The NBA has the best commissioner in sports. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Everyone except the owners knows Roger Baddell is terrible (and I think even some of the owners know, too). Gary Bettman doesn't give a crap about the players or fans and has guaranteed himself Lockout 3.0. And Rob Manfred is preoccupied with "fixing" problems that don't exist.
Then there's Adam Silver. He knows that the NBA has some serious issues. He knows something has to be done about them. So, instead of pushing them under the rug, that's exactly what he's doing. Silver is making tough decisions that he knows are the best for the league...and he's making the owners see that, too. As a result, he's gonna get things done.
One of the biggest issues that's been plaguing the NBA for the last couple seasons has been that ridiculous "DNP-Rest" you see over and over again in box scores. We all know the story with this one. The Cavs, Warriors and Spurs (among others) are the biggest culprits here. They've made it a habit to sit healthy star players for nationally-televised games.
Each team has offered their different reasons for sitting out their best players, but each of those explanations rings pretty hollow. Fans aren't buying tickets to see LeBron or Steph Curry sit on the bench. Especially if it's their only visit to that particular city. People also aren't going to tune in to watch what's essentially a preseason game between the Cavs and Celtics, either. That effects the ratings for TNT/ABC/ESPN. And if the ratings go down, there goes the advertising revenue.
That's how Silver was able to sell the owners on the fact that this was a change that needed to happen. As an economic issue. And we all know how loudly the almighty dollar speaks. (This is, after all, the league that agreed to jersey sponsorships beginning this season.) When you threaten the amount of money that the owners are able to make, they suddenly care very strongly about an issue.
Another issue that's been plaguing the NBA for even longer than the "DNP-Rest" is the tanking issue. This truly came to light after the 76ers infamously tanked their way thru the 2013-14 season, knowing that their reward would be no worse than the No. 4 pick in the draft. Silver wanted to do something about it then, but, as a new commissioner, didn't have the support among the owners. Four years later, he does. Which is why draft reform is definitely going to happen.
Under the current system, the worst team in the NBA has a 25 percent chance of winning the lottery and can draft no lower than fourth. The new plan evens out those odds to 14 percent for each of the three worst teams, with the odds only dropping by a point or two for the other lottery teams (previously, just missing the playoffs meant you had virtually no shot at winning the lottery). And now the worst team is guaranteed only a top-five (instead of top-four) pick.
I like the idea of evening out the odds a little, but I'd take it one step further. You can't win the lottery in back-to-back years. If you get the No. 1 pick one year and end up back in the lottery the next, you can pick no higher than second. I'm not sure exactly how they'd be able to put that stipulation in place, but it would definitely give teams more of an incentive to put a competitive team out there.
Adam Silver has tackled both of these issues head-on, and he'll make it a point to see them enacted. There are other issues he's going to address, too. The All*Star Game is a joke, which everyone acknowledges. That's also on his agenda. But the draft and the resting of healthy players were much more pressing. Which is why Silver felt the need to deal with those problems first.
And, let's be clear about one last point. Adam Silver is going to get his way on both of these issues. He wouldn't be discussing them publicly if he wasn't. These were problems that the commissioner found a solution for. And he found solutions that work for everybody. Once again proving that he's the best commissioner among the four major sports.
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