Fuck Yea[h] NBA

The NBA schedule is not entirely set yet (we don’t have specific match-ups to mark on our calendar aside from Christmas Day). But, we do know there will be 66 games for each team between December 25th and April 26th, with the playoffs starting two days later on the 28th. That means more than a few back to backs (including the postseason—which is awful on a variety of levels) and at least one, but no more than three, back-to-back-to-backs during the regular season. That’s right, three consecutive nights of NBA basketball for a single team. You can be sure that last game will be a doozy, or the players will be dozing.

What really suffers is the quality of play, and I wrote about 2000 words on this subject then failed to pitch it to anyone, and now it sits on my hard drive lonely as the other aborted or simply terrible essays that have found their way to a Word Document. Thankfully, Zach Lowe at SI’s Point Forward blog mentioned this very issue.

Quality of play. I’ve beaten this drum before, so I won’t belabor it here: Quality of play overall is going to suffer, as it did in 1999, the worst scoring and shooting season in the modern history of the league. That is different from saying a particular team, or type of team (old, young, etc.), is going to suffer. It isn’t just the back-to-back-to-backs, either. Under “normal” rest, teams could play 59 games between Christmas and April 28. Squeezing in seven more, or about two per month, is a significant thing, and puts teams on precisely the same games-per-week pace they played in 1999, per NBA.com’s John Schuhmann.

As for back-to-back-to-backs themselves, I took a detailed look at what happened in 1999 and found the effect of playing on a third straight day was very similar to the effect of playing on a second consecutive day: Team winning percentage dipped to about .430 (very similar to the historic winning percentage on normal back-to-backs), and defense slipped overall more than offense.

Having one of these babies instead of three could matter, and the league will struggle (as it did in 1999) to match up teams equally in terms of days of rest going into a particular game.

The notion of even one playoff back-to-back is nauseating, and the strongest statement of all that the fans have lost. The 1999 playoffs featured three back-to-backs, all in the second round, and though it’s easy to say a champion should be able to fight through one of those sets, the postseason schedule is designed to maximize quality of play and remove any concerns about scheduling. A quicker-than-expected first round could eliminate the need for back-to-backs later, but who wants a bunch of sweeps?

Also, the league could have pushed the Finals, scheduled for June 12-26, further back, but apparently it did not view that as an option.

Do you remember the 1999 playoffs? Unless you’re a masochistic Knicks fan (guilty), you probably blotted it from your memory because it was TERRIBLE! Teams were 50 games into the season, only 25 of which where they were actually up to regular season speed since training camp and preseason was lost (sound familiar), and then here comes the increased defensive intensity of the playoffs and the offensive responses were just awful. Especially that Heat-New York match-up in the first round (but we did win at least—just ugly). 

They’re packing in too many games and Lowe is right in condemning them for not moving things back—especially the finals. Nothing but dreary baseball in August, so what’s stopping them from doing this? Probably has something to do with money or the players want to enjoy the better climes during August, but they’ll wish the season was pushed back when they’re on the third night of a back to back to back.

May God have mercy on our offensive-minded basketball souls this 2011-2012 NBA Season. But, whatever because at least we’re having a 2011-2012 season. WE’RE HAVING A 2011-2012 NBA SEASON YA’LL!

[ SI’s Point Forward; schedule snapshot via NBA.com & dog and cat]