44 minute games and NBA shortened season speculation

clonetrooper264 · Oct 14, 2014

http://www.si.com/nba/2014/10/14/nba-preseason-44-minute-game

Apparently experimenting with a 44 minute game instead of a 48 minute game. Curious as to why they'd do this as it probably means less advertising revenue somehow.

Scoot26 · Oct 14, 2014

clonetrooper264 said:
http://www.si.com/nba/2014/10/14/nba-preseason-44-minute-game

Apparently experimenting with a 44 minute game instead of a 48 minute game. Curious as to why they'd do this as it probably means less advertising revenue somehow.

NBA games have been 48 minutes since the inception of the league in 1946.

DONT CHANGE SOMETHING THAT ISNT BROKEN.

That said, this is just a preseason experiment...probably nothing will come of it. If the NBA feels the games are too long, they need to completely revamp the replay system and take away timeouts from times (thats lost revenue though). The major problem I have with NBA games is that a game takes too long to finish. Teams should only have the option of something like 1 full time out and 1 20 second timeout in the final two minutes of a game. Force teams to take timeouts more often during the game, kinda like they do now.

Crystallas · Oct 16, 2014

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11709451/michael-jordan-disagrees-talk-shortening-season-games

Jordan doesn't like it either. Both as an owner, as a former player. And I agree. If you love playing the game, the 82 game season isn't a problem.

The NBA could go back to the best of 5 format for the first round. Other than that, I don't think they have many options. After increasing the roster size, there is no excuse. Fining the Spurs for resting players was a major bonehead move IMO, because that sent mixed messages. The league and the teams need to embrace the strategy to rest key players within the regular season.

I'm not in favor or against a best of 5 for the first round either. I'm only saying it's the only realistic option. Heck, the league could even get creative and introduce a 10 team playoff per conference, and the 7, 8th, 9, and 10th seeds could go into a best of 3 series to advance, if they want to increase revenue. When the league expands at some point again, they will eventually have to move out of the 16 team playoff into something bigger anyways. Not sure if that's the best idea, but it's not like the NBA would be out of ideas to play more games.

clonetrooper264 · Oct 16, 2014

Taking one minute off of every quarter doesn't really seem to fix any issue imo. Maybe 8 minute quarters if they really wanted to make games shorter. I don't see that happening though because of the lost ad revenue...NBA has got to make its money after all

Crystallas · Oct 16, 2014

I don't think any change is needed to game time or schedule length.

The players pushing for a change either want to relax more, or they believe in the mileage argument.
Unfortunately, it's not the game that wears them down more today. It's the nature of 24/7 media. The NBA could change press accessibility guidelines, but other than that, not a whole lot can be done.

The mileage argument is useless, because there is just as much evidence that shows benefits of rest as well as high activity. The truth has never changed, a balance of both are important and that is something that can only improved at the coaching level. Players back in the day would play more minutes and have shorter careers, but to assume it was the usage that shortened careers would be ignoring decades of sports medicine(dietary and training) improvements.

The NBA and NHL share a lot of strategies. I think what may come out of this discussion, is a division re-alignment. Reduce time traveling, gain more personal and rest time. That simple. Everybody wins.

Scoot26 · Oct 16, 2014

Personally things are fine the way they are. Perhaps they could start the season sooner in October in order to have less back to back games. I know people complain the season is already too long, but that way players wouldn't have so much wear and tear.

I personally was against the change to 7 game series for the 1st round, but I've grown to accept it. The series themselves have been rather competitive the last few years in many cases (yes some series are awful).

In the end, it is about ad revenue, so I don't see the 11 minute thing ever sticking.

I also think of all the players records and what not that would suddenly change.

clonetrooper264 · Oct 16, 2014

Crystallas said:
I don't think any change is needed to game time or schedule length.

The players pushing for a change either want to relax more, or they believe in the mileage argument.
Unfortunately, it's not the game that wears them down more today. It's the nature of 24/7 media. The NBA could change press accessibility guidelines, but other than that, not a whole lot can be done.

The mileage argument is useless, because there is just as much evidence that shows benefits of rest as well as high activity. The truth has never changed, a balance of both are important and that is something that can only improved at the coaching level. Players back in the day would play more minutes and have shorter careers, but to assume it was the usage that shortened careers would be ignoring decades of sports medicine(dietary and training) improvements.

The NBA and NHL share a lot of strategies. I think what may come out of this discussion, is a division re-alignment. Reduce time traveling, gain more personal and rest time. That simple. Everybody wins.

I'd be down for division realignment...having Memphis in the West is silly.

Scoot26 · Oct 16, 2014

clonetrooper264 said:
I'd be down for division realignment...having Memphis in the West is silly.

*Yes, Seattle is listed, they are now OKC. This is a map from 2004-05.

Honestly, the Eastern Conference is pretty much set. Its the fact there aren't more teams in the middle of the country that kind of fucks it up.

The Northwest Division has higher travel than as they are the most spaced out. You could make the argument that Minnesota belongs in the Central while Memphis could join the Southeast. But that puts two more teams in the East than are in the west. OKC should be in the Southwest Division.

The Northwest Division then gets left with just 3 teams. IN reality the West could get away with two divisions, but that creates a log jam in the East. So its more tricky than people think. I'm sure the NBA had this discussion in 2004 when they decided on realignment then.

clonetrooper264 · Oct 16, 2014

Scoot26 said:
*Yes, Seattle is listed, they are now OKC. This is a map from 2004-05.

Honestly, the Eastern Conference is pretty much set. Its the fact there aren't more teams in the middle of the country that kind of fucks it up.

The Northwest Division has higher travel than as they are the most spaced out. You could make the argument that Minnesota belongs in the Central while Memphis could join the Southeast. But that puts two more teams in the East than are in the west. OKC should be in the Southwest Division.

The Northwest Division then gets left with just 3 teams. IN reality the West could get away with two divisions, but that creates a log jam in the East. So its more tricky than people think. I'm sure the NBA had this discussion in 2004 when they decided on realignment then.

...man that spacing sucks

Scoot26 · Oct 16, 2014

clonetrooper264 said:
...man that spacing sucks

Yeah...Hockey can do it because they have Canadian teams

The east does have two extra teams. They got tracky with the Atlantic by including the two florida teams there though.

clonetrooper264 · Oct 16, 2014

I mean...I guess you could try to get 4 conferences like in the NHL but yeah...much harder to do due to the concentration of teams in certain areas and lack of concentration in others

ClydeLee · Oct 16, 2014

na

Scoot26 said:
Yeah...Hockey can do it because they have Canadian teams

The east does have two extra teams. They got tracky with the Atlantic by including the two florida teams there though.

That system isn't all that good. There was a far better make up idea brought up but rejected right before the lockout occurred in the NHL. I wasn't sure why they kept it but I think because it involved a change to a north-east-south-west type of adjustment that made people refuse it. It lead to less travel and no nonsense that exists now.

I like the title of the Metropolitan division... but look at that "Atlantic Division" Only Boston and Florida play on the Atlantic coasts. It's joke of conformity and the traveling on the east could easily be better if their division were split north and south.

Adjusting game times now would be strange for the league.. season cutting wouldn't be all that grand. I'm not sure the data for the NBA is that it isn't broken, they complain about it being a little uneven across the league sometimes.

ChettheJet · Oct 16, 2014

Instead of shortening the quarters, shorten the length of timeouts and get teams out of the huddle faster. Cut the number of timeouts down by 2 and replace those 2 with clock stops, no huddle, no discussion but the clock stops and they take the ball out of bounds. There are plenty of times when even a 20 second timeout is just to stop the clock and wastes way more than those 20 seconds. Stop the TV timeouts that break up the game and just let the normal timeouts that come closest to where they would come serve the purpose.

Until the last 2 minutes of a quarter start the game clock when a player gets the ball for the second or third free throw.

Crystallas · Oct 16, 2014

New Orleans and Minnesota as well. All 3 of those teams are traveling a lot just being in the West.

Minnesota has been a good candidate for relocation to Seattle. But if the NBA does expand after all(IIRC, Seattle obv and Louisville are the two main candidates, with St. Louis and Anaheim as long running suggestions).

Atlanta with weak attendance and the controversy might also fix some of those issues, if relocated. But then again, the Hawks have a rich history and a change in ownership might bring that back up in a matter of a season or two.

Scoot26 · Oct 16, 2014

Crystallas said:
New Orleans and Minnesota as well. All 3 of those teams are traveling a lot just being in the West.

Minnesota has been a good candidate for relocation to Seattle. But if the NBA does expand after all(IIRC, Seattle obv and Louisville are the two main candidates, with St. Louis and Anaheim as long running suggestions).

Atlanta with weak attendance and the controversy might also fix some of those issues, if relocated. But then again, the Hawks have a rich history and a change in ownership might bring that back up in a matter of a season or two.

The Hawks could move back to their St. Louis roots. They haven't won a title since they were there. They haven't even come close. The only thing is Atlanta is an up and coming city and I think potential is there if they ever get a good owner.

Axl Rose · Oct 16, 2014

its too many fouls....it seems every time i watch a non Bull game where i have no investment in either team i get bored quick because its a foul fest

offtopic: clonetropper changed his avy

hes had that Illinois avy since i signed up back in 2011 and probably had before that

Crystallas · Oct 16, 2014

The foul problem is another issue entirely. 44 minute games, 52 minute games, still going to be fouls. Heck, if you have 44 minute games, there might be more fouls, because players and coaches will use them more strategically.

ijustposthere · Oct 16, 2014

FFS, NBA superstars are the biggest crybabies on earth.

Benchmob757 · Oct 16, 2014

As a fan I wouldn't be opposed to fewer games, 82 is a lot and having a bunch of back-to-backs can't be fun. I'm not too worried about that though, I'd be more interested in a change to the timeouts, watching the end of close basketball games is painful. The other issue as mentioned is fouls. Nothing more irritating than a game filled with fouls.

So, cut the timeouts in half -- the "clock stops" someone mentioned are interesting -- and as for the fouls I'm not sure, let them get a little more physical I guess?

Crystallas · Oct 16, 2014

I think McDonald's is pressuring the NBA for 44 minute games now that we have some shooters. They don't want to give away all those bigmacs.

44 minute games and NBA shortened season speculation

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