Ideas for Improving the NBA

David Stern recently announced his intentions to start another division of the NBA in Europe. This really comes as no surprise considering Stern has long been obsessed with the idea of European NBA franchises for quite some time. Stern, who at one time was the best American sports commissioner, has become increasingly more and more concerned with his own legacy rather than the actual good of the game. Some of his recent moves, such as instituting an unnecessary dress code and wussifying the league by instituting more stringent rules upon physical play (not to mention his absolute refusal to do anything about the pitiful state of the league’s officiating), have been downright stupid. But this idea trumps them all. Flying overseas for a road trip is just one of the many problems with this concept, another being that no one is going to want to play in Europe.

In response to Stern’s idiotic ideas and the losing of his mind, I’ve have five ideas that would improve the league in feasible ways and do not involve moving teams to Europe, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, Mars, or any other continental/celestial body.

1. Improve the Officiating
The referees in this league are an embarrassment, pure and simple. Their suspect and subjective calls have created a completely inconsistent environment that even the smartest of players has trouble adjusting to. In addition, this has hurt our players in international play because they are so used to bail out, weak foul calls and the “Superstar Officiating System.” Stern had a golden opportunity to fix the problems with the officials once and for all this summer after the Tim Donaghy scandal was exposed. Instead, he did everything he could to sweep the story under the mat as quickly as possible and did nothing to institute changes. This could start with three steps.

a.) Fire a few select refs
Some of these guys are either too old or too stubborn to ever change their ways and pick up on the new concepts of the game and the abilities of the players. Refs who have a track record of pitiful performances, such as Dick Bavetta, Bennett Salvatore, and Tom Washington, should be kicked to the curb immediately.

b.) Change the Evaluation Process
A part of me thinks the NBA should purge itself of about half (or more) of the refs in the league and try to replace them with D League and college refs. While I think there are a few who need to be let go immediately, as stated above, bringing in a fresh class of officials will not be effective if the way the officials are evaluated isn’t changed. The NFL is the model organization in terms of evaluation. If a game is played on Sunday, each official will have a DVD of the game in their mailbox on Monday, highlighting every single call the given official made (and missed) during the game. Their performance is examined inside and out and if there are more than a few screw ups, the official is subject to being fired.

The NBA has refused to institute new policies that would allow for better and more extensive evaluation of their refs. Any advances that have been offered up (several by Mark Cuban) have been met with significant resistance. The officials need to be held accountable for their calls just like players are held accountable for their actions.

c.) Fire Ronnie Nunn
Ronnie Nunn was one of the more respected referees in NBA history before taking a position as the head of the officials. Since he took over, there have been multiple complaints from the refs he controls concerning the methods and positioning on the court that he insists on. The last issue in particular has been a major problem with the refs and I tend to agree. Positioning the baseline ref to the far side of the action may keep him out of harm’s way but it does not allow for proper vision of the area directly in front of and under the basket, the most action packed part of the floor. If the refs really feel Nunn is an issue, he should be fire immediately, effectively taking away the crutch the refs tend to use in response to their pathetic performances.

2. Change the Rules of the D League
I think the D League is one of the better ideas Stern has instituted over the past 10 years. The D League is much more visible than any of the other minor league organizations of the past and it does give players a legitimate shot at being noticed and getting contracts in the NBA. The only thing I would change would be to allow any players a team has in the D League to not count against the 15 man roster. Meaning, a given team could send two players to play in the D League and still have 15 men at their disposal. This would both allow the team to develop their players while staying at full strength and give 30 more players a job each year.

3. Add a Third Round to the Draft
This is probably the least significant of my moves but still worth doing. With more and more foreign players being taken in the draft, there are a lot of excellent American players going undrafted each year. A third round, combined with the roster change above, would increase the chances of some of our players being drafted and being given a legitimate shot to make a roster. The third round could be used more for project European players, allowing teams to take more college players in the second round. In addition, a third round would give teams a few more trade chips.

4. Restructure the Playoff System
The too 16 teams in the league should be playing for the title. Period. In the past decade the separation between the West and East, from top to bottom, has been well documented. This season has done even more to further that rift. As I write, there are currently 4 teams in the East with sub-.500 records that would be in the playoffs if they started today. That includes Philadelphia, a team that is 9 games under .500. Conversely, should the playoffs start today, three Western Conference teams with winning records would be out. There is just too big of a difference between the conferences and the situation needs to be rectified.

I would do this by throwing all 30 teams together and breaking them up into 6 divisions. The conferences could still stay intact for All Star game purposes but they would no longer be necessary for the playoffs. Each team would play the teams within their division four times, the teams in four of the other divisions three times, and the teams in the final conference two times. The division played only twice would rotate each year. In the end the best 16 teams would advance to the playoffs, with the team with the best record would play the team with the 16th best record, etc. This could be set up similar to the way the NCAA does their annual tournament.

5. Make Some Changes to the Salary Cap Rules
There are a lot of people who do not fully grasp the genius of the NBA’s salary cap. I can understand that because there are so many intricacies and complexities to it that are hard to comprehend. Let me just say that the salary cap is David Stern’s greatest contribution to NBA. It takes some serious time and effort to break it down and understand it but it is by far the most well put together cap in any of the sports. That said, I believe there are two small changes that could be made.

a.) Allow for the Restructuring of Contracts
The NFL allows players to restructure their contracts to allow the team to stay under the salary cap. This isn’t an issue in the NBA because the league has a “soft” cap. However, the reconstructing of contracts would serve other purposes in the NBA. Namely, when a player asks for/demands a trade, the team could make it happen with more ease if the player would take less money. NBA trading policies require teams to match outgoing salary for incoming salary within a certain percentage. Meaning, if a given team trades a player making 10 million dollars a year, they have to bring in another player or group of players that make(s) close to 10 million dollars. This becomes an issue when superstars (or players paid like superstars) ask to be traded from bad teams. Because they make so much, it is often very difficult for the team to find similar incoming value for the player asking to be traded. The results are usually bad for everyone involved. Either the team trades the player for 50 cents on the dollar or they cannot find a trade partner and the player is stuck.

This could be changed by giving players the option of restructuring their contracts and lowering their price tag. If a given player making 14 million dollars a year asks for a trade, the team could try to find an acceptable trade, then come back to the player and ask him to take a pay cut in order to facilitate the trade to a better team. A percentage limit of, say, 25% of their contract could be given up in exchange for a ticket out of town into a better situation. This would put the onus on the player who has demanded a trade and also would probably help some teams take back more in trade.

b.) Add a Salary Cap Exception
Currently, the NBA offers teams three exceptions with which to sign free agents, regardless of their salary cap space.
1. The minimum contract – a team that is over the salary cap can sign as many players as they can take onto the roster to minimum contracts, which is the lowest amount of money a player can sign for based on their years of experience.
2. The “Bi Annual Exception” – this gives each team the opportunity to sign one free agent to a contract that is slightly above the league minimum once every other year.
3. The “Mid Level Exception” – this is the most valuable exception. Its value changes each year and is based on the average salary of every player in the league. This exception can be given out each year either altogether for one player or broken up for multiple players, and can also be given as a multi year contract.

What these exceptions do is allow good teams who are over the salary cap to sign players each year, thereby keeping them in contention and bringing in fresh blood. I believe this could be taken one step further.

A fourth exception could be added that would, in my opinion, would give good teams another chance to stay in contention. Once every five seasons, which is the maximum number of years a contract can be extended, each team would be allowed to sign any one player to a deal up to and including the league maximum. This exception would give good, contending teams that want to spend the money an opportunity to put themselves over the top. For example, last off season the Mavericks badly needed a point guard to lead them. Chauncey Billups was a free agent and would have been a perfect fit for the Mavs. However, because they were over the cap, the most the team could offer was the Mid Level Exception which wasn’t nearly enough to bring Billups in. If this exception was available, the Mavs could have potentially added a player they badly needed, had they been willing to pay a great deal of money to do so. This exception would also separate the great owners from the cheap ones, something I am always in favor of.