Blake Griffin Needs to Be Set Free: Why Contraction Is the Best Answer for NBA
At the beginning of the season, the Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic looked to be the only teams who could say, "Championship or bust," without the entire room laughing at their wishful thinking.
At the All-Star break, those four teams have been joined by the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and even the Chicago Bulls as potential squads who could lift up the Larry O'Brien Trophy at the end of the year.
What this means is 23 other teams have about 30 games left to go with no hope of winning a title. Almost 10 of those 23 teams really have no chance at making the playoffs.
The solution to the NBA's problem is not a hard cap, shortened contracts, franchise tags; the answer is to cut off six teams altogether and field a much stronger 24-team league.
Why Contraction Makes Sense
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Take a look at this weekend's All-Star rosters as an example.
If you have all the talent in the NBA to choose from, you can stack two teams' rosters to the point where either one could probably win an Olympic gold medal.
Four teams, still impressive.
Ten teams, starting to let some midlevel guys in, but still quality.
Thirty teams, suddenly there's an issue.
John Wall, Blake Griffin and Kevin Love are all incredible young talents, but if they stay with their current franchises, they will never win a title.
Parity Does Not Exist in the NBA; Not Now, Not Ever
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Thirty-three titles have been won between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers.
Ten titles have been won between the Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs.
The Detroit Pistons, Philadelphia 76ers, Houston Rockets and New York Knicks add up to 10 rings.
The Miami Heat have one championship, but seem to be in pretty good position to win several more soon.
Fifty-four rings between nine franchises. The most recent title won by a team outside of these these nine franchises was the 1978-79 Seattle Supersonics.
In the NBA, teams have a good chance of rising from the bottom of the league to the playoffs in only a couple seasons, but very few teams can rise from the bottom to an NBA ring.
Fans Have Changed
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With the internet, NBA LeaguePass, ESPN and TNT televising more and more NBA games, fans can cheer for any team they want regardless of where they are.
On July 8, 2010, millions of people that may have never even been to Miami became Miami Heat fans.
I was at a Knicks game a few weeks back when they played the Heat, and nearly every kid I saw had a LeBron James or Dwyane Wade jersey on.
If I lived in Cleveland right now and James was still my favorite player, I would gladly stay at home and watch a Heat game on a high-definition TV as opposed to spending 20 dollars for a cheap seat at the Q to watch this year's Cleveland Cavaliers.
We have all seen Blake Griffin's dunks this year, but 99 percent of us saw them on ESPN or YouTube as opposed to being at the actual game.
Personally, I know people who love the Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder but live in Los Angeles.
There are plenty of NBA fans that live in a big city and attend their teams' home games, which is great, but there are also millions of NBA fans who live in small towns who catch just as many games a year in their living room.
The Big Three Movement
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Imagine for a second that Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul truly do go to New York.
Now picture Dwight Howard teaming up with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol in Los Angeles.
Throw in maybe a Deron Williams to Portland with Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge and suddenly you have 12 of the league's best players residing on four teams (when you include the already assembled Miami Heat).
The Big Three Movement puts an even bigger gap between the teams at the top and the teams at the bottom.
When good teams only have one or two superstars, it gives the Minnesota Timberwolves or Toronto Raptors hope that they can compete, but when 3/5 of a starting lineup are All-Stars there really is no chance for the little guys.
Annoying Trade Rumors
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We all got sick and tired of the Carmelo Anthony trade rumors this season.
I thought The Decision was bad, but this whole Anthony saga makes Jim Gray seem like must-see television. The scary part is, this is just the beginning of a terrible phase for the NBA.
Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and Derron Williams will probably all have similar trade rumor-filled seasons next year.
Blake Griffin the year after that.
Trade rumors are exciting, because they give us hope that teams might suddenly transform into a contender over night.
Newspapers and websites like Bleacher Report receive millions of viewers a day for all the interest in the "Where's he going now?" speculation.
But going through this type of thing every year will eventually turn many fans away from the NBA.
Every player dreams of winning a title and sees their career as a failure if they are unsuccessful in the playoffs.
With 30 teams in the NBA, there are nearly a dozen superstars right now that will never win a ring with their current roster.
Who Would Get the Axe
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The criteria used to determine which teams stay and which teams need to go should be as follows:
1. Fanbase
2. History of Success
3. The, "Aw, that's too bad" factor
4. If they are holding a star player hostage
5. How new of a franchise they are
Fanbase
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The Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics are the two most popular teams in the NBA.
The New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks all stay around for their size of city.
Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns barely squeak by.
Number of teams left on the bubble: 22
History of Success
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The San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets and Philadelphia 76ers meet the criteria by having a combined 11 rings between them.
After those four, you have to dig a little bit deeper into the NBA archive.
The Golden State Warriors, Atlanta Hawks, Oklahoma City Thunder (formerly Seattle Supersonics), Washington Wizards, Milwaukee Bucks and Portland Trail Blazers avoid the axe.
In addition, the Sacramento Kings, when they were the Rochester Royals, won a single NBA championship.
Number of teams left on the bubble: 11
The, "Aw, That's Too Bad" Factor
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You can not take LeBron James from Cleveland one year then remove the entire franchise the next.
The Cleveland Cavaliers stay.
The Indiana Pacers, Utah Jazz and Orlando Magic are all teams that would make us say, "Aw, that's too bad" if they were ever axed.
Even though those four franchises are yet to win an NBA title, they still are an essential part of the NBA.
On the flip side of this argument, would we really miss the Toronto Raptors?
Teams remaining on the bubble: 6
Teams contracted: 1
Holding a Star Player Hostage
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This criteria puts teams on the chopping block quickly.
The Los Angeles Clippers are the second team to be eliminated since they have failed the first three criteria and are threatening to hold onto Blake Griffin for his entire career.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are holding onto Kevin Love and the New Orleans Hornets are keeping Chris Paul from playing on a contender.
Teams remaining on the bubble: 3
Teams contracted: 4
How New Is the Franchise?
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The Charlotte Bobcats have to go.
This leaves us with two teams: the New Jersey Nets and the Memphis Grizzlies.
Neither one of these two teams did enough in the first four criteria to secure a spot in the NBA.
However, the Nets are an older franchise than the Grizzlies and a 24-team league works better than a 23.
The Grizzlies would also release more talent into the NBA for the remaining teams to snatch.
New NBA: 24 teams
Franchises that did not make it: Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Hornets, Charlotte Bobcats and Memphis Grizzlies.
The Talent That Would Be Out on the Market
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Imagine a new-look Cavaliers team with Chris Paul, Eric Gordon and Zach Randolph inserted into the starting lineup.
How about New Jersey with Rudy Gay, Blake Griffin and Kevin Love?
Steve Nash running the new-look Suns with Gerald Wallace, Andrea Bargnani, Marc Gasol and OJ Mayo.
The Pistons insert Baron Davis at the point, David West at the power forward and Michael Beasley on the wing. Milwaukee adds Tony Allen and Sacramento gets Chris Kaman.
With six teams being eliminated, their rosters suddenly help the bottom of the league catch up to the top.
Does it close the gap entirely?
No, but it does give a little more parity.
A More Interesting Regular Season
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There are games in the 30-team league you would never pay money to watch.
In the 24-team league, even a New Jersey Nets versus Cleveland Cavaliers game would be marketable since each team would have at least one star, maybe two.
The playoff chase would be more exciting since 12 teams in each conference are fighting for eight spots.
The NBA would make more money because of television deals.
Look at the NFL—every week they have ESPN, CBS, NBC and Fox all televising games.
When you have more teams that resemble the star power of a Miami Heat roster, you will see networks outside of ABC, ESPN and TNT getting involved in NBA broadcasts.
The Playoffs
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The NBA playoffs are already a great product.
But, imagine them in the 24 team league when all eight seeds are loaded with talent.
The 4-0 sweeps in the first and even second round will become more of a rarity. This means more postseason games, more tickets being sold and more games being televised.
Better teams leads to better games, which lead to a better overall product.
A Better Developmental League and Global Basketball
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The Developmental League would be flooded with higher-quality talent, which should lead to more overall interest.
The six teams that were contracted could enter into the D-League and play NBA teams in preseason exhibitions.
What would be really impressive is for some of these guys who would have made a roster in the 30-team league, but wouldn't in a 24, head overseas and add talent to some of the international leagues.
If the NBA wants to expand to a global game, this could be the first step.
