mean keep the playoffs btw. No touching on that. Just extra 3 games that made regular season matters
All you new “shorten the season” fans are weird. I’ve never heard a player say that the season is too long. No other era of fans complained about this.
I know incremental change needs to happen slow but the mid season stuff needs playoff ramifications. Make the season 66 games, you play everyone twice but you play your division teams 4 times a piece. You then have 16 games left over to have like two midseason mini brackets(one in december, one leading into the allstar break) that will weigh with your final record for playoff seeding/home court/etc with money on the table for players too. You split the season into meaningful parts, and it rewards good teams ready to go out of the gate for playing good ball all season. It also brings back better divisional rivalries which are seriously lacking in the NBA.
There are so many ways to make the regular season more interesting, but it’s going to happen super slow so people have time to be pissed and then get over change while also yelling the regular season sucks. ie this thread.
People want to sound like they’re right about sports so much that NBA fans are arguing for good players resting games and fewer games of the product they are supposed to love.
Basketball is a game man. You don’t have to pretend you’re for the greater good because feeling youre right arguing about playoff legacies is worth the sacrifice of ruining the season to you.
Fans attending live games or watching national regular season games are the most important things in the league and resting while healthy is a slap in face to those things
“Get ready to learn yoga, buddy.”
– Adam Silver
It amazes me how few people seem to grasp is that the season only feels too long because teams are load managing. Once one team starts doing this to gain a late/post season advantage, everybody else starts doing it to keep pace. When this happens, it creates a dynamic where everything is watered down and the end result is a lesser product for the fans. Hopefully, this changes with the new rules.
The 82 season was never the problem. Not only was it never an issue or talking point before the load management era, but most other professional sports leagues have at least 82 games and nobody is complaining there. The total number of games only became an issue when teams started phoning it in for 25% of the season and boring the fans.
I really dont understand why they dont just lessen the season a few games like to 72-75 and avoid back to backs
It’s a problem without a good solution. And the only real solution involves abolishing the NBA draft (and enforcing a very hard salary cap), which though that would probably be good for the long term health of the league is just too radical of a move to ever happen.
How do you make the regular season matter? Making the playoffs is super easy for any team with a real chance at winning a title. But if you change that-make it so only 4 teams from each conference make the playoffs- then now you have this problem where midway through the season half of the teams should try to lose if they’re smart.
That’s just the double edged sword with expanding/contracting the playoffs. Whichever way you go you get major problems.
Seeding just doesn’t matter when games are 7 series. Home court is nice, but having 4 home games to 3 away is such a small advantage it’s not remotely worth risking injury in the regular season for. And basketball is too random of a game to go to a small enough series size where 1 extra home game is worthwhile in the way tha home field is so important in the NFL, for example.
I think the best option is to move series to have 5 or even 6 home games for the higher seed (before the finals). It would be a drastic change, but the league needs to find ways to increase the importance of seeding without also increasing the incentive to tank.
…by adding a 2nd in-season tourney. This one sponsored by the Saudis!
Is Adam silver finally growing a pair?
Under his watch we had super teams, domestic violence, trade demands, contracts becoming meaningless, guys skipping work… etc
I want like 25% of overall revenue to be split by teams based on record. So both owner and player comp is tied to regular season wins.
*Zion leaves the chat
Get rid of road B2B.
I mean it sounds great in theory until there’s an NBA playoffs run with every team missing not just a role player but an actual star.
He needs to be more authoritative. Don’t beat around this…TV is the life blood of that sport! The players need to play or forfeit their income.
They have to shorten the season. Quality vs Quantity. There such an emphasis on playoff success that teams will do what it takes to have their players healthy for that run.
As someone who has suffered an overuse injury and has to be a lot more careful about my workload, it makes me sad seeing this kind of stuff.
I’m perfectly fine with load management, because that is the only healthy way to get through heavy physical labor. In fact, I think we can set a really important example for kids if we emphasize the importance of rest.
How many of these athletes can hardly walk after their ~20 year career? Is it not enough that they dedicate their lives for our entertainment? Instead, we demand their long term physical health too?
2 things need to happen:
The schedule needs to ensure fewer b2b’s and none on the road.
The AAU needs to stop running their kids into the ground.