My fresh take on Basketball.

[nba4ever-blog1]

NBA’s conference imbalance

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that NBA conferences are imbalanced. Teams with better records in the West can’t make the playoffs, while weaker teams in the East make the playoffs. Lebron James will probably make it to his 8th NBA finals in a row this year, thanks to the weaker Eastern Conference. It’s part of the reason why James doesn’t take regular season seriously and often wants to rest. 

It’s time to change the stone age playoff system, so that we can have more interesting playoffs and regular season. The first round of the NBA playoffs is very predictable, with the top 4 teams usually moving on to the second round. Unlike the NHL, where a number 8 seed can win a Stanley cup, an upset rarely happens in the NBA.  Mark cuban has a solution, allow top 16 teams from the NBA to participate in the NBA playoffs, regardless of their conferences.

               To counter this problem, here is what I think the NBA should do.

1)      Get rid of the conferences and qualify top 10 teams in the league for the playoffs.  

2)      Top 2 teams in the NBA automatically advance to the next round

3)      Teams ranked from 3 to 10 will play each other according to the existing format.

 For example,

 Winner of 3 vs 10 faces the winner of 4 vs 9

 Winner of 5 vs 8 faces the winner of 6 vs 7

 Assuming teams 3, 9, 5 and 7 won

 Winner of 3 vs 9 faces the winner of 5 vs 7

 Assuming 3 and 7 won

 Winner of 1 vs 7 faces the winner of 2 vs 3, in the NBA finals

 This will create more excitement in the NBA, as teams will try to finish in the top 2 and the regular season will be more meaningful.

Accessed from: https://www.themandarin.com.au/21199-vertical-fiscal-imbalance-agenda-issues-paper/

Conference Imbalance in the NBA [Mark Cuban's Solution?] Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggeYrJXklY4

[nba4ever-blog1]

Evolution of the Game

Having been a basketball fan for a very long time. I have seen the game evolve. There have been many rule changes over the years, which has made the sport only more interesting. However, one trend that I see emerging is the extinction of a Center position in the NBA.

“As the league moves closer and closer to positionless basketball, teams are opting for smaller big men who may not be able to block shots like Noel or post up like Gasol but who can offer just a bit more flexibility on the court.”(Ziller, 2017)

                Back in the day, players were more inclined to score inside the paint, 3-point shot was extremely rare. However, over the last few years shooting a 3-point shot has become an essential skill that every basketball player must possess. With teams choosing to play small ball, it becomes almost impossible to defend if you have a 7 feet Center on your team, and that’s why the Center position has become a liability in the NBA in the last few years.  

               Traditionally, only point guards and shooting guards were required to have ball handling capabilities. However, in the recent years Power-forwards and Centers have started adapting to this new style of play. Players like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Anthony Davis, who are around 7 feet tall, can handle the ball, drive to the paint, pass and shoot 3-pointers like a typical Point-guard in the league.

This has been a very positive change for the NBA because it levels the playing field. As there are now players who are short for NBA standards ( 5’9 to 6 feet) like Isiah Thomas, who can score thanks to the advent of small ball and the high frequency of 3 pointers. This gives young kids, who are not abnormally tall, hope to make it to the NBA. At the same time, the big men, who are willing to work hard and develop a skill-set can also do well in the NBA. Traditionally, big men (like Shaq and Dwight Howard) were able to dominate the league based on sheer size and athleticism, even though they lacked variety of skills and had poor work ethic.

Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/sports/wp/2016/04/15/its-a-point-guards-game/?utm_term=.af2bb59c7634

Ziller, Tom(2017).  The center position in the NBA is dying.  Retrieved from https://www.sbnation.com/2017/7/17/15981266/nba-center-position-bad-free-agents

[nba4ever-blog1]

Players resting in the NBA

Cavaliers resting players continues to devalue the NBA regular season | SPEAK FOR YOURSELF NFL’s biggest problem is concussions. MLB’s biggest problem is the game is too slow. Guess what’s NBA’s biggest problem is? Players resting during a regular season game (while getting paid).

If NBA doesn’t do anything about it anytime soon. It’s going to hurt their bottom line. Key players on the playoff teams started this trend, by taking last 2 to 3 games of the regular season off to rest for the gruelling playoffs. However, with the formation of super teams and the fact that teams started resting their star players in the middle of the regular season is causing some serious problems for the NBA. The league policy states that, every team will play every other team at least twice, one home game and one away game. This gives fans an opportunity to watch their favourite player play at least once a season. But, when teams sell tickets, advertising the star players coming to town, and then star players decide to rest. Not only the fans going to the games will be disappointed, but an NBA fan in China or Philippines might be equally disappointed because they won’t get to see their favourite players go head to head in a marquee matchup. This hurts their TV ratings as well.

Players often argue that, it’s impossible to manage 82 game regular season schedule, sometimes playing back to back games. According to science shows that players are more likely to get injured if they play fatigued.

The NBA can tackle this problem, by taking the following steps.

1)      Penalize teams that allow their key players to rest during the regular season.

2)      Players don’t get paid for the game they miss, when they are otherwise healthy.

3)      Fans should be able to get a partial refund on their tickets, if the star players decide to rest their players.

4)      Shorten the pre-season and start an NBA regular season a month earlier to ensure the games are equally spaced apart and that teams don’t play back to back games.

Accessed from: http://basketballsocietyonline.com/nba-battle-resting-players-cleveland-cavaliers

Accessed from: http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2017/03/21/a-possible-solution-to-resting-nba-players/

Cavaliers resting players continues to devalue the NBA regular season | SPEAK FOR YOURSELF  Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD2sa8loito&t=255s

[nba4ever-blog1]

Michael Jordan vs Lebron James, Who’s the GOAT?

G.O.A.T stands for Greatest of all time. This has been a topic of conversation for many years now. Can anyone surpass Michael Jordan as the Greatest Player of all time? Well, I will try my best to answer the million-dollar question.

 Michael Jordan is considered by virtually all the analysts to be the Greatest of all time. However, there are several statistics that prove otherwise. James has achieved more at the age of 33 than Jordan had.  James at the age of 22, carried a team with one of the worst supporting cast with an average coach to the NBA finals. While Jordan always played with the same supporting cast for most of his championship years, he also had the luxury of being coached by the same legendary coach, Phil Jackson.

James on the other hand, had to deal with being coached by different coaches and deal with different coaching styles and completely different set of teammates. Also, given the fact that he was never coached by a hall of fame coach, like the other great players were. According to Nick Wright, Lebron James is already the Greatest of all time.

 It’s true that Michael Jordan was undefeated in the finals. However, James has managed to take weak teams to the NBA finals, which can only help his legacy. Many bring up the argument that Jordan played in an era when the rules were a lot tougher, defenders were allowed to hand check their opponents and that James would struggle had he played in the 1990s. However, given James’s freakish athletic ability, I think he would have played equally well had he played in the 1990s. James hasn’t surpassed Jordan yet, but, if he keeps up his current performance, we might not have an option but to give the king his crown.

Accessed from: https://me.me/i/ac-michael-jordan-vs-lebron-james-48-485-min-38-279-pts-9144939

Nick Wright: LeBron James has already passed Michael Jordan as greatest player | UNDISPUTED  Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0-ChZ5oEng&t=175s 

[nba4ever-blog1]

NBA Super Teams

When Kevin Durant decided to join a 73-win Golden State Warriors team in 2016 free agency, forming a super team became a norm in the NBA. Many say that Durant was a “free-agent” and had the right to sign with any team he wanted.

 However, this creates several problems for NBA fans as the NBA has become too predictable in the last few years, with Golden State warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers making the NBA finals 3 years in a row, from 2014 to 2016, something that has never happened since the league was founded in 1946. The viewership for NBA was down in the regular season 2016-2017. NBA playoff ratings were low as well. However, ratings for NBA finals were the highest, since Michael Jordan’s last finals. This illustrates that fans are interested in watching games, but only when there are multiple all-star quality players on both teams.

 I have been hearing for many years that the NBA should do something about this problem of super team formations. One way to prevent super team formation is to allow franchises to offer unlimited amount of money to one Franchise player on the roster, while the salaries of other players will still be part of the salary cap. This will solve three major problems in the NBA.

1)      Superstars will get paid significantly more than other All-stars or above-average players.

2)      Lebron James will stop complaining about how NBA players are underpaid.

3)      Superstars will be less inclined to join other superstars and the talent will be evenly distributed around the league, which will bring excitement back to the NBA, which will benefit both players and the fans.

  From “Business Insider” by Doug Benc/, 2016, http://www.businessinsider.com/where-are-they-now-the-miami-heat-big-3-players-2016-10. Copyright year by Business Insider.

ESPN First Take - Are Super Teams Bad For the NBA? Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-R_kuEir4U&t=91s