What would you change about the NBA?

[EGarrett]

If you had the option to implement one and only one major change to the NBA, what would it be?

There are some minor changes that were also proposed, but I tried to stick to the major ones.

I'm putting in an "Other" option, but I'm not putting in a "No Changes" option, because I want to see what people would choose if they had to pick one or only one.

If I had to change one, it would be removing the East-West Playoff Division. That way we could get the two best teams in the Finals instead of unnaturally forcing it to be East-West. The idea of a Bulls-Pacers NBA Finals in the 90's or a Lakers-Kings Final would be great.

After that it would be removing Zone Defense. After watching the Olympics, the Zone Defense just makes the game more boring and limits scoring in my opinion. It was a change made to benefit the shooters and poor defenders at the cost of the more entertaining players.

[Andre]

Nice thread

I had to go with "less teams in the league" although I don't think it's feasible. Anyways, there are now too many teams compared to the telented players available (unless NBA teams really start to dig abroad..).

I mean, I recently saw some guys getting some minutes or even many minutes, when they couldn't get that same amount of playing time in Italy or other european contries.

When I see someone like Bruno Sundov on the Knicks' bench, even if he doesn't play..I just feel a little embarassed. You know what? There are Thousands of thousands player around the world who are a WAY better than Sundov. If he can play there...almost anyone above 6. foot 9 can.

[Matt]

I'd cut the number of NBA teams to 26.....the competition would be much stronger than it is now. Let's say we remove....Charlotte, Toronto, Memphis, Orlando....i think these are the last 4 expansion teams, or maybe T'Wolvs should be there. Anyways....Okafor, G Wallace, VC, Alston, Bosh, Rose, Gasol, Wells, M Miller, J Will, G Hill, S Francis, C Mobley and D Howard would be dispursed to other teams making them stronger. At least 12 teams would get definite quality players.

[j.23]

i'd raise the stakes in the all-star game. it's fun seeing those guys pull some tricks out of their bags but it tends to get quite sloppy at times with the turnovers and all. i say whatever team wins the all-star game gets home court in the finals. i know it's not fair but it'd sure be interesting

[John-John Joe]

Wonderful topic, once again Big E!

I went with contraction for obvious reasons. Less teams, the more talented they'll be overall. And it will serve to seperate the real go-to-guys from the pretenders.

[fgrep15]

No East and West, and less teams, take out Atlanta, New Orleans, and Golden State.

Send Mickael Pietrus and Baron Davis to Toronto

[Matthew]

The soap opera that surrounds the league. i wish it could be more like the nfl, where shows like sportscenter actually show preview's to matchups, instead of the constand "he said, he said" that we get. its almost secondary that there are games being played...

[John-John Joe]

The soap opera that surrounds the league. i wish it could be more like the nfl, where shows like sportscenter actually show preview's to matchups, instead of the constand "he said, he said" that we get. its almost secondary that there are games being played...

GOOD point Matt, hard to argue with that one.

[#12]

i'd say longer quarters. like 15 minute quarters

[air gordon]

i voted other. i would make the season schedule shorter. cut off at least 10 games

hopefully this would lead to less injuries, no more 4 games in 5 nights, and less games where the players don't really give a crap about

i like the removing the east west division idea, but only if the schedule would be revised where teams play a 'balanced' schedule. i.e. detroit doesn't play a bulk of their games against the central division

also i'd remove "TV timeouts" from the games. it disrupts the gameflow and the commercials being recycled over and over is pretty annoying

[Ataraxia]

I think rule changes and team cuts and schedule reduction arent going to take the real reason why the NBA is so notorious for bringing up the worst behaviour in sportsman.

Definitely gotta look into that high school draft thingy, I mean everybody needs some sorta an education...not everyone can go Coach a team after they retire...if they dont have anything else they qualified in they'll end up a pennyless pauper on the road or end up in bad movies.

Discipline is the key, they should send all NBA players to weekly therapy sessions so they can confess their problems and get them sorted....I mean its not easy being them, they need time to breathe it all out and start fresh sometimes.

Well as Cambymanvol3 said, I think they have to take out the "cheerleader like gossip" factor that surrounds the NBA...I say fire all the NBA critics, they terrible and practically 99% of them are biased and never give a report for both sides....I say let Steven Speilberg become an NBA analyst, ah yeah he'll bring in some Saving Private Ryan attitude to the NBA critics occupation.

[Choppies]

Id have a Points system for every win a team gets points

3 points a win for a team in your own division.
2 points a win for a team not in your division but in your conference.
1 point a win for a team in the other conference.

[Amphatoast]

Id have a Points system for every win a team gets points

3 points a win for a team in your own division.
2 points a win for a team not in your division but in your conference.
1 point a win for a team in the other conference.

bad idea, some divisions are tougher than others
ex- hawks and bobcats are in the same division
ex- spurs, mavs, rockets in the same division
ex- the whole atlantic division

[Ataraxia]

pts system's a pretty neat idea...but it should be diff

3 Pts - Winning against team in other conference
2 Pts - Winning a game against team in own conference

[Andre]

I don't like the point system, it's too much soccer-like and I hate soccer.

Plus, it would be unfair in some circumstances: take for example INDIANA this season. They have been dismantled and they are playing with average players. In this case, Teams from the WEST would get more points for beating INDIANA than teams from the EAST, and that happens just because they are in a different conference...NOT FAIR!!

[Jowe]

No more guarenteed Contracts.

So you don't see guys playing great in their contract year, sign a max deal for 6/7 years, and stink it up playing mediocre for 5 years, then when the 6th year comes around play like an MVP for that pay check..


Trust me, that'll liven up the nba for sure. So you would see guys playing their arses off every game or else they won't get paid.


Just a thought

[Andre]

No more guarenteed Contracts.

So you don't see guys playing great in their contract year, sign a max deal for 6/7 years, and stink it up playing mediocre for 5 years, then when the 6th year comes around play like an MVP for that pay check..

That would be awesome, but it remains just a thought or we would see the worst LOCKOUT ever!!!!!

[Jason Kidd.]

I wouldn't change nothing exept all Ok ok back to the reality oops there goes gravity,uhm NO i wouldn't change almost nothing.
only thing what i would change-remove orlando magic from the league
fuckers*

[air gordon]

No more guarenteed Contracts.

So you don't see guys playing great in their contract year, sign a max deal for 6/7 years, and stink it up playing mediocre for 5 years, then when the 6th year comes around play like an MVP for that pay check..


Trust me, that'll liven up the nba for sure. So you would see guys playing their arses off every game or else they won't get paid.


Just a thought

just wondering- who were the last few players that have done that? i was thinking about this myself and the only max contract player in this situation is vince carter. and that maybe is debateable

[GloveGuy]

I think you could put Grant Hill into that category. There hasn't been one year where's he's lived up to the contract he's received. Somehow though, I'm giving him more benefit of the doubt then I am to Vince.

[Andrew]

Probably because Hill had six great years before the first injury in 2000 and has been eager (perhaps too eager) to return to the court. While Vince has had nagging injuries the last few seasons, he has played more than Hill.

[matmat8]

Less timeouts, im starting to not being able to watch an entire game.

A shorter season maybe 50 or 60 games that way the games would count more and less injuries, of course this isn't possible in terms of business.

Same for playoffs 7-7-7-7 is too much i would like to see more surprises like in ncaa.

[Donatello]

Less timeouts, im starting to not being able to watch an entire game.

A shorter season maybe 50 or 60 games that way the games would count more and less injuries, of course this isn't possible in terms of business.

Same for playoffs 7-7-7-7 is too much i would like to see more surprises like in ncaa.

exactly. what the hell is the point of playing so many games? especially the playoffs....i guess selling more tickets. but geeez we really don't need a 7 game series. i think 5 or maybe even 3 would be fine.

[Jason Kidd.]

no actually there are one thing what i would like to change.I would remove the free throw and three point line

[Username123]

One thing i would change is the damn fouls! Sometimes they call the stupidest fouls it just makes me angry