During the NBA Commish Adam Silver’s apology tour with employees threatened by the Phoenix Suns this weekend, he faced another concern. In addition to apologizing to Governor Robert Sarver of the suspended team and his decades of misconduct, Silver also apologized. besieged by a pile of questions about the tank problem (eyes rolling).
This season, the teams are improving their position to draw out next-generation talent Victor Wembanyama who is being viewed as a deadly criminal by the big market franchise better than you. That attitude is as old a tradition as the modern manuscript. Unsurprisingly, Silver agrees, referring to rampant tank hitting as a serious problem the league has brought to the attention of teams. Reportedly, Silver has also objected to the idea of implementing relegation as a punishment, a departure from European football’s usual deus ex machina for tournament disasters.
When the NBA has problems, they look to Europe more than any other league. Need a solution to the interest rate decline in the middle three months of the season? Model of European football cup have the answer. Need to come up with an advertisement for an interesting young person phenom to fill the void Will LeBron leave behind? Let’s look at France.
If the NBA ever wanted to consider relegation, that ship would have sailed long ago. The league mismanaged that possibility in the mid-’70s when they failed to anticipate the long-term business sense of keeping ABA in its B-League form rather than folding up franchises it didn’t absorb. Instead of the Pittsburgh Condors and Virginia Squires competing for promotion to the NBA, we’re stuck with Magic velcroceing ourselves to the NBA floor.
The upcoming tank battle caught the attention of the NBA community at the start of the season. Silver described the “dropping” as an insult to paying consumers. For most fans, it’s more of an exaggeration than a matter of fact. If Silver’s meeting were to take place in Indiana, Oklahoma City or Orlando, fugazi concerns about tanks wouldn’t even be in their sights. For big-market teams as obnoxious as tanks, it’s certainly not worth changing the entire model of the NBA.
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The NBA hierarchy for carnivores has always produced haves and don’ts. Typical of those missing are small-market franchises in locations that are struggling to attract first-rate freelance talent. Not coincidentally, we have never seen a dynasty of mini markets. Instead, these franchises must target people they can control for the first six to seven years of their careers before being freed up.
The expectation that losing teams will keep bad contracts on the payroll instead of throwing them away to save, develop talent makes the Knicks seem reasonable. Is that really a world that NBA fans want to live in? Do you think the San Antonio Spurs have regrets letting go of a recovering David Robinson in the second half of the ’97 season so they can draft Tim Duncan?
Instead of a young core of Jabari Smith, Tati Eason, Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun and Kevin Porter Jr., the Houston Rockets could have eliminated Harden for a fringe All-Star like DeMar DeRozan, whose synergies they have could have ridden to 35 -win seasons. The Rockets have embraced a youth movement. After six straight win-win seasons in which they struggled to make it through to the Western Conference Finals, Danny Ainge’s Utah Jazz has been derided as tank drivers for buying the hardcore centers of them to grab a wide range of options and young talent. As of Sunday, they are 2-0.
The stars of championship teams like the Golden State Splash Brothers or the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard are more likely to rest than the best player in the senior year group. Few franchises deliberately spend as many years scraping the bottom of the barrel as vault dwellers like Oklahoma City, the NBA’s third-smallest market, have done it for a third season in a row.
Since trading Chris Paul in 2020 and knocking their roster down to parity, the Thunder have amassed a 46-98 record and with their #2 overall pick for their entire rookie season. him, the Thunder roster is basically the 24-58 of last season. The lineup is preserved in amber. But in reality, how many teams have adopted that super tank tactic over the course of several seasons?
Orlando Magic does not increase. Their 6-11 wing, Jonathan Isaac, who eventually crushed the opposing ADCs’ efforts to prolific proportions, hadn’t competed in two years while he was busy promoting his brand on the internet. Fox News. Jalen Suggs, the most important defender that Magic thinks will act as a morale booster, gets through his rookie season, shoots 36% from the field as a rookie and is awfully bad. 21% vs 3. Paolo Banchero, No. 1 pick in the most recent draft has acted as Rookie of the Year leader, but his feat hasn’t translated into a victory – yet.
What exactly is Magic supposed to do? In an ideal season, Orlando could have sold Bradley Beal so they can have the fun and joy of living near Disney World as a father of three. Small market groups cannot reload. It was almost a necessity for them to rebuild from scratch. If the 2019 Clippers were aggressive or the KD/Kyrie Nets quarterback was too successful, who went 42-40 with Jarrett Allen, and Caris Levert wasn’t in Brooklyn or LA, they would have been doomed long ago.
Besides, the obvious problem is that there is no viable second division league for teams, it sends mixed messages about relegation even coming from Commish’s lips while rumors of opening wide. Excessive gain is more perception than reality.
