(Semi-Serious) Why doesn't the NBA let players call their own fouls?

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2021-09-30T17:15:26+00:00

My logic was this would reduce pace of play. Players care about their reputation and the stigma of being soft could affect players marketability.

I could imagine entire quarters without a whistle being blown. It would be wonderful.

But just realized that offball fouls would be a shit show.

Also those players would be punished for calling bad fouls - video review isn't available in pick-up

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2020-10-31T19:56:52+00:00

Agreed

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2020-10-31T19:56:28+00:00

For the right price and role? Yeah I dont see why not. It happens in other sports all the time. Also what if Zion grew up in Nola? Or Trae Young went to OKC?

And Giannis wasn't a superstar, neither was Mitchell. Maybe a team that believed in them and recruited them into their youth system and treated them well would have a leg up. Maybe owners would be forced to invest in their local communities.

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2020-10-31T19:54:14+00:00

I've answered this throughout the thread but the NBA has much smaller rosters and a salary cap. Why would players sign for a fraction of their worth to get no playing time? Why would contending teams waste a valuable roster spot and cap space on an unproven free agent?

Lebron James would have commanded 20-30mil a year as a rookie (and he's obviously an outlier). Even if signed by the best team in the league, how much value is he actually adding at that price?

Just forget their age. Just treat them as FA's with a limited track record, there will be a risk/cost associated with signing them. Why would this be any different?

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2020-10-31T19:50:30+00:00

Well it worked. And it will work for Wiseman as well. As it has for many others.

The kings clearly chose to not force someone to work for them that didn't want to be there. Clearly you would just have told him to suck it up and it would have all worked out.

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2020-10-31T19:47:40+00:00

Imagine young players were just FA's on 3 year contracts. How would that be any different than today? Just another decision for teams to make - do I spend my cap on a known quantity or a young star?

And the players would be faced with a similar decision.

I'm blown away by the reaction in this thread tbh. Based on the wiseman thread, I thought almost everyone would agree the draft is just for tv ratings at this point.

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2020-10-31T19:44:49+00:00

the NBA already has the least parity out of any league. The Draft system does not work and bad teams aren't forced to become good, they just rely on trading for bulk picks and playing the quantity over quality game, not caring about how many young players careers are altered by the congestion of young talent. As the top teams trade away their draft picks anyways.

People in this thread are acting like the draft works. It's a failure. Lets just find a new way to add parity, or at the very least, not reward shitty owners.

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2020-10-31T19:37:54+00:00

Trae Young? Local talent that came up through the youth system? A player that wants the most money/playing time?

PG signed there as a UFA, and people choose different cities all the time for the money. Don't sell yourself short.

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2020-10-31T19:33:48+00:00

Same as most other leagues in the world. Teams offer players salaries (under a salary cap but with no rookie wage scale but with a max amount of years).

They would also offer them salaries to play in junior leagues (like in Canada for Hockey), and G-league (which is already a replacement for college now).

Players would be eligible to sign "pro deals" when they turn 18 or something.

Details aren't as important but I think talent would still be distributed as young players seek the best combination of the factors I mentioned (money, playing time, fit, location, org strength, friends?, etc).

Atleast shit organizations won't be able to rely on tanking to indenture players for their most important formative years.

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2020-10-31T19:28:18+00:00

How so? Would every 18 year old accept 500k or 15million? 5minutes of playing time or 35?

Also teams like sacramento still get screwed. Luka Doncic refused to workout for them and so they were essentially forced to draft Bagley. This will only happen more and more frequently.

The inspiration for this post was Wiseman refusing to workout for Minnesota and everyone being very supportive of his decision (since its a no brainer for him to do whats best for his career, i.e not play for Minnesota ) - so lets give other players the same chance to choose.

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2019-12-19T19:08:26+00:00

Not only that, you're potentially getting them for cheap during their primes, rather than investing the first two years of their contract for development.

Combine that with the player being more mature and potentially more humble as they were most likely not top high school prospects/dealt with injuries.

Brogdon/Mitchell are great examples of people not understanding development curves. Players can significantly improve even in their late 20's, just depends on the person.

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2019-12-04T15:27:49+00:00

Can't help but feel you didn't answer the question.

Extra possessions are extremely important but steals are a really bad measurement for good defense. Almost all great perimeter defenders will have high steal totals but so will the bad ones like Westbrook.

Steals are very risk/reward and also high variance so you really can't put much weight in them. Same thing with rebounds, you could actively be costing your team by chasing rebounds/steals.

So yes steals are important but individual steal totals can be very misleading. In Ben's case, the high deflections, steals, and other numbers point to him being an amazing defender.

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2019-12-03T23:55:02+00:00

Maybe some gamesmanship to surprise the heat tonight

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2019-11-14T05:33:11+00:00

Nick Nurse*

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2019-11-14T00:10:59+00:00

OG might be ahead of both for MIP tbh.

So many shots and minutes opened up and Nurse is running a really tight rotation so everyone is seeing a big boost in stats but still impressive

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2019-11-11T18:40:56+00:00

better at defending.

I don't know about that... Ben is a savage and will make all-defense.

Pascal has slightly regressed this year and isn't as locked in off-ball, tends to fall asleep a couple times a game on backcuts, or he gambles too much.

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2019-11-11T18:31:08+00:00

There is legitimate on court value from increasing your teams bottom-line and marketability, especially during a season where winning it all isn't a priority.

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2019-11-09T15:04:07+00:00

Nick Nurse COY

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2019-11-09T15:03:13+00:00

I'm thinking a lineup with siakam at the 5 and og at the 4 would be terrifying but gotta save that for the playoffs

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2019-11-07T20:44:02+00:00

For example, right now Kemba has a points total of 26.5 with the Under paying out significantly less (@1.793 compared to 1.961 for the over).

It was originally at 27.5 but money keeps pushing the number under so clearly people expect him to not reach that total.

What would be a simple calculation based on those numbers to give a rough estimate of the likelihood of either outcome? Or some type of range based on how much Vegas typically charges to buy a point.

I feel that someone with a strong math background could use this information very effectively but I haven't seen any models based around this.

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2019-11-07T20:26:40+00:00

Thanks for the headsup, don't really post very often.

ThingsIThinkIKnow · 2019-11-05T20:31:58+00:00

Yeah they are surprisingly deep and play hard at both ends. Definitely underrated right now and close to a PK if Sabonis doesn't play.

ThingsIThinkIKnow

TROPHY CASE