The Official NBA Season Thread: Season Starts Now

[nick.]

A players' load management schedule is likely set by the training staff when the schedule is released. I think being more transparent with that would lead to some good faith among fans.


I think leaning into the off court storylines would be a horrible move. Twitter interactions are meaningless. Even with the big trade deadline, more people watched this Super Bowl than all six games of last year's NBA Finals combined. Fans aren't stupid. Give us real, insightful analyis on pre/postgame shows instead of Chuck & Shaq making fun of each other. NFL coverage does a good job breaking down X's & O's


The NBA also has an identity issue with teams getting new courts & uniform sets every season. Turn on a game & you could see the Suns in blue against the Wizards in pink. Nike would never give up the revenue but at least sticking with a team's primary colors would help a bit IMO.

 

[DLF]

A players' load management schedule is likely set by the training staff when the schedule is released. I think being more transparent with that would lead to some good faith among fans.


I think leaning into the off court storylines would be a horrible move. Twitter interactions are meaningless. Even with the big trade deadline, more people watched this Super Bowl than all six games of last year's NBA Finals combined. Fans aren't stupid. Give us real, insightful analyis on pre/postgame shows instead of Chuck & Shaq making fun of each other. NFL coverage does a good job breaking down X's & O's


The NBA also has an identity issue with teams getting new courts & uniform sets every season. Turn on a game & you could see the Suns in blue against the Wizards in pink. Nike would never give up the revenue but at least sticking with a team's primary colors would help a bit IMO.

To clarify I didn’t mean storylines. I meant trades and free agency moves. There’s a spark to actually watch games after such moves bc of curiosity.

But yes. Pre/post game analysis is awful. In game commentary is AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL.

I’ve just given up on idea of nba doing anything about this bc it’s these networks that pay big bucks for rights and they inherantly use these clowns to report their games.

But yes- much better moves would be contracting teams (like the garbage lakers), having like 50 games only, better commentators and analysis. But it won’t and they ship has sailed.

 

[HIM]

Personally, I don’t care how much profit the NBA makes. Or how their ratings are doing.

 

[storm2006]

Too much movement is bad IMO. Needs to be more roster continuity.

Yep, especially for folks who are still teams of fans as opposed to players. The hyper-movement is limited to a few guys in the player empowerment era but when you're a Sixers/Mavs fan and Embiid or Luka asks out with 3-4 years left on their deal has to be a huge blow to the fanbase.

 

[N41D]

How often does this happen, though? If I am not mistaken, these B2B's and 3 in 4's are specifically designed to optimize a team's presence on a coast/within a time zone.. That's why teams go on such a long road trips (4+ games) when they are on the other side of the country ie Northeastern teams in California and vice versa

The Mavs have down the three-in-four-nights triple timezone thing twice this year. But just in general get rid of back to backs or three-in-fours period. Want guys on the court? Give them recovery time.

They'll never match the NFL or CFB in popularity because those sports have built in advantages beyond scheduling for varying reasons - even though CFB is losing some of that with the transfer portal and it'll be interesting to see the impacts of it over time with regards to ratings. But the NBA and MLB are never gonna be the "weekly event" that the NFL is that's a big reason why ratings are where they are.

We in this thread in general appreciate and support player empowerment as it relates to roster movement, desired locations, etc - but I don't believe the general sports/NBA fan does. Crazy roster turnover is prohibitive to popularity - people want to feel "connected" and want to watch careers play out. It's just part of it, unfortunately and I don't know how you reconcile the two right now because the NBA has leaned so far into the other side.

I don't believe "too many teams" is a problem.

The NBA also hurts itself because its local broadcasting is SIGNIFICANTLY better in some cases than the national coverage. The national coverage sucks. Bigly. I listen to them every night so it's probably skewed, but I'd put Mark Followill against ANY national play by play NBA guy and feel like I'm coming out ahead.

 

[storm2006]

Personally, I don’t care how much profit the NBA makes. Or how their ratings are doing.

None of us really care (because there is no reason to) so why should we expect a profitable league to drastically change their forumla in a potentially damaging way? Fewer games = potential for less revenue. Midseason tournament, for example, might not add significant revenue but it won't reduce revenue so why not go for it.

 

[Based Jesus]

The NBA will be fine. They just need to sell the empty ad-space on the player's foreheads, hold a tournament in the middle of the mid-season tournament, expand the play-in to the 15th seed and come up with some more individual awards to give people, like DPOY (Durable Player of the Year), DROY (Durable Rookie of the Year) and CSFMVP (Conference Semi-finals MVP)

 

[DLF]

Personally, I don’t care how much profit the NBA makes. Or how their ratings are doing.

Bad ratings usually reflect bad product on court.

People are bias in this thread bc you guys are all nba fanatics. For most of us normal folk, we ain’t tuning into watch Cavs vs Grizzlies. Half the players won’t care bc it’s 1 of 82. The commentators will be mostly talking about Tee Morant and how the defenders hand was down and thus he is man down and van Gundy will be talking about how the foul call was stupid. The team that get hot from 3 will probably win. It will just be 3 after 3 after 3. Yawn.

 

[pums]

I kinda feel bad for Ben Simmons already. He can have all the millions and lifestyle of a multimillionaire but he doesn’t look happy.

He’s mentally fried in the head and doesn’t look as athletic as before his back is probably not 100%.

Then the whole world is bullying him and piling on him

 

[storm2006]

Bad ratings usually reflect bad product on court.

People are bias in this thread bc you guys are all nba fanatics. For most of us normal folk, we ain’t tuning into watch Cavs vs Grizzlies. Half the players won’t care bc it’s 1 of 82. The commentators will be mostly talking about Tee Morant and how the defenders hand was down and thus he is man down and van Gundy will be talking about how the foul call was stupid. The team that get hot from 3 will probably win. It will just be 3 after 3 after 3. Yawn.

I couldn't find anything more recent that 2018 but basketball fandom in America has been pretty consistent in the 10-12% of Americans range for two decades despite several changes to the game

 

[addict4sneakers]

“Bad product”

 

[lovehateself]

I kinda feel bad for Ben Simmons already. He can have all the millions and lifestyle of a multimillionaire but he doesn’t look happy.

He’s mentally fried in the head and doesn’t look as athletic as before his back is probably not 100%.

Then the whole world is bullying him and piling on him

hes 26 years old, hes got his whole life ahead of him

 

[BIG LEEMELONE]

Fans aren't stupid.

 

[amitt5504]

Fans are just loyal to the stupid moves the franchise makes

 

[lawdog1]

We in this thread in general appreciate and support player empowerment as it relates to roster movement, desired locations, etc - but I don't believe the general sports/NBA fan does. Crazy roster turnover is prohibitive to popularity - people want to feel "connected" and want to watch careers play out. It's just part of it, unfortunately and I don't know how you reconcile the two right now because the NBA has leaned so far into the other side.

Both of my younger brothers have gone from pretty avid NBA fans to casuals and have told me it’s for the exact reason you mention.

 

[BIG LEEMELONE]

The NFL product is worse than NBA. They just have a cult following

 

[pmatic]

I don't think the owners, front office or fans want the six and seven year contracts in the league anymore.

 

[addict4sneakers]

The NFL product is worse than NBA. They just have a cult following

This. Especially with it being 3 nights out of the week. Let them run their race though.

 

[Blue Mamba]

The nba needs to lean all the way into its drama bc they refuse to fix the on court issues (effort, load management, 3 point shooting frequency, foul calls, most games being meaningless in W/L column)

The league can’t make people shoot 3’s less

 

[pmatic]

 

[Hank Scorpio]

Both of my younger brothers have gone from pretty avid NBA fans to casuals and have told me it’s for the exact reason you mention.

I could say I'm experiencing a similar use case. Was talking to a buddy of mine several weeks ago, and he brought up the NBA. I told him I don't really pay attention to the NBA until after the Superbowl. Hadn't realized I've been doing this for at least 9-10 years now.

NBA is pretty entertaining to watch if you're a casual fan. New rules have allowed folks to pick up the game and watch, whenever and wherever. But it's tough to get excited about these marquee matchups with several big-name players sitting out.

The league can’t make people shoot 3’s less

Sure you can. You just have to be creative with your thinking/rule implementation(s).

 

[addict4sneakers]

part of the perceived problem is that y’all don’t want to let go of the old days. It comes with making gods out of Jordan and Kobe and the big man era. I get it, but you gotta evolve.

 

[HIM]

Im not sure too many people would watch inside the nba if it were an x’s and o’s show.

Are we all complicit?

 

[Hank Scorpio]

part of the perceived problem is that y’all don’t want to let go of the old days.

Please elaborate?

 

[Blue Mamba]

The difference in analysis between the NFL and NBA is night and day though. The NFL media does a great job hyping up talent and breaking down plays on shows and even the commentators in game. With the NBA it’s all about narratives and emotions. If the super bowl was covered like the NBA, you don’t see analysts saying stuff like “Jalen Hurts doesn’t have the clutch gene!!!”