The NBA has proposed some significant changes to their regular-season schedule but it would be meaningless to the Golden State Warriors and many other teams.
Ratings across the league are down this season. Though it’s likely this is a direct result of numerous star players being injured and the Golden State Warriors falling off the face of the planet, the NBA is reacting by proposing new changes.
Shams Charania reported that the NBA has sent an outline to all 30 teams with changes including an in-season tournament and a reduced regular-season schedule.
Sources: NBA has sent teams the proposal for 2021-22 season changes:
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 21, 2019
- 78-game regular season
- In-season tournament ($1M per player, $1.5M coaches pool for champion)
- Play-in tourneys for 7-8 playoff seeds
- Final 4 reseed in playoffs based on regular season records
These changes would have a dramatic effect on the NBA’s record book. A 78 game season would impact nearly all previous single-season records such as the Warriors 73-9 season and Stephen Curry‘s 3-point record of 403 3-pointers in the 2015-16 season.
This reduced schedule is a potential solution to the load management trend that has had many star players sit out of key games recently. However, cutting four games from the season will do little to fix this.
As for the in-season tournament, it feels hard to imagine that players will truly be motivated to compete for an additional $1 million dollars. The star players are already receiving high earning contracts. I’m sure the role players would be interested, but fans aren’t tuning in to watch them compete. Getting stars and fans invested in this will be difficult.
The only part of this proposal that might work is a play-in tournament for the bottom playoff seeds and a reseeding of the semi-finals based on regular-season records. This will benefit teams that excel in the regular season.
Furthermore, imagine if the Warriors conference showdown with the Houston Rockets in 2018 had been in the NBA Finals rather than the semi-finals. There is no doubt that this would have boosted ratings for the league.
Overall, these proposed changes feel pointless. Aside from adjusting the playoff format, this proposal serves no benefit to fans of the league.