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Poll: The NBA - What To Do?
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Louisiana
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The Heat, Knicks, Celtics, and Lakers all managed to bring together two or three top-tier superstars as the rest of the league struggles in relative mediocrity. If you look at the top teams in the league, you'll find mostly a collection of powerhouse combos...
Lakers - They're "struggling" by their own standards, but back-to-back championships with Kobe Bryant and one of the top centers in the league in Pau Gasol means they'll still be on everyone's minds.
Celtics - Garnett, Pierce, Allen, Shaq, and Rondo. The first four are past their prime (Shaq being far past his), but that's still one of the most potent lineups in the league.
Heat - Nothing needs to be said about this. LeBron, Wade, Bosh.
Knicks (not yet a top team, but looking good for next season) - Stoudemire/Anthony, with Chris Paul or Deron Williams to join at point if all goes as planned.
The exceptions:
Magic - Dwight Howard is the lone superstar, but he's already talked with Deron Williams about teaming up next season, possibly in New Jersey (nah) or Los Angeles (rumored).
Spurs - Duncan is past his prime, and Ginobili and Parker are very good players, but not among the past. This just a solidly coached team that fits pieces together nicely.
Mavs - Dirk Nowitzki is still creaking along as one of the league's best players, but Kidd, Butler, Terry, Stojakovic, Chandler, and Marion are all solid to good.
Bulls - Derrick Rose is a bonafide MVP candidate, but Boozer is either second/third-tier, and Noah and Deng are complementary players.
Thunder - Durant (28.8 PPG, 7.1 RPG) and Westbrook (22.1 PPG, 8.5 APG) are two top-level players on the same team, but they weren't brought together as a result of collusion, and they don't have the appeal of Los Angeles.
Sure, Gasol with the Lakers is a result of a trade, but the growing trend is that we'll see more collusion and less parity in a league that isn't in the best place financially. Yes, the NBA needs awesome rivalries, but it also needs for more than four teams to have a realistic chance, or at least a hope.
The NFL has more parity than any other professional league, and is printing money. The NBA should be entering a golden era with the talent it has now, but I'm afraid all of this will result in such an imbalanced product that fans will cease supporting many of these teams.
So what should be done? Hard cap? Contraction? Both? Nothing? Something else?
I'm personally in favor of both a hard cap and contraction of four teams (my choices: Minnesota, New Orleans, Charlotte, and Toronto).
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Washington, DC
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Someone take the GIFs away from Laminar.
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"One ticket to Washington, please. I have a date with destiny."
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
Status:
Offline
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Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: San Antonio TX USA
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The Spurs take the championship again this time. Watch for it.
With that said, I'd chose something other than the available options. I'd say that the NBA needs to establish more credibility in terms of "these teams always suck" versus "these teams always win because they always play teams that suck." The Bulls are no longer some monster that rampages across the court and only slows down when the Pistons make them-that was more than 20 years ago. The Pistons have potential, but they need better coaching and maybe a couple new offensive players to push the rest of the team.
And I still can't keep track of all the teams in the league, especially since the last round of expansion. Tell me, do all these cities really support effective, NBA-level pro basketball? What else is in those cities? San Antonio has lots more than just the Spurs, but we've never gotten past AA baseball. Why? There's only so much "team spirit" to go around in a city like this. And I think that's true of most of the "expansion" cities too.
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Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
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