This time it counts.

[edoug]

The NBA's Grand Poohbah has decided that near 400 point All Star games aren't what he was looking for.

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/adam-silver-nba-all-star-game-will-be-reset-next-year-to-be-more-competitive/

 

[ElUno20]

I don't like the 4 point shot or half court 10 point crap.

I would try to focus on incentives, but not as far as MLB, so something like:

+Large donation to the charities of the winning team

+ AS game gets hosted the next year by one of cities of the winning conference

 

[southshoresoxfan]

I don't like the 4 point shot or half court 10 point crap.

I would try to focus on incentives, but not as far as MLB, so something like:

+Large donation to the charities of the winning team

+ AS game gets hosted the next year by one of cities of the winning conference

Feels a little Rock N Jock to me

 

[djbayko]

Feels a little Rock N Jock to me

Yeah, I was gonna say, why don't they just bring back the Rock N Jock 50 point basket? Problem solved.

 

[mauf]

I'm a fan of Adam Silver (bearing in mind that his job is to part me from my money), but his comments aren't encouraging. If we define the problem as "ASG =/= real basketball," then gimmicks like 4-point shots move us further in the wrong direction.

I think @ElUno20 is on the right track -- the key is to create an incentive for players to want to win the game. This will require Silver and the owners to put their money where their mouths are, because short of replicating Bud Selig's home-field gambit (which, bad as it was in MLB, would be far worse in the NBA), I don't see how to create an incentive without spending money.

 

[Kliq]

This is a league where star players regularly sit out regular season games to rest up and avoid fatigue/injury. They are not going to care about an exhibition game in the middle of the season.

I don't even think anything is really wrong with the ASG. Getting players to really compete like it's an actual game is a pipe dream. Fans just want to see guys throw down alley-oops and whatnot anyway.

 

[RetractableRoof]

I think Kerr described it decently... You aren't looking for % effort. You are looking for 75% versus the current perception of 10%.

I think that would make the game watchable as a game rather than a glorified slam dunk/alley oop contest designed to make the home town player look good.

 

[Bigpupp]

Why does it have to be a 5 on 5 game? Make it a 2 on 2 half court tournament with two games going at a time and charity money going to the city that wins. Maybe I played too much NBA jam growing up, but I'd love to watch that.

 

[Kenny F'ing Powers]

This is a league where star players regularly sit out regular season games to rest up and avoid fatigue/injury. They are not going to care about an exhibition game in the middle of the season.

I don't even think anything is really wrong with the ASG. Getting players to really compete like it's an actual game is a pipe dream. Fans just want to see guys throw down alley-oops and whatnot anyway.

$2mm to the offensive mvp, $2mm to the defensive mvp.

Problem solved.

 

[johnmd20]

$2mm to the offensive mvp, $2mm to the defensive mvp.

Problem solved.

That would be just crazy enough to work.

 

[mauf]

I don't even think anything is really wrong with the ASG. Getting players to really compete like it's an actual game is a pipe dream. Fans just want to see guys throw down alley-oops and whatnot anyway.

The nature of the ASG has changed markedly in the past two years; it was never a defensive showcase, but it resembled an actual basketball game until recently.

Supporting that assertion with data: in the 2000s, 8 of 10 ASGs had between 240 and 285 total points scored, with a high of 300 in a 2OT game in 2003. This decade:

2010: 280
2011: 291
2012: 301
2013: 281
2014: 318
2015: 321
2016: 369
2017: 374

Offense is up in the NBA generally, so older historic norms may be irrelevant, but if the league could get the over/under down to 320 or so, that would be real progress -- and would suggest that the teams were playing at least a modicum of defense.

That said, ASG ratings have been flattish over the past decade, so you may be right that fans don't care. My counterargument would be that while national NBA ratings (including the ASG) are steady, local ratings are down sharply in many markets, and often not in ways that are easily explained by cord-cutting or the fortunes of specific teams. If you're trying to market the game so as to win back less engaged fans, making the ASG more interesting is a relatively low-effort way to move the needle in the right direction

 

[DeJesus Built My Hotrod]

First of all, kudos to Silver for even trying to do something here (hell, he asked fans to email him).

That said, incentives aren't really going to do much. If there is financial incentive, its going to have to be pretty significant - the players attending are the most highly paid players in the game especially when you factor in their sponsorships. Furthermore, you are incentivizing players taking part in an exhibition to put themselves and others at injury risk. Imagine someone like LeBron or Westbrook getting injured in a game like this.

 

[mauf]

First of all, kudos to Silver for even trying to do something here (hell, he asked fans to email him).

That said, incentives aren't really going to do much. If there is financial incentive, its going to have to be pretty significant - the players attending are the most highly paid players in the game especially when you factor in their sponsorships. Furthermore, you are incentivizing players taking part in an exhibition to put themselves and others at injury risk. Imagine someone like LeBron or Westbrook getting injured in a game like this.

I think $500,000 to a charity chosen by each of the 12 players on the winning team would be enough to get us back to historic norms of ASG competitiveness. The $6 million wouldn't have to be entirely incremental; other marketing or philanthropy dollars could be diverted to cover at least part of the cost.

 

[Kenny F'ing Powers]

You could have a "pool" of winnable money. Each team starts with same amount. The two teams take from the opponents pool based on certain criteria (arbitrary hustle plays, rebounds, steals, etc). This is an easy way to get marketing/fan involvement up as well (hash tag to vote throughout game, certain amount of votes to pass vote threshold).

 

[Kliq]

First of all, kudos to Silver for even trying to do something here (hell, he asked fans to email him).

That said, incentives aren't really going to do much. If there is financial incentive, its going to have to be pretty significant - the players attending are the most highly paid players in the game especially when you factor in their sponsorships. Furthermore, you are incentivizing players taking part in an exhibition to put themselves and others at injury risk. Imagine someone like LeBron or Westbrook getting injured in a game like this.

Imagine the criticism for a guy that gets hurt in a meaningless game because he trying to go from being worth $200 million to being worth $202 million.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

Are we at the point now where we can go USA vs World in the all star game?

 

[ZMart100]

Currently players on the winning team make $50k and players on the losing team make $25k. It's not surprising that nobody plays hard. I think the trick would be to make it so the incentives are relatively even so LeBron plays with the same effort as Giannis even though the former's salary is an order of magnitude larger than the later. Perhaps the players on the winning team each get 50k or 1% of their salary, whichever is larger. It's big enough to matter, but not so big that players will play to hard.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Are we at the point now where we can go USA vs World in the all star game?

That would work for a few years.

All Stars vs. Globetrotters!

 

[DeJesus Built My Hotrod]

Imagine the criticism for a guy that gets hurt in a meaningless game because he trying to go from being worth $200 million to being worth $202 million.

This is really the crux of the issue. There really aren't any realistic financial incentives that make it worth it for these guys to play harder. And the risk/reward skews against them from doing so, especially in contract years.

 

[jmm57]

Are we at the point now where we can go USA vs World in the all star game?

Wouldn't Giannis and Marc Gasol be the only "world" all-stars this year? Seems like you would have to leave out a ton of more deserving players to fill out the World roster.

 

[jmm57]

I guess Kyrie could be on a world team, plus wiggins/embiid/porzingas/Simmons/gobert coming up. Maybe it could work.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

Wouldn't Giannis and Marc Gasol be the only "world" all-stars this year? Seems like you would have to leave out a ton of more deserving players to fill out the World roster.

Yeah, seems like the one drawback. But if the game is for the fans, I think that game would have more fan interest than the way it is set up currently. At least for a few years. They'd be playing for their country or w/e so it should be more competitive.

I don't really watch NHL but they did this a few years back. Not sure if they still do.

 

[Nick Kaufman]

This is really the crux of the issue. There really aren't any realistic financial incentives that make it worth it for these guys to play harder. And the risk/reward skews against them from doing so, especially in contract years.

It's still EV+ to go for the 2 million. Not that this is necessarily the best solution either way.

 

[Big John]

Easy to fix: all of the players in the losing conference have to wear short shorts for the rest of the season.