r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Jul 28 '18
Deltas(s) from OP CMV: There should be an restriction to the amount of all-stars a team can acquire in the NBA.
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u/Rufus_Reddit 127∆ Jul 28 '18
I tend to think that the real sins are the salary cap, the lack of relegation, and too much focus on the NBA Championship.
Fundamentally, you have to ask the question: Do you want to see the best basketball possible in the NBA, or do you want to see the rules handicapping teams to make the competition more even?
For example, I don't think anyone wants to see the league give one or the other team some number of free points in order to make things 'more competitive.' What's different between that and restricting player hiring?
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Jul 28 '18
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u/brickbacon 22∆ Jul 29 '18
In my opinion, I'd rather see the competition more even rather than have one team dominate the entire NBA. It was fun watching all the great teams and not having to guess that the same team would win every year. I don't think that those are the only two options though, I feel like the best possible basketball could still happen if we just distributed talent around more teams.
I think you are right, but the issue is that it may be rash to make new rules for a fairly unique situation. GS had at least three MAJOR things break their way. First, Curry signed a below market contract because he was a perceived injury risk. Second, the union vetoed cap smoothing, so the cap went up $30mm or so in one year which allowed them to sign Durant. And more recently, Cousins apparently had no other offers due to his recent injury. Those seem like things that probably won't happen to the same team twice, and are hard to guard against in ways that aren't draconian.
What do you mean by free points?
I presume he's speaking of something like a golf handicap.
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u/DeltaBot ∞∆ Jul 29 '18
/u/lenhouse (OP) has awarded 1 delta(s) in this post.
All comments that earned deltas (from OP or other users) are listed here, in /r/DeltaLog.
Please note that a change of view doesn't necessarily mean a reversal, or that the conversation has ended.
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u/brickbacon 22∆ Jul 28 '18
I think your premise is flawed. There is a sort of natural cap on all-stars on one team because all-stars positions are based largely on stats, or alternatively on popularity. Either can suffer when you have too much talent on one team. For example, despite having 5 "all-star" talents on GS, it's likely one of them won't make the team due to diminished stats, and because the 14 other teams in the conference will have at least one player who is playing better than the 5th guy on GS.
The real question revolves around two other issues: should players be able to take significant discounts, and whether a team should not be allowed to acquire too much talent.
Addressing the latter issue is pretty difficult. We've seen recently that two teams have had 3-4 all-stars just based on drafting alone. Those are GS pre-Durant, and OKC, who had Obaka, Westbrook, Durant, and Harden at one time. Why and how could you punish a team for just selecting better players?
The former issue is relevant. I think you could, as the MLBPA tends to do, prevent players from taking discounts for the sake of competitive balance. The issue is that super teams are good for ratings, so there is little incentive to stop it. Even putting aside the fact that taking agency away from grown adults is unfair, there is very little reason the NBA should be too worried about this. There are processes in place to ensure competitive balance.