Keep the 82 games, make the season last a bit longer. I wouldn't mind an extra couple weeks of basketball.
They shorten the preseason and Lengthened the season, so there are no more for games in five nights this year. I don't know what the status was on back to back's though.
I think like in baseball and other sports, it totally screws up the historical context of stats, and everyone loves that. No one would ever touch Kareem's all time scoring record if they reduced to 70 games. Same with all other "all time" stats. I like the idea of smarter scheduling to reduce wear and tear, bigger rosters with 2 way contracts, reduced preseason to spread out the games. Good leadership going on right now, and it's cool to see.
Everyone? Are you sure? I could not care less who the Goat is, i wan to wach some competition and i want evey team to grind it hard. If just want basketball, not NBA basketball that can happen very easily for you.
Not sure if you noticed but those are gone this year (the 4 games in 5 nights) and they decreased the number of back to backs again. Hence why we are starting this year earlier.
Effs up the regular season career stats that way putting new NBA players at a disadvantage. Dropping 4 pre-season games better.
Good Point. I should not assume others feel the same as I do, but for those that love the history of the game, stats across generations of players is what we have to make comparisons. People can look back and compare Westbrook to Oscar Robertson, and Lebron to Jordan, etc. I would definitely prefer to have the same number of games in a season from that perspective. Per game averages are one thing, but season averages and career totals would be affected and may not reflect a player's true greatness or impact with so many fewer games played in a career.
eh, rules changes (shot clock, three pointer, legalized zone, hands-off perimeter, carrying, whatever the hell is going on with james harden, etc.) already really screw up cross-era comparisons. the league could easily drop to 76 games by just using scheduling logic (iirc, you play 6 teams in your conference but outside your division only thrice, i guess so that things add to the round number of 82). but it's lost revenue for owners. same reason why the court doesn't get bigger (though it needs to be): loss of some really expensive seats. always follow the money. cutting preseason games and lengthening the season doesn't affect the bottom line. why fix the draft lotto? rampant tanking kills attendance/interest late in the year. why crack down on resting stars? i'm waiting for a change that isn't obviously about money.
But adjusting thing for the pace of the game allows for some interesting debate. You'll never know how the generational stars would do against each other, but at least some things remain the same.
..... and how did I not see it and the responses disagreeing before posting my support. Oh right it was a final sweep of the threads on LB prior to sleep.
adjusting for pace is as or more complicated than adjusting for number of games in a season, though. we've got averages available to us. and we can calculate adjustment factors for raw stats if we really care that much. i think it's money, and that's it.
