NBA Institutes Harsher Penalties for Load Management
Today the NBA's Board of Governors unanimously approved a new Player Participation Policy that will replace the Player Participation Policy implemented prior to the 2017-18 season. The new policy is a six page document, but the short version is that the NBA has defined a "star" as any player who has been selected as an All-Star or as an All-NBA Team member within the past three seasons, and the NBA has set forth conditions such that teams will face financial penalties if star players are held out of games without having a documented injury. The policy includes numerous exceptions, so it will be interesting to see if teams attempt to find ways to avoid consequences for resting their star players. While this policy focuses on punishing teams, it should be noted that the new Collective Bargaining Agreement stipulates that players who appear in fewer than 65 games will be ineligible for several major awards, including regular season MVP; the NBA expects and hopes that the possibility of losing the opportunity to receive individual awards will motivate star players to earn the money that they are paid from their guaranteed contracts.
There is no credible evidence that load management works in terms of increasing a team's chances for playoff success. There is also no credible evidence that load management enhances player safety, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver admitted this during his press conference announcing the new policy: "I said this before, if the science were clearer that players should be resting, we would be favoring it," Silver said. The NBA has been damaged by "stat gurus" who use "advanced basketball statistics" to promote load management, tanking, and the notion that the only good shots are dunks and three pointers; it is past time that the league office reassert authority over the game. The limitations of "advanced basketball statistics" have been glaringly apparent for quite some time, but the "stat gurus" who make money off of their proprietary numbers have been quite effective in squelching informed discussion about their biased and flawed thinking.
The NBA was a much better and more entertaining league when load management and tanking did not exist, because players used to consider it a badge of honor to play all 82 games. It is sad that the NBA has to keep changing policies and rules to force healthy players to play, but this is symptomatic of a larger societal problem: too many people have an inflated sense of entitlement. Playing in the NBA is a privilege, not a right, and responsibilities are attached to that privilege for each NBA player--responsibilities to the league, to the sponsors and media outlets that fund the league, to the team that pays you, to your teammates, and to the fans. Instead of taking those responsibilities seriously, too many players act as if they are entitled to receive generational wealth in exchange for minimal effort.
This sense of entitlement permeates Team USA, and goes a long way toward explaining Team USA's frequent failures in FIBA events: USA Basketball often acts as if Team USA is entitled to win as opposed to behaving as if building a winning team is a serious responsibility; it is often evident that either the coaching staff is not familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of opposing teams or that the players ignore the defensive game plan; superstar players feel entitled both to be selected to Team USA and also to skip some events (such as the FIBA World Cup) without losing their roster spots; American NBA players struggle to adjust to FIBA's physical play and to adversity in general, because in the NBA they are pampered every step of the way on and off of the court.
It has been five years since an American-born player won the NBA regular season MVP--and that player (James Harden) is vastly overrated by "stat gurus" and by media members who lack the intellectual rigor (or the courage) to push back when Daryl Morey made the ludicrous, demonstrably false assertion that Harden is a better scorer than Michael Jordan. Commentators like J.J. Redick and Amin Elhassan made ignorant, derogatory statements about the players who built the league, when the reality is that today's players would likely struggle if they were teleported into previous eras: are we supposed to believe that coddled American players who cannot win a medal in the FIBA World Cup would fare well versus Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and other all-time greats? The excess dribbling and showboating that is praised today would have been received quite differently in decades past: referees would not have tolerated much of the nonsense that is permitted today, and any player showboating his way into the paint would be more likely to be counting his missing teeth than counting on being rewarded with two free throws.
Commissioner Silver and the team owners have the right idea that load management is a pox on the game, but the rot that has set in to the sport is so deeply rooted that I fear it will be difficult to fix.
Labels: "advanced basketball statistics", "stat gurus", Adam Silver, load management
posted by David Friedman @ 11:49 PM
Lindy's Pro Basketball 2023-24 is on Sale Now
The annual publication of Lindy's Pro Basketball
is a happy event for basketball fans because that means the NBA season will begin soon. The 2023-24 edition of Lindy's Pro Basketball has
30 team
previews, plus nine feature stories: "Scopin' the NBA" (Mike Ashley recaps the major off-season
stories), "Wemby is Next" (Michael Bradley profiles 2023 number one overall draft pick Victor Wembanyama), "The Joker Abides" (Mark Medina examines if Nikola Jokic could become the next Tim Duncan), "The Real 'Winning Time'" (an excerpt from Roland Lazenby's forthcoming Magic Johnson biography), "Keeping the Faith" (Medina discusses Stephen Curry's faith), "NBA
Report Card" (Lazenby grades each team's
off-season moves), "A Look Ahead" (Jeremy Treatman scouts the 2024 NBA
Draft), "NBA Fantasy Guide" (Ashley provides advice for fantasy
basketball enthusiasts), and "A Look Back" (Lazenby recalls how George Mikan led the Lakers to one NBL title and five NBA titles).
I wrote
six team previews and sidebar articles this year: Dallas
Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City
Thunder, Portland Trail Blazers, and San Antonio Spurs. My sidebar
articles discuss, respectively, the Luka Doncic-Kyrie Irving duo, Chris Paul, Zion Williamson, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Damian Lillard, and Gregg Popovich.
This is the 15th year that I have contributed to Lindy's Pro Basketball dating back to
2005 (with interruptions for the 2011 lockout, my attendance at law
school in 2014-15, and 2020 because Lindy's Pro Basketball was not published in the wake of COVID-19). As always, I am grateful
to Roland Lazenby for providing the opportunity to contribute to Lindy's Pro Basketball, and I am proud to be
associated with the finished product.
If you do not see the magazine in any stores in your area, you can order a copy online.
Selected Previous Articles About Lindy's Pro Basketball:
Lindy's Pro Basketball 2022-23 is on Sale Now
Lindy's Pro Basketball 2021-2022 is in Stores Now
"Forever Mamba" Pays Tribute to Kobe Bryant
Look for Lindy's Pro Basketball 2019-20 in Stores Now
Lindy's Pro Basketball 2018-19 Is Available Now
Lindy's Pro Basketball 2017-18 is on Sale Now
Lindy's Pro Basketball 2016-17 is Available Now! Labels: Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, Lindy's Pro Basketball, New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder, Portland Trail Blazers, Roland Lazenby, San Antonio Spurs
posted by David Friedman @ 11:15 PM
Oh, Canada! Team USA Loses FIBA World Cup Bronze Medal Game to Canada in Overtime, 127-118
"We can't get no stops, so I don't know what we could have done"--Anthony Edwards, explaining Team USA's loss to Canada in the FIBA World Cup
Anthony Edwards' grammar is as fractured as Team USA's perimeter defense, but he provided a perfect one sentence summary of why Team USA failed to win a medal in the 2023 FIBA World Cup. Team USA lost for the third time in their last four FIBA World Cup games, dropping a 127-118 overtime decision to Canada in the bronze medal game. Canada shot 43-84 (.512) from the field, including 17-37 (.459) from three point range. Team USA also shot well--42-81 (.519) from the field, including 10-27 (.370) from three point range--and even outrebounded Canada 43-40, but the key for Team USA to be successful in FIBA events is defense in general and perimeter defense in particular. Team USA failed spectacularly on defense.
Dillon Brooks shredded Team USA with a game-high 39 points on 12-18 field goal shooting, including 7-8 from three point range. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 31 points. Anthony Edwards led Team USA with 24 points, but it is telling that he had a plus/minus number of -20. Austin Reaves added 23 points, but he had a plus/minus number of -12. Team USA's best scorers gave up points even faster than they could score them.
Canada blitzed Team USA 35-24 in the first quarter, and led 94-84 with 8:26 remaining in the fourth quarter. Team USA went on a 12-0 run to take a 96-94 lead at the 6:23 mark, but Team USA never led by more than two points the rest of the way, and needed a series of unlikely events just to force overtime: Canada led 111-107 with four seconds remaining when Mikal Bridges made a free throw, intentionally missed the second free throw, rebounded his miss, and then made a three pointer. Team USA's excitement was short-lived, as Canada outscored Team USA 16-7 in the five minute overtime.
It is puzzling that so many people make excuses for Team USA's failures by mentioning that this was Team USA's "B Team" and by noting that Team USA lacked size. Team USA featured the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year (Jaren Jackson Jr.), the 2023 Rookie of the Year (Paolo Banchero), three 2023 NBA All-Stars (Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Halliburton, and Jaren Jackson Jr.) plus 2020 All-Star Brandon Ingram and rising star Jalen Brunson. Team USA's "B Team" has more individual talent than any other FIBA World Cup team.
The three teams that beat Team USA in the 2023 FIBA World Cup--Lithuania, Germany, and Canada--each had rosters filled with players who would not even be considered for Team USA's roster if they were American citizens. Germany, which has just four NBA players on its roster (Dennis Schroder,
Franz Wagner, Mo Wagner, and Daniel Theis), beat Serbia 83-77 to win the
FIBA World Cup.
In the Team USA-Canada game, Banchero, Ingram, and Jackson Jr. each received DNP--CDs (Did Not Play--Coach's Decision). Throughout the tournament, Team USA Coach Steve Kerr stubbornly insisted on playing small lineups, so even if more big men had been included on Team USA's roster it is unlikely that Kerr would have used them or used them effectively. Small-ball is not a great strategy in general because size matters in basketball, and small-ball can only work if the team is committed to playing excellent pressure defense resulting in turnovers and contested shots. Small-ball with bad perimeter defense leads to a 5-3 2023 FIBA World Cup record versus teams that have markedly inferior individual talent but more than compensate for that with superior execution of basketball fundamentals.
It must be emphasized that during the 2023 FIBA World Cup other teams also did not have their "A Team." Reigning NBA Finals MVP/two-time NBA regular season MVP Nikola Jokic did not play for Serbia--which reached the gold medal
game without him--and 2021 NBA Finals MVP/two-time NBA regular season Giannis Antetokounmpo did not play for Greece. Each of the past five
regular season MVPs were born outside of the United States, so it is
fair to say that the United States has neither the world's best
individual player nor the world's best team.
The NBA has legislated defense out of the game, and the results of that were on display during the FIBA World Cup when Team USA played horrific defense. The NBA game has been damaged by rules changes, style of play changes, and the ascent of "advanced basketball statistics" with its promotion of three pointers and dunks over all other shots plus its embrace of tanking and load management. Style is valued over substance, which leads to people spouting nonsense such as the assertion that James Harden is a better offensive player than Michael Jordan, and that one-dimensional scorers such as Carmelo Anthony, James Harden, and Damian Lillard deserve to be on the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team over players such as Chris Bosh, Adrian Dantley, Alex English, Artis Gilmore, Dwight Howard, Bernard King, and Tracy McGrady. No, Kyrie Irving is not the most skilled basketball player in the NBA now, let alone the most skilled basketball player of all-time--but the fact that so many people praise Irving so much betrays a lack of understanding of the difference between style and substance. Basketball is a team game, and basketball skill is properly measured by how effectively a player does things that maximize his team's chance to win. A limited definition of athleticism as it relates to basketball greatness and a lack of understanding of how to evaluate basketball skill contaminates basketball commentary.
Kobe Bryant was the most valuable player for the 2008 Redeem Team not only because of his individual athletic ability and basketball skills but because of the way that he utilized his athletic ability and basketball skills to help his team win. The main problem with Team USA now--and with the modern NBA game in general--is that players focus more on individual offensive skills than on the team game.
Labels: Anthony Edwards, Canada, Dillon Brooks, Kobe Bryant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Team USA
posted by David Friedman @ 1:38 PM
Stan Von Nieda--First NBA Player to Live Longer Than 100 Years--Passed Away
Stan Von Nieda--the oldest living NBA player--passed away last Thursday at the age of 101. On June 29, 2022, the NBA Retired Players Association honored Von Nieda with a certificate on his 100th birthday as he became the first centenarian among retired NBA players. That is deserved recognition considering the way that the NBA minimizes or even ignores the accomplishments and legacies of the players who built the foundation for the league's success. The NBA does little to educate the commentators for its radio and TV partners, forcing retired players to fend for themselves when people like J.J. Redick make ignorant statements dismissing yesterday's players as "plumbers and firemen."
It is true that Von Nieda had another job besides playing pro basketball: he served in the 17th Airborne Division and participated in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.
Von Nieda made the National Basketball League's All-League Second Team in 1949 after ranking ninth in the league in scoring with 641 points (leaders were determined by total points at that time, and point totals were lower in the pre-shot clock era). He also ranked eighth in scoring as a rookie in the 1947-48 season. The NBL merged with the Basketball Association of America (BAA) to form the NBA prior to the 1949-50 season, and Von Nieda played for the Tri-Cities Blackhawks and the Baltimore Bullets in the 1949-50 NBA season.
Von Nieda was known as "Whitey" because of his long, flowing locks of blond hair. After his NBA career, he played four seasons for the Lancaster Red Roses in the Eastern Basketball League before making a cameo one game appearance during the 1977-78 season when he was 55 years old. He played in Penn State alumni basketball games until he was in his mid-60s, and he posted a 27-18 record in three seasons as Elizabethtown College's basketball coach.
Labels: NBA, NBL, Stan Von Nieda
posted by David Friedman @ 12:08 PM
