Pacerpundit

The Ball

Until the other night I thought all the carping about the new ball was much ado about nothing.  Rick Carlisle said the same thing on his radio show the other night.  But seeing Vince Carter shoot a 3 pointer that should have clanked off the back of the rim (but instead died on the rim and rolled in) was the last straw.  No basketball should do that and if it does they are playing a different game than I know.

Opening Day

I have a very basic knowledge about nearly all the players in the league.  There aren't too many players I that I can't give you some info on (e.g. their position, where they played college, etc.).  However, every year I scan the opening day rosters and there are still guys I've never heard of.  Here are those guys this year: Brian Chase, Robert Hite, Damir Markota and Marcus Vinicius and my personal favorite Yakhouba Diawara.  Good luck fellas.  Welcome to the League!

Euroleague competition

Euroleague is stepping up its bid to compete with the NBA.

NBDL - A Modest Proposal

Lang has a thought provoking post over at SLAM Online about the future of the D-League.  He links to the the Philly Daily News, which quotes Brian Hill:

"I think the D-League, the concept is great," Orlando Magic coach Brian Hill said, "but right now it's difficult to send a player down. "You don't know what type of system he's going to be playing in, what defensive concepts he's going to be learning, and things of that nature. "We did not use the D-League last year, just because I was comfortable with our players that we had on our roster being up here and working against our

Anyone who thinks there is an easy fix to minor league basketball hasn't been paying attention.  Minor league basketball simply doesn't make money.  The CBA and ABA 2000 went bankrupt.  Apparently the NBDL isn't doing much better - but it has the backing of the NBA.  There is just no market in the US for it.  However, I believe that minor league basketball is essential for developing players and keeping the NBA, and American basketball competitive.

I would think David Stern understands this.  That's probably why he implemented the NBDL.  He probably thought that, if properly managed, it would be a break even proposition.  The upside is that they get to use the league to develop players, referees, coaches and experiment with new rules.  And maybe they sell the NBA product to fans in non-NBA cities. 

But the NBA needs to do more.  They need to take responsibility for player development, especially American player development.  Look, having USA basketball send their "overpaid" and "spoiled" NBA players overseas to get their ass kicked by a bunch of CBA caliber players is NOT good for the NBA.  Stern can talk all he wants about how wonderful globalization is, but the reality is having this happen is a major turn off to U.S. fans of the NBA, which is and will be for the foreseeable future - the NBA's major fan base.  It's great that they have a billion NBA fans in China, but none of them are buying luxury boxes or season tickets.  Hopefully, Stern sees that.   If not his competition might.

So what to do?  Recognize that the NBA can't outsource player development to the NCAA and take ownership of it.  Each team should have a minor league team where it can keep its own players under contract.  This is going to take some money.  But to cut costs, the minor league team should just operate like a JV team to the NBA team's varsity.  Same uniforms, similar coaches, similar practices, same team philosophy.  They would travel with the team and play the same schedule - right before the NBA team plays.  The marginal cost is not that high. 

So what's stopping them? Well for one (besides money), the player's association.  The veterans don't want to be able to be sent down.  But I think if you guarantee their contracts - even if they are sent down- you can work around it.  Just like the earlier collective bargaining agreement,  you need to throw more money at the veterans and they'll sell the young players down the river.  Why?  Because the young players aren't at the bargaining table!  So while you're revamping the NBDL, you eliminate guaranteed rookie contracts.  Maybe with the money they save they can finance this new NBDL!

Europe Handing it to the U.S.

CSKA Moscow beat the Clippers 94-75.  The Sixers got beat by Winterthur FC Barcelona.  And though David Stern has recently taked expansion in Europe, we now have news that the Euroleague may be interested in being a competitor to the NBA.

European basketball has largely closed the gap with the NBA.  However, there is no reason to panic.  The NBA is still better.  A lot better.  How do I know?  Because the players that can't cut it in the NBA still go over to Europe and dominate.  Case in point:   Khalid El-Amin, the former U-Conn point guard. 

Adios Austin

Mavericks blogger Mavs Moneyball meets the whiteness that is Austin Croshere.