By Michael Heilman
The NBA for many years has allowed players to enter the draft after high school. Such stars like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Jermaine O’Neal didn’t go to college after high school and very few have developed into stars thus resulting in a lot of draft busts. So, the NBA changed the age rule to 19. In other words, you go to college for 1 year and leave for the NBA, otherwise, there are known as 1 and done players. Others just go overseas to play one year before entering the draft.
Because of this, NBA teams don’t get to see much of players development and end up taking a risk on that player who may or may not breakout in 5 years. This is still a problem for the league and the fans can tell that the talent level is overall bad. The NBA needs to change the age rule again. What they should do is what the NFL does and allow college basketball players to enter the draft after their junior year can enter the draft. This would give the players an option to declare or stay for their senior year and continue to develop their skills.
Making it easier for NBA teams to study film and find the right guy for their franchise. As for the international players, the NBA should also make a age rule for the players as well before they enter the draft by raising the age limit to 22 and extending the draft. The NBA can create 2 drafts here. Have 4 rounds with the college draft being the first 2 rounds and have the next night be the international draft. Not only will teams have 2 additional rounds, they could also take players who still need work and send them to their d-league teams. You would see the talent level get good again and the game will be fun again to watch.
Another way to make the NBA a better league is to shorten the regular season. In 2014, LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers said that he wanted the NBA to cut games to eliminate back to back games and I agree. This would also help the players and they won’t get injured as much. Eliminating the back to back games is a good idea and to do this you need to do a conference realignment.
The NBA would like to return to Seattle and it could happen, not by relocating a team but as an expansion team. Another city who could get an NBA team is Kansas City, MO. Have them play at the Sprint Center located in downtown Kansas City. I’m surprised that the NBA hasn’t put a team there yet considering that it’s a nice arena that doesn’t have a permanent team to call home. The arena will be 10 years old in October 2017 and the only team they had play there were the arena football league’s Kansas City Brigade/ Command. What the NBA should do is have the East and West conferences have 2 divisions of 8 teams (16 teams total for both conferences, 32 teams total). The East would keep both the Atlantic and Central divisions and the West would keep the Pacific and Southwest divisions.
Each division is adding an additional 3 teams. You would have the divisions play each other 28 times a year (14 home, 14,away), 16 times against the other division with a home and home series (1 home, 1 away) and 16 games against a Western Conference also a home and home series (1 home, 1 away). You would have the top 4 teams from each division clinching a spot in the playoffs and eliminate teams with losing records.
The difference is the eastern conference and western conference would only play each other two times a year. For example, Let’s use the Atlantic division, they would play only the Pacific division for the season and the next year play the Southwest division. Same goes with the Central division with playing the Southwest division for the season and the next year play the Pacific division. The total games for the season would be 60 games (30 home, 30 away). This would definitely eliminate the back to back games and teams can get extra days off before the next game thus resulting in less players getting injured. It’s a win for both the league and the fans.
This is what the NBA conference realignment would look like with Seattle returning and joining the Pacific division along with Utah and Portland. Kansas City comes in as the new expansion team going to the Southwest Division along with Denver and Minnesota switching conferences. Miami, Charlotte, Washington and Orlando join the Atlantic division, Minnesota and Atlanta join the Central division. Again, with this conference realignment, both conferences would have 16 teams each and 32 for the league total.
NBA
Western Conference
Pacific Division
Seattle (Returning)
Portland
Sacramento
Golden State
Los Angeles Lakers
Los Angeles Clippers
Utah
Phoenix
Southwest Division
Kansas City (Expansion team)
Dallas
Houston
New Orleans
Oklahoma City
Memphis
Denver
San Antonio
Eastern Conference
Atlantic Division
Boston
New York
Brooklyn
Philadelphia
Washington
Charlotte
Orlando
Miami
Central Division
Toronto
Cleveland
Detroit
Atlanta
Indiana
Milwaukee
Minnesota
Chicago
If the NBA did these moves, they would become a better league for everyone to enjoy. You would see more people attend NBA games nationwide. The talent level would be outstanding and every team would have a superstar.
The teams would no longer have to play back to back games thus players would be healthy to play games and not be on the shelf. Plus, you would no longer have teams with losing records getting into the playoffs. The NBA would become an exciting league again.
How would you make the NBA exciting again? Leave a comment below.
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