Comments on: Could the NBA’s level of play be better with fewer games?

By: zblott

zblott — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:06:33 +0000

@thereal
Last year OKC dished out $58m, this year it should be $54m after dropping Collison’s contract, 2012-13 it’s $44m and they only lose Nazr from the rotation, 2013-14 it’s $31m and they only lose Westbrook (who I’d say is replaceable after watching the playoffs last year). These are basic facts anyone can look up, so I’m not sure why you’re questioning me on this.

And there’s a big difference between a team getting burned by injuries and by terrible decisions. A guy gets injured and can’t play? Of course there should be something in place for that, but not for doing things like last year’s Joe Johnson or Travis Outlaw signings. In fact, there should be no outs for signing guys like Boozer and Amar’e who had lengthy track records of injuries. Too many dumb decisions that burn franchises – don’t focus on a couple big injuries from the last 15 years. I actually think teams should have amnesty and be allowed to drop a dead contract for a lazy stiff (still have to pay it, but dropped from salary cap) as long as the GM and team president are also forced to leave and not work for one year – I bet we’ll see some smarter decisions if people think they’ll actually have to live with them.

By: therealhtj

therealhtj — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 21:30:16 +0000

OKC made good draft choices – if you want to chalk up the fact that Portland stupidly went with Oden over Durant, But Westbrook, Ibaka, and Harden where solid choices, I’ll give them that.

Now with max money going to Durant, near max-money it’ll take to keep Westbrook, 7 mil for Perkins, and better than-MLE deals heading toward Ibaka and Harden, they’ll end up having to give up at least one of those guys. So how exactly is their payroll getting smaller?

I get that Isaiah was crap as a GM, but what about Houston? Should they spend 3 years in NBA purgatory because Yao Ming had glass legs? Orlando was hamstrung for 7 years because of Grant Hill. Give the teams the opportunity to cut non-productive bums, and WE, THE FANS, will only benefit. Sure it’ll forgive some lousy GM moves, but as a fan, I could care less. And if it were your team sitting on some lousy albatross of a contract, you wouldn’t either.

In any case, seems to work out just fine in the NFL.

By: zblott

zblott — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:08:31 +0000

sorry, meant for that to be a reply to therealhtj

By: zblott

zblott — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:07:48 +0000

And it also rewards stupid teams for making stupid decisions. It’s just like a business: if owners are serious about making money and having a good team, they’d hire competent GM’s. Somehow small-market OKC has a small payroll that’s only getting smaller while winning games – that’s what good front office minds will get you. If you hire Isiah Lord Thomas, you deserve whatever team destruction happens, not an out. If Stern had the cahones to pressure bad owners out of the league if they can’t turn their teams around (it’s not hard, force ticket prices to be lowered if teams continually can’t right the ship – bad owners will leave that situation quickly), you wouldn’t have the problems we’re seeing from clubs today.

By: therealhtj

therealhtj — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 17:33:38 +0000

Being able to get out of bad contracts almost immediately will improve the level of play a lot too, but apparently that’s a “blood issue.”

By: sguy2130

sguy2130 — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:13:19 +0000

I’m all for less games in the NBA, same for MLB. The games mean a lot more with less games (see the NFL). Of course it will never happen because there would be too much money at stake.

For now I’d just settle for a fair playing field for small market teams though, one thing at a time.