8 Comments

Curious to your rationale having the sixers below both two teams they beat and have nearly identical record. twolves...who they easily handled...and thunder. Their recent slide obviously attributed embiids absence. I'm not too hurt about it since the committee of 1 holds no weight. Just curious.

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The Committee of One holds INFINITE weight. (And we've always factored in injuries so that indeed contributed.)

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Agree that the scores have been ridiculous lately. Maybe it’s time to consider shortening the games? Do we need to 48 minutes of action just to see teams run themselves ragged getting to 140+ points?

I know the league is cracking down on resting of healthy players. Some have suggested a shorter season to deal with that problem, but that has a ripple effect with ticket sales and TV. Maybe a shorter game is a better approach. Thinking out loud.

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A 40 minute game might’ve be more interesting but I wonder if tv networks would push back (or find a way to squeeze in more advertising).

We need big changes in officiating, especially on defensive calls. The refs are as inconsistent as the players. I’m glad to see the amount of flop falling has declined since the start of the season. It wasn’t THAT huge a problem and there was some early power tripping for sure that seems to have levelled a bit. There’s what 1 active ref who knows what it’s like to be a player? Most refs have no clue what it would be like to be knocked to the ground playing basketball against 6’5 monster-sized NBA players.

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I commented on this on Tom Ziller’s Substack, which I’ll replicate here: IMHO, it’s too easy to score these days, and that cheapens the value of a bucket. We don’t want to go back to the mud wrestling days, but I agree with some other comments that we need to give defense a chance. One easy fix would be to eliminate the corner three by keeping the distance at a uniform 23 feet 9 inches and having the line stop once it reaches the sideline. Also, as some analyst (I don’t recall who) suggested some time ago, make all shooting fouls two shot fouls, since the value of a three point attempt is roughly 50% less than that of the average two point attempt. That would eliminate gifting three points to a player who flings the ball up in order to hunt a foul though the shot would have little chance of going in.

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It isn't so much that the NBA is suddenly bereft of good defenders or defensive plays as the refs just consistently call everything a defensive foul. I agree with Steve Kerr. How many times have you seen a defender in position, arms straight up, and the ref calls a foul? How is any team that's down in the fourth quarter able to come back if it isn't allowed to get stops? How much do fans enjoy watching an endless parade of free throws causing the game and whatever pace to drag? The powers that be need to stop this crap NOW!

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In defense of refs. It is probably most difficult sport to officiate. The league is the driving force of all these points not the ref. They are dictating how to call games. It's getting as bad as the NFL which imo is now a mediocre product

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It’s so gross.

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