This is partly motivated by the video of NBA players being asked what changes they’d like to see occur in the NBA, what would the general fandom like to see changed or added to the NBA to improve it? It could be something very simple, or maybe something major.
To start, I had three suggestions:
-
The IST should have organized groups to just follow the current divisions within the league, since this would allow for rivalries to foster again and for divisional rivalries to matter again to some degree. It’s a shame that of the big 4 sports leagues in the US/Canada the NBA by far has the weakest divisional rivalries. At least if the groups were organized into the current divisional format this would make that matter somewhat again where currently divisional titles are completely meaningless in the grand scheme of things.
-
With the inevitable arrival of the NBA to Las Vegas, it would seem somewhat odd to have the summer league continue in the city, once the Vegas team arrives they should consider having an alternating city format for each summer league, where instead of it going to cities with NBA teams it could instead go to cities that don’t have them, in order to allow broader access to attend the games along with gauging markets for potential expansion in the future. This could also similarly apply to the NBA all star game going to cities without an NBA team for similar reasons, maybe an all star game hosted in Honolulu someday, or even a city like Montreal for example.
-
Lastly, they should consider following a format like the MLB and NFL and have a dedicated timeframe for international games during the regular season to grow the sport abroad. They should market it better to gain some traction behind it rather than have the one-off game or two during the regular season that is being planned this season with the spurs for example. It could be something like “international weekend” with a few teams going abroad for 2 days right before all star break where they head to somewhere like Mexico City, London, Paris, etc. Essentially they should just organize it and market it better than they are currently with the global games which I think kind of goes under the radar.
With that being said, what are some ideas or changes you’d like to see?
I find freethrows strange. Why do you get an attempt per point? I think the free throw should be 1 shot, worth the amount you were shooting when fouled. Shooting a 3 and got fouled? 1 freethrow, worth 3 points.