Bill Simmons' fan-friendly solution to fix the NBA

[Overrated]

It's a little long, but a great read. I feel like he talks about basketball best more than any other sport. He knows his stuff and I should really pick up his book.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100224

A snippet I was particularly amused with:

If I were running the NBA, eliminating the illusion of regret would be my biggest initiative. I would give every nonplayoff team the same odds for winning the lottery, just so these teams wouldn't destroy six to eight weeks of a season for paying customers. Then, I would cut the season by four games, guarantee only the top 12 playoff spots, then decide the seventh and eighth seeds in each conference with a double-elimination tournament for every nonplayoff team that I would call the Entertaining As Hell Tournament (see my 2007 column for the gory details). Boom, we just killed the tanking and salary-dumping issues.

Couldn't that work? Has it even been discussed? Wouldn't it generate a ton of interest and extra revenue? Wouldn't you watch? Wouldn't it put a ton of pressure on teams to stop shutting their best guys down or giving away contract-year guys for no real reason? You can't give away Camby! We need him for the Entertaining As Hell Tournament in April! And who knows, maybe a wacky 7-seed would gain momentum and pull off a Round 1 shocker in the playoffs. You never know. It's never a bad thing when those three words are involved.

[Chris]

As the Jazz proved last week, being in a playoff race does not prevent a team from selling off valuable players in order to save a couple bucks.

[fairweatherfan]

I agree with the "every lottery team gets one Ping-Pong ball" idea, and I think the tournament for the last spot would at least be fun, but I don't know that either one will cut down on salary dumping.  The luxury tax line is so punitive that teams will always be looking to stay under it, regardless of position.  But the incentives for tanking would go way down, which is a big step in the right direction.

[Brickowski]

Any discussion of fixing the NBA must also address the bad officiating, which undermines the quality of the product.

I like his idea for the lottery though, and some sort of play in to the playoffs. The ping pong balls are silly.

[celticsclay]

This will never happen but I thought it was a really cool idea. Its actually suprising how many teams tank considering the team with the worst record almost never gets the top pick.

[PosImpos]

I like his ideas to prevent tanking.

[incoherent]

pretty good article thanks for the link....

as a fan of the NBA since I was a child I would gladly endorse a more even lottery system for all non playoff teams. 


however, the playoffs should not be changed at all.  letting teams have a chance to win it at all after a horrible regular season just isn't fair.

[dlpin]

Im sorry, but his ideas are silly and will never be implemented.

The "fun as hell tournament" is nothing more than a wild card round where everyone qualifies. That will make the regular season less relevant, not more. And the "all teams have the same shot" isn't good either, as teams would tank out of the playoffs.

The solution for the NBA is doing away with guaranteed contracts, giving more leeway to rookie contracts, and a higher minimum payroll.

If you do away with guaranteed contracts, players have to give a [dang]. With a higher minimum payroll, teams have to have more players who give a [dang]. And if you give more leeway on rookie contracts, exceptional rookies will also be more expensive, and teams will have less incentive to tank because they will have to pay more. And with non-guaranteed contracts we dont have issues like we used to have of overpaid rookies not living up to expectations.

[RebusRankin]

Lower ticket prices and salaries.

[guava_wrench]

Simmons' writing is very entertainment and very stupid.

His logic is usually very populist and shortsighted. If he wasn't such a good writer, he would be the worst columnist out there due to his average joe sports talk radio caller type logic (or lack of logic).

[Roy Hobbs]

Aren't the two ideas contradictory?

If, for instance, every non-playoff team has an equal shot at Lebron or Duncan, don't you think the "play in" rounds would basically be a race to see who could "rest" the most starters?  I mean, what's better for a franchise, losing in the 1st round as an 8th seed, or having a 1/13 shot a the next superstar?

[Witch-King]

I read this article a few days ago, and at first I thought that it might be better to just demote an NBA franchise that is struggling as far as wins are concerned to the D-League in place of the top D-League squad. (Similar to what occurs in some European futbol leagues).

However, the first thing that strikes me as a potential issue is whether the D-League teams would have the seating capacity to accommodate NBA level crowds, otherwise it would just be a matter of managing franchise revenue without taking into account the talent level of losing NBA teams that have no incentive to win games and purposely tank in order to try and obtain better draft scenarios (see NJ Nets/imagine if it was possible to trade their entire roster out for the best D-League players in order to save face during the second half of this season):

http://larrybrownsports.com/basketball/nets-attendance-1000-people-bucks-game/13361

If you'll remember the ABA partially merged with its long-time rivals (NBA) in 1976, so it might not seem so far-fetched of an idea to incorporate increasing levels of D-League talent into the NBA regardless of the fact that this nation is going through some tough economic times...just a thought.

http://www.remembertheaba.com/

“It's not about who we play, but about keeping up the tradition, about maintaining the streak.”

- Doc Rivers

[Witch-King]

whoops, double post.

[CoachCowens]

Im sorry, but his ideas are silly and will never be implemented.

The "fun as hell tournament" is nothing more than a wild card round where everyone qualifies. That will make the regular season less relevant, not more. And the "all teams have the same shot" isn't good either, as teams would tank out of the playoffs.

The solution for the NBA is doing away with guaranteed contracts, giving more leeway to rookie contracts, and a higher minimum payroll.

If you do away with guaranteed contracts, players have to give a [dang]. With a higher minimum payroll, teams have to have more players who give a [dang]. And if you give more leeway on rookie contracts, exceptional rookies will also be more expensive, and teams will have less incentive to tank because they will have to pay more. And with non-guaranteed contracts we dont have issues like we used to have of overpaid rookies not living up to expectations.

Not sure if it could make the regular season any less relevant to the non playoff teams. Good point about teams tanking out of the playoffs but at least there is a little incentive there. Simmons solution is not perfect but at least he is advancing the notion that the current system is broke and needs fixing.

Good luck getting the players Union to agree to non guaranteed contracts.

 

[dlpin]

Not sure if it could make the regular season any less relevant to the non playoff teams. Good point about teams tanking out of the playoffs but at least there is a little incentive there. Simmons solution is not perfect but at least he is advancing the notion that the current system is broke and needs fixing.

Good luck getting the players Union to agree to non guaranteed contracts.

 

Anyone who is interested in the NBA knows about its problems.

And the thing is his idea would not only make the regular season irrelevant for non playoff teams, it would also make it irrelevant for some playoff teams. It would turn the regular season into a prolonged preseason.


Regarding making contracts non-guaranteed. All it takes is something to make up for it: make contracts non-guaranteed past X number of years in exchange for raising the minimum payroll.

Might not happen, but still is significantly more realistic than his proposals, especially the mandated ticket price cut one.

Simmons suggests populist gimmicks that would never work because, well, they are gimmicks.

Best way to make sure smaller franchises give a crap is higher minimum payrolls with non-guaranteed contracts and higher contracts for top rookies.