Dear Adam Silver, it has come to my attention that you are quite the radical thinker in terms of Commissioners in the major professional leagues. You have delivered a few ideas and have spit around a couple suggestions to improve the overall product. This includes eliminating/altering the playoff formats, changing the lottery system, among other things. Now, although I dedicate some time every year to figure out ways to improve my personal favorite sport and league Major League Baseball, I think under your wing (a superior wing I must add), it’s time that you hear what my visions of a perfect NBA would be. Some are simple, some are radical, and some are ridiculous. But at the end of the day, all of these ideas just might be crazy enough to work.
We will start with small rules and work our way up to the major changes. For starters, it is time to take away blowouts and increase chances of a major comeback. The Patriots were able to win their Super Bowl despite being down by 10 because each touchdown is 7 points. The most you can score in one possession in basketball is 4 points through a foul shot and a made 3-pointer. The 3-pointer altered the basketball landscape and spaced the floor. How about a 10-point line? The half-court line should be a 10-point line. That way any team down by 20 can suddenly find themselves back in the game with a long-long range shot. That way the floor can be spaced out even more and forces players to play defense for a longer period of time. Of course, the backcourt violation will definitely still be in effect so once you cross that line, the 10-point shot opportunity ceases to exist. And what if you get fouled attempting such a shot? 3 free throws still. But hey, one of these made shots can swing a basketball game in any direction and maintain the interest of those watching regardless of score.
Handchecks need to make a comeback. The ONLY way to maintain Jordan in the 90s was a good handcheck. But nowadays it’s a lame foul. The game has slowed down a bit because of these tacky, low-budget fouls. More contact needs to be allowed, basketball is a physical game. I am not saying allow the Bad Boys Pistons to re-exist, but I am allowing the chance for defenders to have the chance to play stronger defense and keep the ball-handler at bay more often. It would allow for smoother basketball and less whistles.
60 games is the right number of games. You want to eliminate unfairness in the scheduling between the Eastern and Western Conference? Have every team play each other just twice. Simple as that. It would allow for the best to truly stand out, and see which Eastern Conference teams are actually legit and which ones are simply feeding off of weak division opponents. For example, this season the Charlotte Hornets are on pace to enter the playoffs despite having a dismal 6-15 mark against Western teams. The Suns are 15-6 against the East and 29-25 overall (leading Charlotte by over 100 percentage points)----and might miss the playoffs.
60 games would allow for the league to breathe easier, would make it easier to keep track of, and would make each game more important (especially your divisional matchups) and would give us fewer boring games (Let’s be honest: do we really want 4 Magic/Wizards games?). Starting the season on Christmas would make the most sense, as the November period is honestly an afterthought for anything not the NFL. By December most of the teams have been weeded out and the interest has started fading the slightest before playoff time. That 66 game lockout season was secretly a Godsend as it increased the stakes a bit since every team had less time to make an impact. Teams like the San Antonio Spurs would be less likely to throw early games to save players for the last hunk of the season and the overlong playoff system. Popovich deserves Coach of the Decade honors for the way he handled the Spurs’ quietly clever path to dominating the worn-out Miami Heat last season. But this throwing away of games dilutes the product a bit.
Let’s jump into the playoffs. If we are keeping 16 teams entering the playoffs, then they should be seeded on best records after the divisional winners. Simple as that. Now that the 60 game season I proposed would happen, there is no reason to have to have 8 teams from each conference going in. The 60 game season forces you to have to play hard each time so you can earn your spot into the playoffs. It’s not like MLB with both leagues being drastically different in terms of approach or the NFL which features extremely unbalanced scheduling and requires for the current format to continue existing. I want the best of the best in the NBA playoffs, simple as that.
Take it a step further by making the first round a best-of-5 format again. The NBA playoffs are 3 months long, which is pure absolute overkill. I personally would make the opening round a best-of-3, the second-round a best-of-5, and the remaining brackets the typical best-of-7. But for the sake of not going too insane, let’s just fix the opening round. Unlike baseball, stepping into these playoff matchups you usually know who is going to win especially in the early rounds. Even with all the Game 7s that occurred last season, the expected winners came out on top (although the Raptors losing did surprise me a little).
Now, I have discussed the lottery system multiple times as it needs a change so we can stop the tanking of the bottom-feeder teams. To me, e.v.e.r.y. team should have a shot at the #1 pick, including playoff teams. Of course those that miss out on the playoffs have a much much better shot, but including even the NBA Finals teams in the mix prevents the tanking idea. And to kill the desire to throw away the season even more, we force the bottom two teams to compete in a small tournament against the two best teams from the D-League.
There have been lots of rumblings about limiting the amount of basketball teams. I personally think 30 is the acceptable amount, even if the mainstream don’t know about half of the teams. 30 teams should be allowed on the NBA, but demoting teams should also be allowed. The D-League should run parallel to the NBA season, and of course should also have a playoff system. The top two teams however should get mixed in with the two worst NBA squads and compete in a best-of-3 series that will be held in the city of the D-League. Of course, 999 out of 1000 the NBA team will triumph and will maintain its position in the professional league. But delivering this massive scare and then guaranteeing them a lottery pick no better than 7 allows for the product to improve, because nobody (I mean nobody) would ever want to be in that predicament.
Lastly, how awesome would it be for a bunch of unheard-of talent in an unknown city to potentially get a full NBA season? That type of opportunity would allow places like Rhode Island and Tulsa to become eerily excited for maybe seeing LeBron James and Kevin Durant swing by their town to play some basketball. Even if the Erie Bayhawks wind up with an 11-49 record, I can promise you that small town would at least have appreciated their season in the professional limelight.
For me, the perfect NBA season would be 30 teams, demotion opportunity for the sucky ones, shorter playoffs, a lottery system that includes everybody, and of course 60 games that starts on Christmas and runs through April with 4 games on December, and 14 games a month. I know making these cutbacks would upset our television contracts, but I assure you the overall product would definitely improve. The world has changed, and 90s NBA will never come back. But with the more condensed format, we will see a superior NBA.
P.S. Is it too late to mention the All-Star Game itself should be 28 minutes instead of 48 minutes?
*walks away slowly*
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