The NBA season is over, and the big controversies are teams tanking to get better draft odds, the 65-games-played rule for many awards, and the increased injuries. WRT the latter*, in the 1980s every year an average of six players who made the All-Star game played all 82 games. These days there hasn't been one since 2019. The great increase in decelerating and side-to-side motions is blamed. Eurosteps, crossovers, step-backs, stop-and-pops, and many more put tremendous strain on ankles and calves. Earlier basketball was more straight up and down the court. Fewer games in the season would help but is dead on arrival, because everyone wants the money. Reverting to the ref touching the ball after every made basket would slow the game down and reduce the number of possessions per game. It might help.
Victor Wembanyama has played fewer minutes per game than other top stars and has still been out with occasional injuries - and they bring him back very slowly. He is very tall, very skinny, and is coordinated enough to make those reverses and spin moves that put stress on the legs, so he plays 30 minutes per game instead of 35. Yet he is going to get MVP votes this year, because he is simply is that good. This limiting of minutes is not going to be just an aberration for him. My prediction is this becomes more common in the league. The NBA put in the 65-game rule because when fans buy tickets, they want to see the stars play. They don't want them being held out for "load management," even though they need it to just not be injured. Compare this to starting pitchers in baseball. No one pitches a complete game anymore, because the greater speed puts more stress on the arm, and whole teams try to wear pitchers out by drawing walks and making them throw more pitches. Six innings is a good outing now.
There are a hundred proposals for modifying the draft to reduce or eliminate tanking. Some are saying eliminate it altogether. The best law firms and hospitals don't draft the top graduates every year. Especially if you have a salary cap, teams can make their offers to the players they want. If they have terrible coaches or cities that aren't fun, how is that different from some artists wanting to be in NYC while others want to live more quietly, or Elon Musk moving to Texas? There is an argument that the only shot the worst teams have at getting great players is he draft. But Washington and Sacramento have had top draft picks for years and are still terrible year-in, year-out. Other things are their real problems. No one wanted to play in Oklahoma City either, but Sam Presti is magical and gets players. Brad Stevens of the Celtics is another.
Some of the many proposals are quite odd, and I won't even get started on them. Most of them seem to accomplish something that would improve the situation by reducing the incentive for tanking. All of them still offer some incentive for losing in some situations, and when that happens, teams will tank.Various lotteries dilute but do not eliminate the problem, and the best outcomes are usually for good teams who have their best player out for the year dropping to the bottom to get a prime draft pick. The Indiana Pacers went to the finals last year but lost Tyrese Haliburton for this season and will have a top pick this draft. The all-time example of this was the San Antonio Spurs already having David Robinson but getting Tim Duncan in the next draft because Robinson was out injured. It was the beginning of their dynasty.
As for the awards, I can see points in both directions, but I lean to eliminating the 65-game rule. Some of the voters object because they want to be trusted to make a decision whether a guy playing 63 games was actually more valuable than one playing 70. The league does not want to give up the hammer to make sure players aren't being rested "for no good reason." As if "We want him healthy for the playoffs" isn't a good enough reason.
*Lattest? Latest? Is that where the word latest comes from? Cool. OED has latest=last as archaic and poetic, and also mentions lattermost. I should have use "last" in this context.
2 comments:
Not much of a basketball fan anymore. Until recently, I was a fan of baseball. Pitchers like Bob Gibson, Warren Spahn and Sandy Koufax would have had many complete games per season if they were pitching to today's players.
Remember they were in the era of the higher pitcher's mound, 1963-68. Complete games started going down right after that. The great would be great in any era. Ty Cobb would find a way. Ted Williams would find a way. But the gaudy numbers of 1930s hitting and 1960s pitching would be discounted.
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