Five Ways to Improve the NBA

The NBA is enjoying a great start this season, with intriguing story lines and new talent that has brought new life to hopeless franchises.

But like anything else, there is room for improvement. I have compiled five slight tweaks to the league that would improve the product on the court, and make it more competitive and enjoyable to watch by fans off the court.

1. Seeding the playoff teams

Imagine for a minute after an exciting 82-game regular season, in which your favorite team has battled against their division rivals for months, and now in their first round match, they draw a team they have only played two times all season! Think of some of the possibilities:

16-Team Playoff Bracket as of December 3, 2008

1. Boston vs. 16. Miami
2. LA Lakers vs. 15. New Jersey
3. Cleveland vs. 14. San Antonio
4. Orlando vs. 13. Dallas
5. Portland vs. 12. New Orleans
6. Denver vs. 11. Houston
7. Detroit vs.10. Phoenix
8. Utah vs. 9. Atlanta

Sure, there would be some logistical issues about travel, but that would lead me to my next tweak.

2. Shorten the first round, and adjust the home/away settings

The first round of the playoffs was much more exciting in the old best three out of five set up. Bringing this back would not only keep teams fresh, but allow the potential for more upsets in the early rounds. Of course, it is all about money and advertising dollars, but this article is strictly about the product on the court.

The home court advantage would be handled as follows. The first two games and game five of round one would be played at the higher seed. In the following rounds, which would be four out of seven, Games One, Two, Five, and Seven would be at the home court.

The swing Game Five often decides the winner of the series. A road team that splits the first two games, can go home in the current set up and know that if they win three games at home the series is theirs. This would allow the Home Court team the ability to know they would get another game at home if they lost one of the first two.

3. No more guaranteed contracts

The NFL has it right on this. The only money guaranteed a rookie gets in the NFL is their signing bonus. Yet the teams can still sign their franchise player to a long-term, lucrative, incentive-laden deal.

Look at the Falcons QB Matt Ryan. He signed a six-year, $72 million dollar deal, with $30 million of that being his signing bonus. He has to work over six years to get the other $42 million. If the Grizzlies could have locked up O.J. Mayo to a max contract like that, do you think they would?

Instead, Memphis, like many other small market teams, have to only hope they can surround their star with enough talent to lure him to resign after his initial rookie contract expires. And if he gets hurt, underachieves, etc, the best you can do is go the New York Knicks route, and buy out the player. In the end, it makes no sense.

4. Make the Slam-Dunk contest relevant again

The highlight of All-Star Weekend used to be the Slam Dunk competition back in the day. Now it’s whatever party Nelly and Jermaine Dupri are hosting. I would have it mandatory that the champion from the previous year have to enter to defend his title.

Also, put one throwback champion or superstar (LeBron/Kobe) be in there. Let them do it for charity, since they surely don’t need the chump change the winner gets.

5. Expansion/Relocation

In the troubling economic times the country is going through right now, this may be years away, yet there are many cities that would support a professional basketball team right now. Check out the ones I wrote about before right here.