Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 10:00 am  |  73 responses

Should the NBA Shorten the Regular Season?

by Marcel Mutoni

The League’s regular season, in reality, lasts about 6 months, but it feels a lot longer than that. And that’s coming from someone who never suits up. Imagine how the players must feel.

Evidently, some of them agree that the entire affair drags on for far too long, and would like to see it cut down some. And some would even accept a pay cut to make it happen.

USA Today reports:

Any reduction of games would require a requisite cutback of salaries. No problem, says Boston Celtics guard Ray Allen, who is making $17.4 million this season.

“I’d give some of my check back,” he says. “And I venture to say the quality of the games would go up another notch.”

Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy would take the corresponding pay cut, “because it might add years to the end of your career.”

And that’s an important point, according to Celtics forward Paul Pierce. “You look at some guys. After they’re done playing, they can barely walk.”

Naturally, there’s a flipside to this, as some players say they enjoy playing the full 82 (and the hefty paycheck that comes along with that sched.)

While still largely unlikely, what do you guys think, should the League seriously think about altering its schedule?

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  • http://galatasaray.org madamerica

    I don’t really care about the length of the regular season, but I cannot understand why any basketball fan would want to see shorter playoffs. I mean it’s the greatest time of the year for a fan. And it takes 2 months not 3. That’s mostly because of the scheduling not the number of games. They space playoffs games apart, and sometimes there’s a week between series. Best of 7 is great, no one should mess with it.

  • Adam T

    Never gonna happen

  • http://galatasaray.org madamerica

    And most seasons I enjoy the conference semis and finals just as much as the NBA Finals. Some times they are way better, like in 07.

  • http://www.basketbrasil.com.br Rubens Borges

    you want better games, cut some teams, not games

  • http://www.basketbrasil.com.br Rubens Borges

    oh, and the first round should go back to best of five format… imho

  • donovan

    Without a doubt. The NBA’s regular season is nothing more than a prolonged dog and pony show with hardly any consequential meaning for the postseason. When literally more than half the league makes the playoffs, why even have a regular season? So many games hardly mean a damn thing. Cut it down to about 70 regular-season games, and cut a few of the playoff teams out.

  • http://www.hoopsvibe.com/christopher_sells-authorHV106.html chiqo

    i can’t be bothered to read all the comments, but the playoffs should definitely be shorter. five game first round, as mentioned above, and play every other day when at all possible.

  • http://www.triplejuneartherd.com/dacre Dacre

    I thought the 50 game – lock out season was nice… It gave you enough time to prepare your team for the play offs…which is what its all about, and if your team is only going to win 20 games of an 80 game season…whats that worth to anyone…? atleast 50 games keeps it very close… Thats just me. Less games also means you can alter prices up or down accordingly…season tickets would be “affordable!”…

  • http://www.galatasaray.org madamerica

    What’s wrong with you people? Why would you want to shorten the first round back to 5 games? Aren’t you watching the Boston-Chicago series?

  • scruffz

    Riiiiiight. They should take a look at what NHL players have to go through in an 82 game season, yet they don’t grumble about shortening it. These guys have it easy compared to your average hockey player.

    What they need to do is cut all the spacing in between playoff games.

  • http://www.broy7.com nate the great

    yeah, i like the nba just the way it is.. i think we need to fix the ref situation tho.
    and player salary.
    i mean Gil should not be getting the money he is getting.. thats just crazy.

  • http://tudobola.blogspot.com/ Edu

    What I’d like to know is how guys in the nba do the math to make every team play 82 games, no matter if they are 30, like now, or 29, 27, 24…

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/officerbarbrady what

    As big of an NBA fan as I am I gotta admit around mid-March I start wondering when the hell the playoffs are going to start. An ideal NBA would be one with about 15 less regular season games, a couple of teams contracted, and good refs. But of course it’s never going to happen.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/officerbarbrady what

    But I would keep the playoffs exactly the same.

  • Leigh

    Now that they play longer playoffs (all 7 game series) it makes sense to shorten the season for the sake of players’ bodies.

  • Leigh

    Now that they play long playoff series (all best of 7) it makes sense to shorten the regular season for the sake of players’ bodies. I think comparisons could still be made between past players who played longer regular seasons.

  • http://www.basketbrasil.com.br Rubens Borges

    @madamerica cause with a 5 games first round we hav, more chance of an upset, like sonic vs denver in 94.

  • http://thenbarefsarecompletelyhorrible.com nbk

    Obviously this is not gonna happen, a contraction of teams is realistic given the economic issues, but that would not be until david stern has tried a few things. If the league could get the D-League how they plan too that will definately help, enabling players to take their time coming back from injury while still allowing teams a wealth of talent to fall back on. But a shorting of the season wont happen, its not good for anyone but the millionare athletes. All you people that “get sick” of it will be itching to have it start that much earlier.

  • jeremy

    i’m really for as many basketball games as possible. but i could also understand the players’ point of view. i mean, they play 6 months of 82 grueling games to basically just get position for the ‘real season’ which is the playoffs. and when they do get there, most teams are basically broken down already.

  • Coney Islander

    Nope! I want a 300 game season with a 60 game playoff system and you gotta have 5 days for all star festivities of course. lol

  • Revgen

    I see only 1 benefit for shorter seasons.

    Old players stay in the game longer than they should and stave off retirement.

    Part of the reason why vets retire is because it’s difficult for them to go through 82 games as they get older. However, with vets retiring, young players get their chance to shine. It’s already bad enough that teams like Phoenix are giving old players like Shaq days off on back-to-back games. While I appreciate what Shaq has done in his career, the Suns need to put their young players out there and develop them. Especially when their old center can’t play back to backs anymore. Riley knew this and that’s why he shipped Shaq out. These players make millions of dollars. When it’s time to retire, these guys need to retire. They make plenty of money to live off of for the rest of their lives. They don’t need to beg the NBA to shorten seasons so they can keep blowing away dough that they should have saved.

  • Quality not Quantity

    Like Coney Islander joked about, I’m sure a lot of people here would love to see 300 game schedules and best of 9 playoffs. Frigging junkies can’t think…

    I say reduce the season to 60-70 games. The regular season will mean more and we’ll see a lot less “cruise control” efforts as players like Shaq take entire quarters off. There will be a lot fewer meaningless games like Clippers-Memphis or Lakers-Sacramento. The big games among the elite will still be very important. The upsets will still be cool.

    I don’t care if there are 30 or 25 teams in the league. The NBA was great with 23 teams in the 80′s and is still great with 30 teams.

    Also, cut the playoffs back to five game series until the Championship and Finals Rounds where best of 7 means something instead of just another useless first round blowout.

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    scruffz Posted: Apr.30 at 11:55 pm
    Riiiiiight. They should take a look at what NHL players have to go through in an 82 game season, yet they don’t grumble about shortening it. These guys have it easy compared to your average hockey player. What they need to do is cut all the spacing in between playoff games.
    _______________________________________________
    Seems like they have done that this year quite well. the playoffs started two days after the season ended, and with exception to teams that sweep a round – games are going through rather quickly.

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