NBA needs stronger slate of mind and could learn something from the European football

For economic reasons, the NBA is loathe to shorten its schedule. Fine. The league should still consider ways to reallocate the 82 games that come before the play-offs, writes Jonathan Raymond.

Philadelphia’s Jerami Grant, right, drives the lane during the 76ers’ win over the first-place Atlanta Hawks this past week. Matt Slocum / AP Photo

On Saturday night one of the NBA’s two best teams, the Atlanta Hawks, lost to one of the two worst, the Philadelphia 76ers.

It was a puzzling result, but it was a result that hardly matters in that the Hawks decided to rest three of their starters.

The Hawks have built a lead of more than 10 games atop the Eastern Conference; they already have clinched their play-offs spot; and, playing listless Philadelphia, Atlanta decided victory on Saturday had little consequence.

No need to get overextended in March.

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If anything, the result illustrated what is becoming obvious around the NBA: the season is too long.

With 20 games left in the regular season, now wouldn’t be a bad time to end things. The Western Conference play-offs race can still claim a somewhat interesting battle between the Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans for the eighth seed and several uninspiring contenders could still claim one of the last two pointless places in the Eastern play-offs.

But do we really need another 20 or so games to settle these races? Almost certainly not.

For economic reasons, the NBA is loathe to shorten its schedule. Fine. The league should still consider ways to reallocate the 82 games that come before the play-offs.

Responding to concerns about player exhaustion, the league is considering inserting more off days into the schedule. It is not exactly a bold solution.

“If there is a game in July, count me out,” San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said over the weekend. “Life is too short.”

There is a way forward for the league to eliminate the monotony, as the season drags on, without cutting into the bottom line. The way European football leagues conduct cup competitions concurrently with the season would work just fine.

For instance, the NBA could introduce a season schedule that consists of each team playing a home-and-away tie with each of the other 29 teams. That’s a 58-game regular season, which also would be enough to determine draft-position odds.

Add a cup competition predicated by a conference-wide group round, with one game against each of the other teams in the conference.

That’s another 14 guaranteed games for teams, bringing the year-long total to 72. Add a second elimination cup with a two-legged first round, and every team plays at least 74 games.

That’s only eight games lopped off the current schedule, and for only the worst of teams – who haven’t advanced in either cup – a reduction in only four home games and their accompanying gate receipts.

It also is a good way to replace regular-season games certain teams are inclined to write off as wasted effort. Minus draft-position implications, teams plausibly should be trying to win every cup game.

Most importantly, it adds a sense of importance and meaning to every regular-season game.

With a league-wide home-and-away schedule, the opportunities to make up for losses to top rivals quickly dry up and losses to bottom-feeders become much less forgiveable.

The duelling interests of a more interesting league and prevailing financial concerns don’t need to be mutually exclusive. The NBA can be creative here.

More meaningful basketball should be a priority for the NBA, and it’s not served by instances like Saturday’s Hawks-Sixers farce.

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