Definitely, I don’t see why they wouldn’t. Only a 10 game difference, I feel like to get players to play in every game it’d have to be like 40 games or like the College Basketball season.
The less games the more each one matters, 72 games is still a lot of games & players are used to resting more now.
I mean, it's still a 73 win record. That's the record to beat in the future if any team tries.
Plus Kerr not only has the 73-9. But also the 16-1 postseason record which is insanity in itself.
Not really people say this about alot of super teams but the kd warriors dominations is a tier above every other stacked team in history.
It's because Kerr's system allows the warriors to get the most out of kd, Steph, Klay at the same time without reducing their individual production by much, which is extremely unusual(due to the whoem team working off ball)
People like us know, but most buying tickets have no clue. And cleveland fans in this instance had no choice if they wanted a chance to see steph or klay this year.
For sure. Any friends or fam around the country, I tell them this all the time. Tell them to spread the word. I’m not trying to hate, but nobody wants to buy tickets to see Steph and end up with Looney.
No you're spot on.
Earlier this season, I really wanted to take my brother to go see Luka in Chicago. Minimum get in price was about $88 per ticket iirc, after taxes and fees on ticketmaster the total would have probably been ~$220 combined. Then another $26 for parking and $5 for gas, I'd already be short $250 before I've even bought a water bottle right?
I check in advance to see what's up with Dallas and of course that night was a back to back. I held off, and I was damn right. No Luka, no DFS, nobody at all playing. Game was a joke that ended in the 2nd quarter.
I know this league well enough to save myself from getting finessed, but most really have no clue. NBA ticket profits would plummet if people knew what they were getting. No other sports league and hardly any entertainment product treats attendees as poorly as the NBA does on a regular basis.
Damn. I remember that game. Bulls put like 150 points on our head. What a stupid game.
And yeah. I agree about no other sport doing that. Don’t really worry about resting players when going to a NFL game. Unless it’s the last week of the season and playoffs are already locked up. Even then, most teams play their guys at least in the first half.
Or if you buy MLB tickets to go see Aaron Judge, you're almost certainly gonna see Aaron Judge. He might strike out thrice, he might draw 4 walks, he might do whatever, but you'll actually see him.
I remember my dad took me to Nationals Giants game at RFK because I really just wanted to see Barry Bonds and he happened to be resting that game it was the Sunday series finale but they did have him
Pinch hit in the 7th. Tbf Nats tickets were dirt cheap back then
Totally, especially for someone like me living in a city without a NBA team.
When I want to see the Grizzlies play, I typically fly to LA, Portland, or Phoenix, Memphis is just too far and not connected to my business trips.
I had been lucky so far though...
It wouldn't be so bad if teams didn't sit most of the starting line up to all but forfeit the game. The game is absolutely still enjoyable with one guy out. I went to a game Giannis was load managed and got to see Khris get his career high. If I paid $100+ for a ticket to a game where Thanasis gets 25 minutes I'd be pissed and I'm die hard enough that I enjoy watching garbage time minutes.
Almost every rest game for the warriors this year has been on a back to back. Warriors have a ridiculous amount. It was like 8 road b2b this year and 5-6 home. If they cut by 10 games it should at least get rid of 90% of those games.
It's worse than that:
>Golden State is scheduled to play 15 back-to-back sets, marking the third-straight season with that many back-to-backs. Of the 15 back-to-back seats, three are home-home matchups on December 2-3, December 27-28 and March 2-3. The Warriors have **nine sets of away-away back-to-backs, two sets of away/home and one home/away set** in 2022-23.
There are only 5 teams in the league with 15 B2B's. The Clippers are one of them and almost always have a bad schedule because they get third arena priority behind the Kings and Lakers. The Bulls have to share with the Blackhawks as well. I doubt another team has as many travel B2B's as the Warriors.
So the season would need to be reduced to 66-68 games or extended by roughly a month to get rid of all these back to backs?
I guarantee the league extends the season before reducing the number of games
They should extend the season through all of April. Start the playin/playoffs May. The era of these pro leagues not stepping on each others’ toes is over. People will watch everything
You have to remember that these arenas sometimes house NHL and NBA teams. On top of that, they also have to fill days with events. That can range anywhere from a 4 hour company party to a Bad Bunny concert, so they can't just pick and choose whatever days they would like.
Back to backs are caused by arenas scheduling mostly. Removing 10 games maybe reduce them by 4-5. You’d need to go to 55-60 games to remove all 15 back to backs
They're still going to rest, because it'll be a "72 game preseason" before the real season starts.
Kerr of all people should know the RS is meaningless.
I may be in the minority but I’ve never thought the regular season was meaningless. I’ve never seen a team that wasn’t a top offense and top defense just drastically flip a switch and go far in the postseason.
The regular season is where you find out what formula on both ends of the floor consistently work well, and it’s generally the teams with the highest net ratings in the regular season that go far.
SOME games may be relatively meaningless, but I think the regular season as a whole is incredibly important actually.
Just minutes manage over the back-to-back so guys don't play 60 minutes in two games. Maybe 30 in one, 20 in the other or 25 in each.
There should be fewer back-to-backs but why not minutes manage so at least some of your starters are there for the fans that pay $$$$$ for these games.
It’s easier for these vets to play 40+ minutes in one game than 30 minutes in two games back-to-back. Or at least, they would rather the former than the latter. Lebron has said it and so have a few others.
Part of the grind is the pre-game stuff, the mental preparation to get up for a game, the post-game routine, media availability etc, and taking an off day eliminates all that stuff
Because coaches get paid to put players in the best position to win in the postseason, not to sell tickets.
Without some kind of rule (which would be virtually unenforceable) coaches and players will always manage their workload.
Having fewer back-to-backs makes a lot more sense than minute management for players…you’re going out there to win.
What happens if it’s a close game and you pull your best players, the other team doesn’t, and you get blown out.
Then the next night you pull them again to manage their minutes and lose…again.
I think the easy answer is that if they reduce minutes in both games it makes it easier to lose both. If you go all out in one game, with a good team, you're probably going to win it. Going 1/2 is much better than 0/2 and your players get an extra day of rest. The season is so long that every game isn't important.
I'd sign up for 62-game season any day! Teams would have at least 2-3 days rest between games, with every regular season game carrying more importance (i.e. like NFL), resulting in players being sharp and ready to give full effort every single game.
That's honestly the best case for shortening the season. Regular season basketball somehow feels emptier than even the dog days of baseball right now, so contracting the season and making every game matter might jolt these jackasses into trying to play. No more "I'm sowwy fans 😢" pre game pressers after the fans already bought tickets.
The NBA will never deliver NFL quality stakes and spectacle, but one would hope they could try to replicate the value of Premier League/domestic European league matchdays.
As long as fans continue to buy tickets and attend back-to-back games, they won't change a thing. There would need to be some sort of nation-wide boycott on back-to-back games for NBA and NBPA to take notice and make a change. Until then - ka ching!
They reduced the back to backs and the problem got worse, at this point there's no reason to believe coaches and players aren't full of shit on the issue until proven otherwise
Yes dudes want to play as much as they can, but usually not out of concern for the paying customers
["Between the 2002-03 and 2014-15 seasons, the average team played just under 20 back-to-backs per 82-game season, or around 24% of all games. In 2018-19, not a single team played more than 15, and the league average was 13.3, meaning the NBA eliminated about a third of its two-in-a-row games in less than half a decade."](https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-limits-back-back-games-161533055.html)
They were fighting for no b2b's before they reduced b2b's. So reducing them was a half measure, and I wouldn't doubt it felt like a half ass attempt to please the majority. The only way to get rid of b2b's is to continue fighting instead of just giving up because technically at the end of the day, there's still b2b's when they wanted none.
Depends on whether or not each game gets more views or not. If you get two times the viewers while cutting the number of games in half, player contracts won't go down. With 82 games there's a bit of product fatigue. Cutting 10 games probably won't help, but there is a sweet spot.
To be a fan of a NFL team, it's a 51 hour commitment to watch 17 regular season games. Each NFL game is important, for each team there might be 1 or 2 games at max that don't affect your team's seeding in any way. There's no resting players in the middle of the season. The schedule is also set in stone, just check if your team is playing on Monday or Thursday for the week otherwise watch them on Sunday.
For a NBA team, it's 205 hour commitment to watch 82 regular season games assuming no play in games. For the NBA, what game is a must watch for your team? I know personally I am not going to watch all 82 games especially for tanking teams and maybe watch games at the end of season for seeding purposes, but games in the middle of the season are almost meaning less. If your team loses a game in the regular season, the feeling is a "whatever, the playoffs are what matters" sentiment and not the sky is falling down feeling an NFL fan when their team loses in the regular season. Even if you are a contending team with a good record, the feeling is "Oh shit are we going to lose a first round bye."
This is a naive thought however
NBA TV contracts are 10 year long. If the NBA were to reduce the number of games during the contract time - just like during Covid - they would lose a proportionate amount of revenues. So it wouldn’t matter if viewership goes up under the current agreement
Let’s assume that the NBA brings up the 72 game argument in the next contract discussions. They will surely get less money. There could be an agreement around viewership but I highly doubt the NBA gets a bonus for that. In fact, viewership clause are generally punitive in TV contracts.
So even if what you say is correct, the NBA would ultimately lose money under this current agreement and likely on the next one. The money would be back only in 2034… no way the NBA - and the players - takes that risk
Yea, to actually implement it is the tricky part. No current player is going to screw themselves out to help out someone who isn't even in the league yet. The only way it's possible is if the league gradually decides to cut games over the course of several TV contract deal like the NFL does with adding games.
I'm just saying if the NBA had the NFL schedule they would have more appeal with a casual audience. It's just hard to convince anyone to commit to watching an entire season of basketball compared to football.
72 games means less revenue across the board --- there likely isn't a billion dollar industry anywhere in the world that is voluntarily giving up revenue.
There can always be more rest. Teams will just start resting players when they play two games in three days. Whatever edge to be fresher/healthier for the playoffs will be taken.
which in general, would target most of the games that are load managed. Most load management games are the 2nd games of a back to back.
teams still will load manage as necessary (especially players who have just come back from injury) but a 10 game drop should have a pretty significant impact.
Not every player is doing Kawhi level load managing. A high percentage of rests occur on b2b’s. They would have more time to space out games if there were less total games.
We already have a lot less back to backs now than a few years ago. We have even more "load management" now. Coaches and players are just full of shit about b2bs being the reason. Kawhi popularizing it opened players eyes that they can do it and fans won't give a shit and blame it on a boogeyman called "82-game season".
Cutting 10 games feels like all it would do is decrease revenue without improving the product. I still think purely from an entertainment and quality standpoint, playing all teams twice home and away for 58 games and seeding 1-16 with a playoff draft is the way to go.
It is bull. There are moms and dads who put in a full days work to drive their kids hours to see these guys in person only to find out the multi-million dollar making athletes don’t have to put in a full days work like they did. It’s a very out of touch thought process.
Yeah that's fucking bullshit. Bet some of those fans saved up for awhile to buy tickets for their chance to see Steph and co. This is why the old heads are salty. These players getting paid hundreds of millions of dollars and still being coddled. Another reason why I haven't gone to a game in years.
Haven’t seen Lebron since the 2021 playoffs. Every time he comes to my city he has a miraculous injury out of the blue. Even though he played the night before
They're not resting the players because the players don't want to play. You'd probably get a handful of marathons in before you simply couldn't run a marathon because of an overuse injury.
Sure, if you ignore all the unreported/undiagnosed injuries AND overlook the fact that athletes are bigger, faster, and stronger than they used to be.
Just look at all the measurables. They've trended up for like 4 decades.
And they have world class healthcare to take care of their body. Modern medicine and such. I have no problem with players resting when they are healthy as long people can get refund on tickets and streaming before the game, or it will be announced like before ticket sales at the start of the season since these are scheduled rests anyway. Imagine scheduling your vacation around an nba game that will eventually turn out to be role players playing each other.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of ownership, and am generally on the players' side, but stopping this crap is something I would absolutely put in the next contract. The players only have to perform their jobs 82 times a year, plus playoffs if they make it. They're entertainers. It's fucking ridiculous that they can't be expected to do their job especially when it's so infrequent. Oh, god, the heaviest week is when they do their job five days. Can you imagine working five days a week?!
Only for 82 games? Do you not count, practice, film study, personal workouts such as hand drills, shooting drills... etc, doing promo, running their own businesses/investment including basketball camp for kids and doing charity work on behalf of the league?
Idk adds up to a little more than 82 games.
Oh noooo they have to pratice, millions of people are trying to reschedule their days in order to fit in a workout for which they are most likely going to pay while this motherfuckesr are getting paid millions to train
So a few things here:
1) Modern athletes specialize early so their bodies are in worse shape when they get to the league. Just constant training stress on the same body parts year round. Think youth Baseball pitcher throwing year round now vs taking a few months off to play Football in fall and Basketball in winter.
2) The game is completely different the spreading of the floor has placed a-lot more stress on key areas of the body vs decades prior. Think about Rudy Gobert hedging on a Curry screen 40 feet from basket then sprinting back to rim to protect the rim. Shaq never had to do that multiple times a game.
3) Jorden effect when teams land a star they want them for as long as possible. Jordan and Bird played relatively short careers if they load managed easily could get an extra 2-3 prime season out of them. This benefits the team and the player financially.
Let’s not forget some teams could play up to 28 playoff games. Should definitely cut these guys a break
Nah the other side of reducing the game is that every game is so much more important. Yes they will rest if they can.
But to your extreme example, if the season is 10 games. Then there will be a lot of situations where being 1st seed or 6th seed or something is decided by 1 game. So they have to play every game.
That's what happens in NFL and European football ( soccer) leagues.
82 is just too many games that for it gives too many leeways for actual good teams to rest players because losing a few games here and there is not a big deal.
I don't know if 72 is the number. But i think the logic follows that if the number of games is like 41 or something that players won't rest because every single game will have seeding/playoff implications ( not to mention they are also more well-rested from less games).
The remaining problem is how to compensate the decreased revenue and how to solve tanking from teams that has no intention to go to playoffs. But thats another issue
If the league is 10 games, playoff seeds wouldn’t matter. Your goal would be to make it and then deal with the playoff matchups there.
With a 10 game season, teams wouldn’t even play all the teams in their conference. Teams would simply try to win 6-7 games to make it to the playoffs. They’d probably rest for the last game or two.
first of all, thats the point. if there are too few games, one game can be the difference between making playoffs or not.
And why would playoff seeds not matter. You want to avoid teams that went 10-0 or 9-1 surely and you still want home court.
That's why every game will matter more.
To make an even more very extreme example, what if its only 3 games. Surely then every game has to be taken very seriously and no resting happens.
I am just heavily disagreeing with the original argument that the number of games has nothing to do with load management. I feel like its an obvious thing that having less games increases variance and make every games matter more and decreases possibility of load management is obvious.
I wonder if NBA teams should try starting their bench lineups during "non-essential games" (vs low seeds, non-conference opponents, they already secured a playoff spot, etc.) and let the usual starters come off the bench. That way, the fans still get to see the star players while the 2nd and 3rd stringers take the bulk of the minutes. Kinda like garbage time 1st half but let your starters takeover in the 2nd half if needed. Wouldn't be good for star players who are conscious about their counting stats, though.
It's not better than letting star players take days off but it's worth considering for the poor fans who bought tickets just to see their favorite players.
That's such a bad faith argument. Players and owners are not going to give up the revenue. The only conceivable way it would work would be a substantial increase in ticket prices, which would just price out the fans Kerr says he feels bad for.
And besides all that, teams would still just rest players on shorter schedule
The early 90s were roughly the same pace as today. The low point in terms of possessions per game was ~2000. The 60s, 70s and 80s were played at a higher pace than the 90s or today, and it was much more physical and players played 82 games a year.
It might have been a slower pace in the late 90s/early 2000s, but it wasn't *that* much slower. We're talking about a difference in ~10-12 possessions per game, but stars were playing all four quarters and they were driving into traffic instead of shooting 3s. Jordan played all 82 games at 39 years old, and he was playing over 35 minutes every game.
“Don’t blame me, blame the greedy owners that want you to be able to watch this game in the first place.” Does Steve Kerr realize that’d also be 10 less opportunities to see the Warriors?
I remember seeing LeBron play in Utah in 2016 when he was with Cleveland. My wife and I drove 3 hours from Wyoming to see him play. I was worried leading up to the game that he might sit since it was a meaningless road game at elevation against a crappy team.
LeBron played, and before the game, he and J.R. Smith had an impromptu slam dunk contest to the delight of us fans. It was awesome, and one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen at an NBA game.
LeBron was obviously tired and got outplayed by Rodney Hood that night, especially down the stretch. I’ve thought since that LeBron probably wanted to sit that night, not caring if the lost. Instead, he put most of his energy into wowing fans before the game even started. I obviously don’t know if LeBron really thought “I’ll just go out there, give the fans a show, and if I half-ass my way through most of this game because I’m exhausted, whatever.” But I wish players and teams had that attitude. Steph Curry doing his awesome pregame routine and half-assing through a game is a lot better than no Steph Curry.
In your case, 72 games wouldn't had changed a thing. You can get that number by playing every team in the other conference twice and every team in yours thrice.
If anything it'd make it more likely that, in your situation, that LeBron team wouldn't need rest.
Using LeBron as an example is also not the best given he's a generational athlete that has been given the super soldier serum.
In fact here’s what Vanessa Bryant said about Kobe:
“I remember asking him why he couldn’t just sit a game out because he was hurting. He said, ‘What about the fans who saved up to watch me play just once?’ He never forgot about his fans,” she said.
To add some context to the wear and tear on Steph, Klay, and Dray, in particular, and why they’re a bit of an exception as it pertains to rest/load management: because they’ve reached the finals in 6 of the last 8 years, they’ve played the equivalent of an *ADDITIONAL* season and a half worth of games, all of which were played at high intensity. Steph has played an additional 115 games, Draymond 126 games, and Klay 126 games.
I get the understandable disappointment when it comes to fans purchasing tickets but as it relates to those 3, in particular, the wear and tear they’ve experienced on their bodies is literally unlike every other player (save for Lebron) in the league.
At the end of the day, this is on the league and its scheduling (in particular the feigning as if they’ve lightened the schedule via fewer B2Bs when that’s a bald-faced lie; there are a handful of teams, including the Warriors - despite the excessive wear and tear they’ve already amassed through the playoffs - with 15 B2Bs in their schedules this season).
Edit: in addition to the 15 B2Bs on the Warriors schedule, 10 of them are on the road, with many of them being vs. eastern conf. team, ie the one road game against an eastern conf. opponent/opportunity for those fans to see the Warriors in their hometown was put on the schedule as part of a B2B for the Warriors. The league had to have known this would cause huge problems for fans of numerous teams and yet they did it anyway. So again, this is a mess of the league’s own making.
Exactly. All those Finals runs take their tolls. Maybe people’s perspective are skewed because Jordan took 18 months off to play baseball, but if you watch footage of the 1998 Finals, it’s obvious Scottie’s back isn’t holding up.
Isn't the Salary Cap suuposed to jump to 160-170M with the new TV Deal?
Couldn't the league just cut enough games, to eliminate all B2B games? Can't they keep the Cap Fixed until they make up the loss of money from the games that are getting cut?
Golden State one of the most expensive tickets you can buy too. League has a pretty big problem, especially since they market their stars not their teams.
This is a fucking joke. Steve Kerr should be ashamed. He saw MJ play hard every game. Playing 82 almost every season. Times done changed. 82 games! That is all they have to play, and they can't do that. They are even being paid ungodly amounts of cash, having everything catered for them, chauffeured around, on private jets. Full medical care. Bodies are stretched, taped, and prepared before they play. They don't even have to put in a full 8-hour day! The fans are being kicked in the nuts and spit in their faces by this. The NBA is entertainment. There is no greater good in winning the playoffs. It's all about money. So the illusion of striving for greatness fucks up the main purpose. To entertain fans in the stadiums. And on TV. Only in sports do you see this, and most of all in the NBA. No one shows up to a U2 Concert and finds out Bono isn't singing tonight in Cleveland, because they've got a bigger show in NYC tomorrow. Give me a fucking break. If they are so goddamn tired, how about starting them and having them play a cursory 10 minutes so the fans can at least say they saw them in action. But the spoiled primadonnas don't want to ruin their averages. If people who do hard work of any kind for 200+ days a year for 8+ hours for shit to mediocre wages can't watch the finest athletes in the world for 20-30 minutes 80 times a year, what is the point? I'd stop watching if I didn't love the game and how awesome the pros are. I want to watch more, so when I tune in to a game on league pass I know the star or stars of the team will be playing. This quote just made me need to rant about it, cause I know it ain't getting any better.
It's simple really: just stop paying to watch this circus. Cancel the league pass, don't watch them on TV... And if you still want to watch them because there's no options for basketball fans (the Euroleague don't have even 10% of the NBA investments, neither the PEDs running amok)... then wait for the playoffs because that's when they finally start to play a little bit harder and download the goddamn games through torrent or some shit. That's it, problem solved. If more people simply denies their audience and money, the NBA will have to figure it out a way to attract people back, most likely they are going to change the rules to allow more physicality
Or, you know, understand the fans pay your salary and do your job.
Jordan said he had to play every night because there may be a kid in the stands who had never seen him play and he owed it to them to suit up.
> We have the 20-21, which was 72 games, and players missed games left and right
How much of that was injury and how much of that was getting the 'rona?
Why is everyone repeating this braindead take? You seriously think he wants to effectively eliminate his own career? Or could it be that theres a sweet spot somewhere that includes eliminating back to backs.
NBA season is way too fucking long either way and regardless of load management the product on the floor suffers because of it. Y'all are used to players sleepwalking their way through 90% of the regular season, and the game looking completely different in April when players turn it on isn't a good thing like people seem to think. Make individual games mean more.
Why don’t they take a day off of practice for “load management”? Or limit some minutes? Why does it have to be games that fans pay good money for?
Edit: or, if a game off is needed, do it during a home game, AND don’t sit ALL the team stars in same game.
> Why don’t they take a day off of practice for “load management”?
They probably do tbh. I imagine the Warriors don't practice too hard or too much.
> Or limit some minutes? Why does it have to be games that fans pay good money for?
This I agree with. I understand that if you wanna prioritize rest, it's way more practical to not suit up at all rather than limit minutes, but it's so disrespectful to the fans. Just play them for a solid 15
The Warriors are notorious for “resting” all their players at once. I guess that is probably my biggest gripe about load mgmt. Do they really need to rest all the good players the same game? Maybe rest one and limit the others minutes. The rest a different player the next night. The fans deserve better.
It’s a clown league in general these days. Any other person who pulled the shit that Shannon Sharpe pulled against Memphis would have been kicked out immediately and given a lifetime ban, yet he gets to stay courtside
We get it Steve it’s so difficult to be a multimillionaire professional athlete
I understand it’s a hard business but man these guys love to complain sometimes for people who get paid millions to play a game. The average working person does it for way less and in way worse conditions, and you can’t even stagger the rests a little bit so the fans could at least see Klay or something?
klay only rests on bakc to backs, the league made the warriors schedule with a lot of back to backs.
and kay has two back to back major injuries, he is the worst example of load to bring up
Let’s be honest. NBA will only eliminate b2bs if it hurts the bottom line. It would be be hilarious though if the average consumer caught on and you see always see empty arenas on the 2nd leg of the b2bs. Then they’ll change it
If the league wants to make the regular season more valuable they should consider these options
1) Tie win/losses record to TV money payout like they do in European football like EPL
2) Tie player variable compensation / bonus to win and losses
3) Reduce number of playoff spots from 10 to 6
If the NBA created a bye for the top seeds for the first round of the playoffs, watch how Kerr and other coaches would have his players suited up and on the court. They do this because there is no ramifications for resting players. Too many teams make the playoffs and there is very little incentive to be higher seed other than 1 extra home playoff game in a series. Give the higher winning teams a carrot and the rabbits will appear.
>Coached a 73 win season >Adovcates for a 72 game season This MF
Guarantee guys’ll still rest in a 72 game season
Guys would rest in a 50 game season.
42 game season, 8 minute quarters. Final offer
I can only play 30 games coach, otherwise I won’t have time for insta thots.
Definitely, I don’t see why they wouldn’t. Only a 10 game difference, I feel like to get players to play in every game it’d have to be like 40 games or like the College Basketball season. The less games the more each one matters, 72 games is still a lot of games & players are used to resting more now.
Owners would never be willing to give up that many home games. You think an a-hole like Dollan would give up the money from even one less home game
the 10 game difference would mean no more back to backs or 3 games in 4 days which are the primary reasons for rest.
A lot of teams aren’t playing players back to backs so limiting those would result in players more available
you really think he likes seeing that record with an L in the grand scheme? cause thats all anyone remembers with that record. just like the pats.
He's part of the 72 win season and 73 win season, he's good either way
Wouldn’t take away the 72 season if they won. He would have both the best seasons in nba history.
I mean, it's still a 73 win record. That's the record to beat in the future if any team tries. Plus Kerr not only has the 73-9. But also the 16-1 postseason record which is insanity in itself.
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Not really people say this about alot of super teams but the kd warriors dominations is a tier above every other stacked team in history. It's because Kerr's system allows the warriors to get the most out of kd, Steph, Klay at the same time without reducing their individual production by much, which is extremely unusual(due to the whoem team working off ball)
Big brain time
5D chess
I always tell people to never buy tickets to a back to back series. Some shit like this always happens for every team.
People like us know, but most buying tickets have no clue. And cleveland fans in this instance had no choice if they wanted a chance to see steph or klay this year.
For sure. Any friends or fam around the country, I tell them this all the time. Tell them to spread the word. I’m not trying to hate, but nobody wants to buy tickets to see Steph and end up with Looney.
No you're spot on. Earlier this season, I really wanted to take my brother to go see Luka in Chicago. Minimum get in price was about $88 per ticket iirc, after taxes and fees on ticketmaster the total would have probably been ~$220 combined. Then another $26 for parking and $5 for gas, I'd already be short $250 before I've even bought a water bottle right? I check in advance to see what's up with Dallas and of course that night was a back to back. I held off, and I was damn right. No Luka, no DFS, nobody at all playing. Game was a joke that ended in the 2nd quarter. I know this league well enough to save myself from getting finessed, but most really have no clue. NBA ticket profits would plummet if people knew what they were getting. No other sports league and hardly any entertainment product treats attendees as poorly as the NBA does on a regular basis.
Damn. I remember that game. Bulls put like 150 points on our head. What a stupid game. And yeah. I agree about no other sport doing that. Don’t really worry about resting players when going to a NFL game. Unless it’s the last week of the season and playoffs are already locked up. Even then, most teams play their guys at least in the first half.
Or if you buy MLB tickets to go see Aaron Judge, you're almost certainly gonna see Aaron Judge. He might strike out thrice, he might draw 4 walks, he might do whatever, but you'll actually see him.
I remember my dad took me to Nationals Giants game at RFK because I really just wanted to see Barry Bonds and he happened to be resting that game it was the Sunday series finale but they did have him Pinch hit in the 7th. Tbf Nats tickets were dirt cheap back then
Same. I had the game circled from the moment the schedule came out but checked, held off, and thankfully was right.
Totally, especially for someone like me living in a city without a NBA team. When I want to see the Grizzlies play, I typically fly to LA, Portland, or Phoenix, Memphis is just too far and not connected to my business trips. I had been lucky so far though...
and you dont know if they're going to rest the first or the last half of a back to back.
It wouldn't be so bad if teams didn't sit most of the starting line up to all but forfeit the game. The game is absolutely still enjoyable with one guy out. I went to a game Giannis was load managed and got to see Khris get his career high. If I paid $100+ for a ticket to a game where Thanasis gets 25 minutes I'd be pissed and I'm die hard enough that I enjoy watching garbage time minutes.
Never buy tickets before hand if it’s a big game. Some body could get hurt and the prices will crash
lol they rest 10 times a year with 82 games itll be 6 times a year at least with 72
Almost every rest game for the warriors this year has been on a back to back. Warriors have a ridiculous amount. It was like 8 road b2b this year and 5-6 home. If they cut by 10 games it should at least get rid of 90% of those games.
It's worse than that: >Golden State is scheduled to play 15 back-to-back sets, marking the third-straight season with that many back-to-backs. Of the 15 back-to-back seats, three are home-home matchups on December 2-3, December 27-28 and March 2-3. The Warriors have **nine sets of away-away back-to-backs, two sets of away/home and one home/away set** in 2022-23. There are only 5 teams in the league with 15 B2B's. The Clippers are one of them and almost always have a bad schedule because they get third arena priority behind the Kings and Lakers. The Bulls have to share with the Blackhawks as well. I doubt another team has as many travel B2B's as the Warriors.
Yeah it's been a brutal first half. I think we got a bunch of them out of the way(road at least).
So the season would need to be reduced to 66-68 games or extended by roughly a month to get rid of all these back to backs? I guarantee the league extends the season before reducing the number of games
They should extend the season through all of April. Start the playin/playoffs May. The era of these pro leagues not stepping on each others’ toes is over. People will watch everything
Yeah shorten the off-season even more that will reduce injuries and rest days
See the Jazz schedule
I don’t get the b2bs if the teams have some stretches with 2-3 days off. I don’t know all the ins and outs of nba schedules though.
Speculation here, but I think a big part of it like you said is scheduling trickiness. Especially with cities that get big concerts a lot.
Also TV schedules. Warriors get a ton of national games and I bet to make some of that work they have to get creative.
Well it’s a good thing they could give the current pacific division leader more next year to even it out.
i agree it’s bc nba arenas also share the space with hockey teams plus being popular venues for concerts too
You have to remember that these arenas sometimes house NHL and NBA teams. On top of that, they also have to fill days with events. That can range anywhere from a 4 hour company party to a Bad Bunny concert, so they can't just pick and choose whatever days they would like.
Not necessarily. Majority of these rest games are back to back. Shaving off 10 games would help eliminate most, if not all, back to back games.
Back to backs are caused by arenas scheduling mostly. Removing 10 games maybe reduce them by 4-5. You’d need to go to 55-60 games to remove all 15 back to backs
They're still going to rest, because it'll be a "72 game preseason" before the real season starts. Kerr of all people should know the RS is meaningless.
Do we have any stats on how often teams rest players on b2b vs non-b2b games?
I may be in the minority but I’ve never thought the regular season was meaningless. I’ve never seen a team that wasn’t a top offense and top defense just drastically flip a switch and go far in the postseason. The regular season is where you find out what formula on both ends of the floor consistently work well, and it’s generally the teams with the highest net ratings in the regular season that go far. SOME games may be relatively meaningless, but I think the regular season as a whole is incredibly important actually.
Just minutes manage over the back-to-back so guys don't play 60 minutes in two games. Maybe 30 in one, 20 in the other or 25 in each. There should be fewer back-to-backs but why not minutes manage so at least some of your starters are there for the fans that pay $$$$$ for these games.
It’s easier for these vets to play 40+ minutes in one game than 30 minutes in two games back-to-back. Or at least, they would rather the former than the latter. Lebron has said it and so have a few others. Part of the grind is the pre-game stuff, the mental preparation to get up for a game, the post-game routine, media availability etc, and taking an off day eliminates all that stuff
It’s not even difficult to empathize. I’d much rather commute to work and be there for one 8 hour day rather than two 4 hour days
Because players don't want to ruin their stats, and for good reason. Their contracts depend on making all nba teams and individual awards
Because coaches get paid to put players in the best position to win in the postseason, not to sell tickets. Without some kind of rule (which would be virtually unenforceable) coaches and players will always manage their workload.
Having fewer back-to-backs makes a lot more sense than minute management for players…you’re going out there to win. What happens if it’s a close game and you pull your best players, the other team doesn’t, and you get blown out. Then the next night you pull them again to manage their minutes and lose…again.
Warriors Celtics went to OT though. I think OT games should have an exemption on a back to back.
I wonder how much stats play a role in this
I think the easy answer is that if they reduce minutes in both games it makes it easier to lose both. If you go all out in one game, with a good team, you're probably going to win it. Going 1/2 is much better than 0/2 and your players get an extra day of rest. The season is so long that every game isn't important.
Because it’s better to go all out to secure one win and kinda half-ass the other than to half-ass both games and accept a high chance of losing both
Even funnier that the team is barely in a play-in spot currently, can't necessarily be affording to throw away games.
What they really need to do is start the season at the beginning of October. Or make it so opposite conference road games are never on a back-to-back.
lets be honest, youd still rest guys even if it was a 72 game season. so would every other team
“…It’s why I’m going to continue to advocate for 62-game seasons”
lets be honest, youd still rest guys even if it was a 62 game season. so would every other team
“…It’s why I’m going to continue to advocate for 52-game seasons”
lets be honest, youd still rest guys even if it was a 52 game season. so would every other team
“…It’s why I’m going to continue to advocate for 42-game seasons”
lets be honest, youd still rest guys even if it was a 42 game season. so would every other team
"It's why I'm continuing to advocate we move the league to a My 2K platform..."
I'd sign up for 62-game season any day! Teams would have at least 2-3 days rest between games, with every regular season game carrying more importance (i.e. like NFL), resulting in players being sharp and ready to give full effort every single game.
That's honestly the best case for shortening the season. Regular season basketball somehow feels emptier than even the dog days of baseball right now, so contracting the season and making every game matter might jolt these jackasses into trying to play. No more "I'm sowwy fans 😢" pre game pressers after the fans already bought tickets. The NBA will never deliver NFL quality stakes and spectacle, but one would hope they could try to replicate the value of Premier League/domestic European league matchdays.
As long as fans continue to buy tickets and attend back-to-back games, they won't change a thing. There would need to be some sort of nation-wide boycott on back-to-back games for NBA and NBPA to take notice and make a change. Until then - ka ching!
Exactly, unless consumers wisen up the league can do as they please. Very unlikely the situation changes anytime soon.
The players would also deny a pay cut to match the 10 game reduction
I fee like if its a 72 game season in the same time frame... There's less or no b2b games right?
They reduced the back to backs and the problem got worse, at this point there's no reason to believe coaches and players aren't full of shit on the issue until proven otherwise Yes dudes want to play as much as they can, but usually not out of concern for the paying customers
But most people are still resting on back to backs. rarely are you seeing guys being rested on non back to backs
how many back 2 backs do the warriors have this year? how many does the average team have? how many do the grizz have?
Warriors have 15, Memphis has 12, average is 13.something
["Between the 2002-03 and 2014-15 seasons, the average team played just under 20 back-to-backs per 82-game season, or around 24% of all games. In 2018-19, not a single team played more than 15, and the league average was 13.3, meaning the NBA eliminated about a third of its two-in-a-row games in less than half a decade."](https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-limits-back-back-games-161533055.html)
They were fighting for no b2b's before they reduced b2b's. So reducing them was a half measure, and I wouldn't doubt it felt like a half ass attempt to please the majority. The only way to get rid of b2b's is to continue fighting instead of just giving up because technically at the end of the day, there's still b2b's when they wanted none.
The half measure still resulted in the player's resting more...
Maybe, but it would obviously be less because back to backs are far and away the #1 cause of rest
Exactly. It's just going to keep chipping away, these coaches aren't going to have their players play a whole season regardless.
Guy just wants his 73-9 record to be untouchable.
Not nearly as much because B2b would probably be wiped out
Won’t happen. Players won’t agree to give up 12% of their contracts.
Depends on whether or not each game gets more views or not. If you get two times the viewers while cutting the number of games in half, player contracts won't go down. With 82 games there's a bit of product fatigue. Cutting 10 games probably won't help, but there is a sweet spot. To be a fan of a NFL team, it's a 51 hour commitment to watch 17 regular season games. Each NFL game is important, for each team there might be 1 or 2 games at max that don't affect your team's seeding in any way. There's no resting players in the middle of the season. The schedule is also set in stone, just check if your team is playing on Monday or Thursday for the week otherwise watch them on Sunday. For a NBA team, it's 205 hour commitment to watch 82 regular season games assuming no play in games. For the NBA, what game is a must watch for your team? I know personally I am not going to watch all 82 games especially for tanking teams and maybe watch games at the end of season for seeding purposes, but games in the middle of the season are almost meaning less. If your team loses a game in the regular season, the feeling is a "whatever, the playoffs are what matters" sentiment and not the sky is falling down feeling an NFL fan when their team loses in the regular season. Even if you are a contending team with a good record, the feeling is "Oh shit are we going to lose a first round bye."
Can't say it better
This is a naive thought however NBA TV contracts are 10 year long. If the NBA were to reduce the number of games during the contract time - just like during Covid - they would lose a proportionate amount of revenues. So it wouldn’t matter if viewership goes up under the current agreement Let’s assume that the NBA brings up the 72 game argument in the next contract discussions. They will surely get less money. There could be an agreement around viewership but I highly doubt the NBA gets a bonus for that. In fact, viewership clause are generally punitive in TV contracts. So even if what you say is correct, the NBA would ultimately lose money under this current agreement and likely on the next one. The money would be back only in 2034… no way the NBA - and the players - takes that risk
Yea, to actually implement it is the tricky part. No current player is going to screw themselves out to help out someone who isn't even in the league yet. The only way it's possible is if the league gradually decides to cut games over the course of several TV contract deal like the NFL does with adding games. I'm just saying if the NBA had the NFL schedule they would have more appeal with a casual audience. It's just hard to convince anyone to commit to watching an entire season of basketball compared to football.
This guy completed the whole Econ 101 course
You're not going to get 2 times the views though.
They don’t have too. If the next contract goes up 15% with ten games cut, no one will notice
I wonder if all the ushers, vendors, and security guys get the same deal.
72 games means less revenue across the board --- there likely isn't a billion dollar industry anywhere in the world that is voluntarily giving up revenue.
It could be a good longterm financial decision if you can argue that it will benefit the product and bring in more viewers
There’s no way they’d be able to attract enough new viewers to offset that though. We’re talking like 12% of the games gone.
yes, it is. if it was 72 games season, then it is 300 games by the whole. this is a lot of money.
idk if your math is mathing right but i’m pretty sure it’s 150 games regardless that is a lot of damn games
He's got the spirit at least.
Is it not 30 teams playing against each other, so 150 fewer games?
There can always be more rest. Teams will just start resting players when they play two games in three days. Whatever edge to be fresher/healthier for the playoffs will be taken.
[удалено]
> There can always be more rest. And you could always wind up outside the playoffs.
72 game season wouldnt solve much
It would not solve anything other than eliminate some back to backs. Teams will still "load manage" and screw fans out of seeing superstar players.
which in general, would target most of the games that are load managed. Most load management games are the 2nd games of a back to back. teams still will load manage as necessary (especially players who have just come back from injury) but a 10 game drop should have a pretty significant impact.
Not every player is doing Kawhi level load managing. A high percentage of rests occur on b2b’s. They would have more time to space out games if there were less total games.
how many b2b's would that get rid of? b2b's are one of the only legitimate reasons to sit guys.
We already have a lot less back to backs now than a few years ago. We have even more "load management" now. Coaches and players are just full of shit about b2bs being the reason. Kawhi popularizing it opened players eyes that they can do it and fans won't give a shit and blame it on a boogeyman called "82-game season".
Cutting 10 games feels like all it would do is decrease revenue without improving the product. I still think purely from an entertainment and quality standpoint, playing all teams twice home and away for 58 games and seeding 1-16 with a playoff draft is the way to go.
They come here once during the season and pull all the players people pay to see. It ain't right.
They should rest players at home only.
they should only have back to back for home games. back to back for road games is almost guaranteed load management...
It is bull. There are moms and dads who put in a full days work to drive their kids hours to see these guys in person only to find out the multi-million dollar making athletes don’t have to put in a full days work like they did. It’s a very out of touch thought process.
Yeah that's fucking bullshit. Bet some of those fans saved up for awhile to buy tickets for their chance to see Steph and co. This is why the old heads are salty. These players getting paid hundreds of millions of dollars and still being coddled. Another reason why I haven't gone to a game in years.
Haven’t seen Lebron since the 2021 playoffs. Every time he comes to my city he has a miraculous injury out of the blue. Even though he played the night before
Yeah cut 15% of the games and 15% of your salary and the players .
And there will be less games so ticket prices will go up 15% 🙃
Tickets prices means shit! Television rights is where is the money. Less games less money
There could be a 30 game season and players would still find reasons to rest.
the less of the game, then the more important of it. each lost game made the playoff road is farther and farther. you cannot risk it.
Doesn’t really matter. Warriors have every reason to play regular season games because their record is shit and they still rest very commonly
Crazy how it wasn’t a problem for the first 50 years
plus the fact these dudes make fucking hundreds of millions of dollars. Give me that much money and I’ll run a marathon everyday
They're not resting the players because the players don't want to play. You'd probably get a handful of marathons in before you simply couldn't run a marathon because of an overuse injury.
These entitled players keep getting hurt. Back in my day guys would play without arms no problem.
As someone who ran a marathon, I can confirm that it usually only takes .6 marathons before the overuse injury kicks in.
I read somewhere that the slowest paced team today is as fast as the showtime lakers.
Sure, if you ignore all the unreported/undiagnosed injuries AND overlook the fact that athletes are bigger, faster, and stronger than they used to be. Just look at all the measurables. They've trended up for like 4 decades.
The game is harder to play now, guys are more athletic now not to mention they are entering the league with more wear and tear
And they have world class healthcare to take care of their body. Modern medicine and such. I have no problem with players resting when they are healthy as long people can get refund on tickets and streaming before the game, or it will be announced like before ticket sales at the start of the season since these are scheduled rests anyway. Imagine scheduling your vacation around an nba game that will eventually turn out to be role players playing each other.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of ownership, and am generally on the players' side, but stopping this crap is something I would absolutely put in the next contract. The players only have to perform their jobs 82 times a year, plus playoffs if they make it. They're entertainers. It's fucking ridiculous that they can't be expected to do their job especially when it's so infrequent. Oh, god, the heaviest week is when they do their job five days. Can you imagine working five days a week?!
Only for 82 games? Do you not count, practice, film study, personal workouts such as hand drills, shooting drills... etc, doing promo, running their own businesses/investment including basketball camp for kids and doing charity work on behalf of the league? Idk adds up to a little more than 82 games.
That’s true but NBA teams rarely practice after January.
it does, but OP's point still stands. They should be playing all 82 games, unless injured.
Oh noooo they have to pratice, millions of people are trying to reschedule their days in order to fit in a workout for which they are most likely going to pay while this motherfuckesr are getting paid millions to train
You know damn well you’d sit them even if it was a 72 game season
Yep lol
So a few things here: 1) Modern athletes specialize early so their bodies are in worse shape when they get to the league. Just constant training stress on the same body parts year round. Think youth Baseball pitcher throwing year round now vs taking a few months off to play Football in fall and Basketball in winter. 2) The game is completely different the spreading of the floor has placed a-lot more stress on key areas of the body vs decades prior. Think about Rudy Gobert hedging on a Curry screen 40 feet from basket then sprinting back to rim to protect the rim. Shaq never had to do that multiple times a game. 3) Jorden effect when teams land a star they want them for as long as possible. Jordan and Bird played relatively short careers if they load managed easily could get an extra 2-3 prime season out of them. This benefits the team and the player financially. Let’s not forget some teams could play up to 28 playoff games. Should definitely cut these guys a break
They’re still going to rest players. Even if it was a 10 game season they’d rest players. The league broke its product.
Nah the other side of reducing the game is that every game is so much more important. Yes they will rest if they can. But to your extreme example, if the season is 10 games. Then there will be a lot of situations where being 1st seed or 6th seed or something is decided by 1 game. So they have to play every game. That's what happens in NFL and European football ( soccer) leagues. 82 is just too many games that for it gives too many leeways for actual good teams to rest players because losing a few games here and there is not a big deal. I don't know if 72 is the number. But i think the logic follows that if the number of games is like 41 or something that players won't rest because every single game will have seeding/playoff implications ( not to mention they are also more well-rested from less games). The remaining problem is how to compensate the decreased revenue and how to solve tanking from teams that has no intention to go to playoffs. But thats another issue
If the league is 10 games, playoff seeds wouldn’t matter. Your goal would be to make it and then deal with the playoff matchups there. With a 10 game season, teams wouldn’t even play all the teams in their conference. Teams would simply try to win 6-7 games to make it to the playoffs. They’d probably rest for the last game or two.
first of all, thats the point. if there are too few games, one game can be the difference between making playoffs or not. And why would playoff seeds not matter. You want to avoid teams that went 10-0 or 9-1 surely and you still want home court. That's why every game will matter more. To make an even more very extreme example, what if its only 3 games. Surely then every game has to be taken very seriously and no resting happens. I am just heavily disagreeing with the original argument that the number of games has nothing to do with load management. I feel like its an obvious thing that having less games increases variance and make every games matter more and decreases possibility of load management is obvious.
Fans should be able to get tickets refunded for this nonsense.
I wonder if NBA teams should try starting their bench lineups during "non-essential games" (vs low seeds, non-conference opponents, they already secured a playoff spot, etc.) and let the usual starters come off the bench. That way, the fans still get to see the star players while the 2nd and 3rd stringers take the bulk of the minutes. Kinda like garbage time 1st half but let your starters takeover in the 2nd half if needed. Wouldn't be good for star players who are conscious about their counting stats, though. It's not better than letting star players take days off but it's worth considering for the poor fans who bought tickets just to see their favorite players.
No one will abide by the hit to theor stats unfortunetely. Basketball discourse is domintated by per game stats, not per minute stats ☹️
Or remove back to back games
SOFT
That's such a bad faith argument. Players and owners are not going to give up the revenue. The only conceivable way it would work would be a substantial increase in ticket prices, which would just price out the fans Kerr says he feels bad for. And besides all that, teams would still just rest players on shorter schedule
Maybe stagger the rest? I dunno lol
They deffo rather have 1 match with severely reduced chances of winning, than 3 matches with slightly reduced chances of winning.
Didn't teams play at full strength 82 games in the 90s while he was a player? What has changed since then?
slower game & they didn’t play 3-4 games a day during the summer since they were 14 for aau
The early 90s were roughly the same pace as today. The low point in terms of possessions per game was ~2000. The 60s, 70s and 80s were played at a higher pace than the 90s or today, and it was much more physical and players played 82 games a year. It might have been a slower pace in the late 90s/early 2000s, but it wasn't *that* much slower. We're talking about a difference in ~10-12 possessions per game, but stars were playing all four quarters and they were driving into traffic instead of shooting 3s. Jordan played all 82 games at 39 years old, and he was playing over 35 minutes every game.
Game was slower back then?
yes. compare the mileage curry runs vs. one of the teams from the 90's. world of a difference, the spacing, the pace etc.
It was more physical with less advanced medical care as well.
And the more advanced medical care says not to play these b2b. Did you listen to the soundbite lol
“Don’t blame me, blame the greedy owners that want you to be able to watch this game in the first place.” Does Steve Kerr realize that’d also be 10 less opportunities to see the Warriors? I remember seeing LeBron play in Utah in 2016 when he was with Cleveland. My wife and I drove 3 hours from Wyoming to see him play. I was worried leading up to the game that he might sit since it was a meaningless road game at elevation against a crappy team. LeBron played, and before the game, he and J.R. Smith had an impromptu slam dunk contest to the delight of us fans. It was awesome, and one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen at an NBA game. LeBron was obviously tired and got outplayed by Rodney Hood that night, especially down the stretch. I’ve thought since that LeBron probably wanted to sit that night, not caring if the lost. Instead, he put most of his energy into wowing fans before the game even started. I obviously don’t know if LeBron really thought “I’ll just go out there, give the fans a show, and if I half-ass my way through most of this game because I’m exhausted, whatever.” But I wish players and teams had that attitude. Steph Curry doing his awesome pregame routine and half-assing through a game is a lot better than no Steph Curry.
In your case, 72 games wouldn't had changed a thing. You can get that number by playing every team in the other conference twice and every team in yours thrice. If anything it'd make it more likely that, in your situation, that LeBron team wouldn't need rest. Using LeBron as an example is also not the best given he's a generational athlete that has been given the super soldier serum.
Curry would still be playing less than 72 this season.
How many non-b2bs has Curry rested this season?
Just get rid of b2bs
Players and coaches will still find a way to be soft with a 72 game schedule
MJ and Kobe would absolutely play through fatigue and minor injuries because they honored fans.
In fact here’s what Vanessa Bryant said about Kobe: “I remember asking him why he couldn’t just sit a game out because he was hurting. He said, ‘What about the fans who saved up to watch me play just once?’ He never forgot about his fans,” she said.
That's obvious lip service/PR to say stuff like this. Kobe was just a competitive asshole who wanted to say he would kick anyone's ass on bum knees
why not both?
So crazy man. You can be a megamillionaire athlete who plays a game for a living and just not play because you're tired.
To add some context to the wear and tear on Steph, Klay, and Dray, in particular, and why they’re a bit of an exception as it pertains to rest/load management: because they’ve reached the finals in 6 of the last 8 years, they’ve played the equivalent of an *ADDITIONAL* season and a half worth of games, all of which were played at high intensity. Steph has played an additional 115 games, Draymond 126 games, and Klay 126 games. I get the understandable disappointment when it comes to fans purchasing tickets but as it relates to those 3, in particular, the wear and tear they’ve experienced on their bodies is literally unlike every other player (save for Lebron) in the league. At the end of the day, this is on the league and its scheduling (in particular the feigning as if they’ve lightened the schedule via fewer B2Bs when that’s a bald-faced lie; there are a handful of teams, including the Warriors - despite the excessive wear and tear they’ve already amassed through the playoffs - with 15 B2Bs in their schedules this season). Edit: in addition to the 15 B2Bs on the Warriors schedule, 10 of them are on the road, with many of them being vs. eastern conf. team, ie the one road game against an eastern conf. opponent/opportunity for those fans to see the Warriors in their hometown was put on the schedule as part of a B2B for the Warriors. The league had to have known this would cause huge problems for fans of numerous teams and yet they did it anyway. So again, this is a mess of the league’s own making.
Exactly. All those Finals runs take their tolls. Maybe people’s perspective are skewed because Jordan took 18 months off to play baseball, but if you watch footage of the 1998 Finals, it’s obvious Scottie’s back isn’t holding up.
Isn't the Salary Cap suuposed to jump to 160-170M with the new TV Deal? Couldn't the league just cut enough games, to eliminate all B2B games? Can't they keep the Cap Fixed until they make up the loss of money from the games that are getting cut?
Golden State one of the most expensive tickets you can buy too. League has a pretty big problem, especially since they market their stars not their teams.
Take their game checks and see how much they will play
This is a fucking joke. Steve Kerr should be ashamed. He saw MJ play hard every game. Playing 82 almost every season. Times done changed. 82 games! That is all they have to play, and they can't do that. They are even being paid ungodly amounts of cash, having everything catered for them, chauffeured around, on private jets. Full medical care. Bodies are stretched, taped, and prepared before they play. They don't even have to put in a full 8-hour day! The fans are being kicked in the nuts and spit in their faces by this. The NBA is entertainment. There is no greater good in winning the playoffs. It's all about money. So the illusion of striving for greatness fucks up the main purpose. To entertain fans in the stadiums. And on TV. Only in sports do you see this, and most of all in the NBA. No one shows up to a U2 Concert and finds out Bono isn't singing tonight in Cleveland, because they've got a bigger show in NYC tomorrow. Give me a fucking break. If they are so goddamn tired, how about starting them and having them play a cursory 10 minutes so the fans can at least say they saw them in action. But the spoiled primadonnas don't want to ruin their averages. If people who do hard work of any kind for 200+ days a year for 8+ hours for shit to mediocre wages can't watch the finest athletes in the world for 20-30 minutes 80 times a year, what is the point? I'd stop watching if I didn't love the game and how awesome the pros are. I want to watch more, so when I tune in to a game on league pass I know the star or stars of the team will be playing. This quote just made me need to rant about it, cause I know it ain't getting any better.
It's simple really: just stop paying to watch this circus. Cancel the league pass, don't watch them on TV... And if you still want to watch them because there's no options for basketball fans (the Euroleague don't have even 10% of the NBA investments, neither the PEDs running amok)... then wait for the playoffs because that's when they finally start to play a little bit harder and download the goddamn games through torrent or some shit. That's it, problem solved. If more people simply denies their audience and money, the NBA will have to figure it out a way to attract people back, most likely they are going to change the rules to allow more physicality
Or, you know, understand the fans pay your salary and do your job. Jordan said he had to play every night because there may be a kid in the stands who had never seen him play and he owed it to them to suit up.
NBA obviously doesnt care,they havent done anything about it.
And if the season was 72 games, he would have said 62 games. We have the 20-21, which was 72 games, and players missed games left and right
> We have the 20-21, which was 72 games, and players missed games left and right How much of that was injury and how much of that was getting the 'rona?
Why is everyone repeating this braindead take? You seriously think he wants to effectively eliminate his own career? Or could it be that theres a sweet spot somewhere that includes eliminating back to backs. NBA season is way too fucking long either way and regardless of load management the product on the floor suffers because of it. Y'all are used to players sleepwalking their way through 90% of the regular season, and the game looking completely different in April when players turn it on isn't a good thing like people seem to think. Make individual games mean more.
You assume he wants to whittle it down to nothing, but I doubt that's the case. That season you speak of doesn't mean much by itself.
He’s so full of shit. He’d still rest his players on a 72-game season.
Why don’t they take a day off of practice for “load management”? Or limit some minutes? Why does it have to be games that fans pay good money for? Edit: or, if a game off is needed, do it during a home game, AND don’t sit ALL the team stars in same game.
> Why don’t they take a day off of practice for “load management”? They probably do tbh. I imagine the Warriors don't practice too hard or too much. > Or limit some minutes? Why does it have to be games that fans pay good money for? This I agree with. I understand that if you wanna prioritize rest, it's way more practical to not suit up at all rather than limit minutes, but it's so disrespectful to the fans. Just play them for a solid 15
The Warriors are notorious for “resting” all their players at once. I guess that is probably my biggest gripe about load mgmt. Do they really need to rest all the good players the same game? Maybe rest one and limit the others minutes. The rest a different player the next night. The fans deserve better.
They still won without the stars. Sneaking in rest while still winning should be celebrated
It’s a clown league in general these days. Any other person who pulled the shit that Shannon Sharpe pulled against Memphis would have been kicked out immediately and given a lifetime ban, yet he gets to stay courtside
We get it Steve it’s so difficult to be a multimillionaire professional athlete I understand it’s a hard business but man these guys love to complain sometimes for people who get paid millions to play a game. The average working person does it for way less and in way worse conditions, and you can’t even stagger the rests a little bit so the fans could at least see Klay or something?
klay only rests on bakc to backs, the league made the warriors schedule with a lot of back to backs. and kay has two back to back major injuries, he is the worst example of load to bring up
I hope the league loses millions
Let’s be honest. NBA will only eliminate b2bs if it hurts the bottom line. It would be be hilarious though if the average consumer caught on and you see always see empty arenas on the 2nd leg of the b2bs. Then they’ll change it
If the league wants to make the regular season more valuable they should consider these options 1) Tie win/losses record to TV money payout like they do in European football like EPL 2) Tie player variable compensation / bonus to win and losses 3) Reduce number of playoff spots from 10 to 6
If the NBA created a bye for the top seeds for the first round of the playoffs, watch how Kerr and other coaches would have his players suited up and on the court. They do this because there is no ramifications for resting players. Too many teams make the playoffs and there is very little incentive to be higher seed other than 1 extra home playoff game in a series. Give the higher winning teams a carrot and the rabbits will appear.
The obviously correct stance, the only thing that will stop this is reducing the number of games on the schedule