A new NBA? Different extensions, more teams, fewer games…

Journalist Eric Pincus, of Bleacher Report, has published an article reviewing the state of things of the NBA after the weekend of All Star Weekenda hive also behind the scenes since a city brings together the great figures of the NBA, its agents, the power factors in the competition and the main positions of the League itself. What is discussed there and what comes out of those conversations is usually a good indicator of at what point is the situation or what issues are on the table for debate.

And now, almost already in the spring of 2023, The main one is the new agreement that franchises and players are negotiating, clear. Conversations that they want, that is always the great objective of Commissioner Adam Silver, to avoid fractures or tensions that lead to a lockout That would be especially harmful in times of prosperity for the NBA and with a new multimillion-dollar television contract on the table, also in full negotiations.

According to Pincus, in Salt Lake City there was talk of changes that seem imminent. The main one has to do with the challenge available to coaches to officially question and have referees’ decisions reviewed: It is intended that if a technician asks for it and wins it, he will keep it and not be discounted. Of course, with the concern that the matches do not go much beyond two hours and fifteen minutes of actual duration. From what the NBA has been able to verify so far, the average resolution of a challenge it’s in about 90 seconds. But sometimes they go beyond six minutes and have an effect freezingespecially at the end of the game.

Another change that is estimated to be introduced imminently affects the structure of basketball games as we know them much more: it is valued to introduce the target score for matches with extra time. That is to say, that in the extra time they do not play on time (now each overtime lasts five minutes) but until a team reaches a certain number of points. The G League, the Development League, is usually the test bench that the NBA uses to carry out this type of test. And you have already tried this change in your regular season. And he went further: he also rehearsed in the last quarters during the secondary tournament Introduced mid-season, another milestone that seems about to make the leap (an old Silver wish and a perpetual rumor in recent years) to the NBA. According to the tests carried out in the G League, the extensions went from about 13 minutes of real time with the traditional format and still in force to an average of about eight and a half minutes. Pincus makes a clear line of distinction: the change would only affect the games that reach that extra time because the executives and the rest of the franchise personnel do not want, for now, to take such a revolutionary leap as to also implement it for the last quarters. and thus decide all the parties.

Less games and two more teams?

It is considered that a reduction in those times would make television broadcasts shorter: there has been concern for some time that these last too long for the taste of the younger generations of fans. And it would help reduce the load of minutes on players, whose scheduled breaks during the regular season are another of the issues that the NBA wants to address. But for that, many voices consider that the solution would be to reduce the season format, to play less than the current 82 games per team and that the total or almost total elimination of the back to back, two games on consecutive nights. Officially, Silver repeated again during his appearance at the All Star that this was not on the table. You know, the needs have a drastic influence with some televisions (national and local) that pay a large part of the cheap cake that franchises and players are distributed.

However, Pincus assures that, at least, the matter is a matter of debate. The financial crisis that some of the local partners of the franchises are going through can make them free from the commitment to play a certain number of games. Bally Sports has agreements with 16 of the 30 and their parent group, Diamond Sports Group, has filed for bankruptcy. And two others work with AT&T SportsNetpartner of Warner Bros. Discovery, which is also trying to get rid of those sports channels with regional coverage. This may cause the length of the regular season to be reconsidered, although it is considered that a drop to 72 games per team may be too radical a cut. 78 seems like a more realistic option right now… in case he gets attacked around the time of making imminent changes to the League format.

Pincus’s article provides information on two other issues that are among the great analysis situations in the NBA today. On the one hand, the expansion. It seems an open secret that the League will consider adding two more franchises as soon as a new collective agreement is concluded. According to Pincus, expansion could be underway by 2025, and while everyone thinks it will be Seattle (home of the former Supersonics) and Las Vegas (an emerging force in American professional sports) that win, Mexico City should not be ruled out, where the NBA is also analyzing the evolution of the G League team, Capitanes. This allows for international expansion without (as happened with Canada) messing with time slots or introducing exaggerated scheduling and travel obligations. Factors that continue to make expansion to Europe absolutely improbable, emphasizes Pincus. Mexico City could also act as a shuttle to massively attract the broad Hispanic and Latin American community. The entry of two franchises of those three possible destinations in the West would imply, in principle, the passage of the Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans to the Eastern Conference.

Another change that seemed imminent but may not be so is the abolition of the one and done, the change that would once again allow players to jump into the NBA straight out of high school. “It is not something as inevitable as it was thoughtsays Pincus. The financial application in the current contract structure may not be easy. Franchises want to control how much they invest and at what age players access the already multi-million dollar extensions of their first rookie contracts. The most veteran players, for their part, do not want a massive arrival of even younger boys to question their jobs in a League in which for now there are still 30 franchises and some 450 active players (and another 60 in contracts two way alternating NBA and G League).

The change would be good for the higher draft picks and the players who come in better positioned to be stars, because they would consume their rookie stagewith their contracts staggered in that range, and they would gain access to the large expanses earlier. But for smaller players or more modest sights, it is not clear that the change will be as positive.. And the NBA, in parallel, is concerned that it will move to an absolutely carnivorous system (scouts, agents…) with the boys even earlier. This is already a problem in the current situation and could get very seriously worse.