The Current State of the NBA

As the season winds down and the final playoff spots are fought for and determined, only one thing continues to enter my mind: Russell Westbrook or James Harden (for MVP). This is coming from a fan of a top 3 seed in the Eastern Conference, too (Celtics). I am genuinely more curious as to who the MVP will be than I am to see who’s gonna make the NBA Finals this year (Cavs/Warriors). I would truly love to be wrong on that prediction, too, I just don’t see another way around it, especially considering the thorough beat down the Cavs put on the 2 seed of their conference (again, Celtics) and the fact that KD’s getting ready to go again in Golden State. Of course the Spurs look good, and D’Antoni will make things interesting in the playoffs as well, but I really don’t think I’m alone in thinking that I’m more interested in the potential first round matchup between the two leading MVP candidates. Of course, the NBA awards are supposed to make the game more interesting and more or less decide Hall of Fame worthiness, but it’s definitely NOT supposed to be the main focal point of the season (Don’t even try to debate me on that). It is for that reason that I decided to step back and take a look at the bigger picture of the NBA, in terms of the sustainability of its fanbase.

To be clear, the NBA is doing just fine right now in terms of ratings and attendance, but I don’t think they’re in the best place they could be, or even close for that matter. For one thing I definitely take the stance that super teams are inherently bad for the league, yet that strategy seems to be all that consumes the minds of NBA General Managers these days. On the opposite end, tanking- alternatively referred to as “The Process”- consumes the minds of the other half of NBA GMs that can’t seem to attract the superstar talents they need to assemble a formidable big 3. This means that not only are a literal handful of teams competing for a spot in the Finals, but there are also multiple handfuls of teams fighting for higher lottery odds for the draft in June. This simply means that one overarching problem exists in the current NBA, and in my opinion the worst possible thing that could happen to any sports league anywhere: predictability. It’s been my problem for at least the last couple years and it continues now. Lebron has made the 2010’s his unequivocal bitch, as he’s made the Finals each year this decade, leaving the other 14 teams in the Eastern Conference up a creek without a paddle come time for the ECF.

On the other side of the tracks stands the Golden State Warriors, who were dominant enough without the best scorer in the league, and now even the ultimate NBA dynasty of the 21st century in the San Antonio Spurs don’t even look like hey have a decent shot at the Finals this year. Now I get that you always want the top 2 teams to play for the championship every year, but I can’t be the only person here that has an issue with the redundancy in Finals year to year. I mean we saw Cavs vs. Warriors. Then we saw them again for the rematch. Now do we really need to see the rubber match to make it the third straight appearance for this matchup?

Now again, I’m sure the ratings will be just fine for the Finals either way this year, as the NBA has grown into arguably the second most popular sport in the U.S. to the NFL by a fairly wide margin over the MLB or NHL, but that doesn’t mean they’re in a great place as an organization. Okay, technically it does but just hear me out. Let’s say it is Cavs vs. Warriors again and GSW wins in 5 or 6, which I think is entirely likely. KD gets his ring and solidifies his spot on a winning team. At that point it seems extremely unlikely that he doesn’t return to GSW, and if they can resign Steph too (and that seems likely as well), the Warriors are quite literally unmatched throughout the NBA, and a near lock to return to the Finals again in 2018. So that’s 4 years in a row, and probably more. Back on the other side, Lebron is certainly getting older but he doesn’t appear to be slowing down, and Kyrie is just 24 years old entering his prime. I still can’t imagine the Celtics or Raptors beating that team to be honest with you, so now let’s say the Cavs make it to the Finals again in 2018, too… When does it start to get boring for the other 28 teams’ fan bases if it hasn’t already? Do we really want to go back to the 60’s and 70’s when the Celtics and Lakers played literally every year in the Finals? Even as a Celtics fan I’ll admit that had to have been boring for NBA fans.

Now this would normally be the part where I offer some kind of a solution to the problem, at least what I think should be done about it. The problem is that I just don’t have one. Unless the NBA wants to reverse the recent (and projected) salary cap increases, which they never will, or simply veto team acquisitions the way they nixed the Chris Paul trade a few years ago, there is nothing that can be done about this. The law of averages says that the Warriors will eventually run out of luck- or more likely cap space- and the NBA will go back to a level playing field, but for some reason I’m not all that convinced that’s the truth. Maybe I am overreacting, but I think you would definitely agree that this is an issue, whether you choose to admit it or not is a different story.

By the way, James Harden should (but won’t) win MVP.

Written by Connor Peterson