The NBA is Boring!

HFCS

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Whats your opinion on the atmosphere? It doesn't bother you to have a dead arena and listen to music and the pr system while the game is being played? I'm just genuinely curious because it drives me nuts, I've tried watching it on mute but I don't like that either

Regular season I follow same way baseball fans do and the crowds are way louder than baseball games but obviously not like B12 season Hilton. Outside of about 30-40 programs cbb crowds aren’t great either. I listen on radio or have it on while I’m working on other stuff, usually whatever ISU players are playing well or a few others I just enjoy watching (lately SGA and Joker).

In the playoffs the crowds seem similar to cbb. Some teams have more passionate fans and some it’s more a thing people do like a vacation/treat. The small market teams tend to go nuts for playoff teams, San Antonio had insane crowds even regular season during its dynasty.
 

HFCS

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That's not why it looks like they can't play defense. It's because they aren't playing defense. They're probably too busy wondering what outfit they're going to wear the next game they sit out. Can't focus on D.

And Milan isn 6-8.

Watch Georges play now vs in college. He isn’t a worse defender now.

College defenses can look better than they are because players miss easy shots, miss free throws, and officials are easily intimidated by tough coaches like Sampson.
 
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HFCS

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The Bulls were in the playoffs quite often before Jordan even arrived. I think the franchise started in the mid-late 60's. They had a good run with Derrick Rose too. The Bulls aren't even close to being a terrible franchise. They suck now though. Seems every time I see their score on the bottom of the screen they lost. Not even sure who their good players are now.

Lifelong Bulls fan I think they’re pretty horrible if you combine all season without MJ and healthy Rose. Then again the Knicks are pretty bad too, both franchises should consistently be much better. Knicks are decent know but had like 27 straight years of sucking.

To be honest they kind of broke me. I just support Cyclones now. I kind of remained a Denver fan after Monte left just because Jokic is such a unique talent and I like Malone.
 

SolterraCyclone

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That's not why it looks like they can't play defense. It's because they aren't playing defense. They're probably too busy wondering what outfit they're going to wear the next game they sit out. Can't focus on D.

And Milan isn 6-8.
I think your perception is they aren’t playing D because you’re more used to watching the college game.

  1. There are different rules in the NBA that open up drives. Namely freedom of movement fouls and defensive 3 seconds. So perimeter D is harder, and you don’t have a rim protector that can just plant in the lane
  2. More space to cover. The three point line is further in the NBA, which means players who help have more ground to cover to contest a 3 in the NBA versus college
  3. Skill level. For most teams, everyone on the floor can shoot at least 30% from 3 and usually higher. If you help off your man to stop a drive, a guy who, in college, would be at least an average 3 point shooter, is going to get an open look. So defenders have to pick their poison to help stop the ball and give up an open 3 or allow the drive to the hoop.
  4. There are way more possessions. The average NBA game has 100 possessions. The college game has 70. There’s going to be more fatigue throughout the game.
Now there are definitely some individual players who are sub-par defenders or don’t care about D. But it’s a gross over-generalization to say the league doesn’t play D.
 
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AllInForISU

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Lifelong Bulls fan I think they’re pretty horrible if you combine all season without MJ and healthy Rose. Then again the Knicks are pretty bad too, both franchises should consistently be much better. Knicks are decent know but had like 27 straight years of sucking.

To be honest they kind of broke me. I just support Cyclones now. I kind of remained a Denver fan after Monte left just because Jokic is such a unique talent and I like Malone.

You could literally say that about any team.

The warriors were horrible without Steph and Rick Barry

The Spurs were horrible without Duncan or Robinson

The Nuggets couldn’t win much without Jokic

Pistons? Bad without Isiah or Chauncey Billups

If you erase the history from when a teams best player was on it, of course it will look bad. And if you do it for the Bulls, it eliminates 21 of their 53 seasons of existence.

The Lakers and Celtics, I believe, are the only 2 teams that have been able to win across multiple generations multiple times. Every other team, is pretty much like the Bulls. Most are worse.
 
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Dopey

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The flow and sloppiness of college basketball makes it almost unbearable to watch for me unless it's an ISU game and that's just cause it's my team. I cant sit there and even watch Big Monday anymore unless it's ISU. With the transfers there just isn't enough continuity within programs to look like actual "teams". You can tell these are almost completely new rosters every year. Bad shooting, horrible passing, etc .. That's my opinion on the average college basketball game not involving ISU. It's sucks because college basketball used to be my favorite sport of all


I agree with this. And your takes on the NBA are logical and knowledgeable. But those facts don't change my opinion.... I find the NBA boring.

I think the players are too big and too good.
I find some of the higher end women games more enticing.
 

clone4life82

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I think your perception is they aren’t playing D because you’re more used to watching the college game.

  1. There are different rules in the NBA that open up drives. Namely freedom of movement fouls and defensive 3 seconds. So perimeter D is harder, and you don’t have a rim protector that can just plant in the lane
  2. More space to cover. The three point line is further in the NBA, which means players who help have more ground to cover to contest a 3 in the NBA versus college
  3. Skill level. For most teams, everyone on the floor can shoot at least 30% from 3 and usually higher. If you help off your man to stop a drive, a guy who, in college, would be at least an average 3 point shooter, is going to get an open look. So defenders have to pick their poison to help stop the ball and give up an open 3 or allow the drive to the hoop.
  4. There are way more possessions. The average NBA game has 100 possessions. The college game has 70. There’s going to be more fatigue throughout the game.
Now there are definitely some individual players who are sub-par defenders or don’t care about D. But it’s a gross over-generalization to say the league doesn’t play D.
And shot clocks are 24 seconds vs 30. The nba sets are designed to be quicker as they don’t have time to screw around. In addition to that, metrics show that face paced transposition offense and pushing the ball up the court leads to more layups and a higher points per possession.
 

deadeyededric

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I agree with this. And your takes on the NBA are logical and knowledgeable. But those facts don't change my opinion.... I find the NBA boring.

I think the players are too big and too good.
I find some of the higher end women games more enticing.
Well it's certainly a preference in terms of one finding it entertaining. Im mainly pushing back at people saying that the NBA doesn't play D, or that they don't play team ball. There's no question the players are bigger. I'm with you on that. Some of those guys seem to go the length of the floor gracefully in 4 steps.
 
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cyfanatic

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Well it's certainly a preference in terms of one finding it entertaining. Im mainly pushing back at people saying that the NBA doesn't play D, or that they don't play team ball. There's no question the players are bigger. I'm with you on that. Some of those guys seem to go through length of the floor gracefully in 4 steps.

I would never call myself an NBA fan...but when my sons turn on an NBA game...I am constantly amazed at how great NBA players are at basketball. I get that they are the best in the world...but they are so much better than almost every player in college it is ridiculous! I enjoy watching the NBA with my boys and I am glad they brought me to that game because it is incredible. Almost like the players are too good...both on offense and defense!
 

deadeyededric

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Would like to hear your opinion for the ratings plunges when most other sports have been steady and even increasing.
What sports? MMA? Baseball is struggling and so are all college sports(especially with NIL). Nobody watches hockey, boxing, tennis, golf, NASCAR or horse racing anymore either. The only sport people watch anymore is the NFL. It's entirely possible that with the Internet and today's society in general people just have other **** to do. The NFL works because the games are all essentially played on Sunday and there are only 17 games. People arenyt patient enough anymore to sit through 82 or 162 games over a 6-8 month period. You can bet the NBA would be struggling even worse if we clogged the lane, took less 3's, and reduced the amount of the game played above the rim. People also forget that in international play we were getting our asses kicked by European teams. I think society in general has more to do with the lack of sports viewers than the sports in general. People probably wouldnt have watched the NBA in the 90s much either if the Internet would have been around or people had multimedia apps like Netflix. There just really wasn't much to do back then except follow sports
 
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HFCS

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I would never call myself an NBA fan...but when my sons turn on an NBA game...I am constantly amazed at how great NBA players are at basketball. I get that they are the best in the world...but they are so much better than almost every player in college it is ridiculous! I enjoy watching the NBA with my boys and I am glad they brought me to that game because it is incredible. Almost like the players are too good...both on offense and defense!

The shooting and passing have gone next level since it became true global talent league.

People have brought up expansion in this thread a little but really there would need to be quite a bit of expansion in order for American players to have the same chance they had 30 years ago. The draft is 1/3 foreign players now and a ton of foreign players get signed as free agents too.
 

cyclone1209

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I feel bad for anyone missing Jokic, Morant, wemby, OKC, etc.
You're not wrong on that talent. But when games evolve into guys jack up a missed three, all jog to the other end, jacked up 3..... that is a boring, boring brand of hoops.

I can't believe i'm saying this but I agree with Draymond Green. It is objectively a worse product today than ten and thirty years ago. Nobody wants to see a three point contest every night.
 

Dopey

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There's only 2 seniors projected in the first round of the 2025 mock draft.

It's tough for the casual fan to get to know where these players are coming from.

That's the NFLs big boost over NBA and MLB. It's rookies are already famous.
 

deadeyededric

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There's only 2 seniors projected in the first round of the 2025 mock draft.

It's tough for the casual fan to get to know where these players are coming from.

That's the NFLs big boost over NBA and MLB. It's rookies are already famous.
I think the amount of international players in the game makes it way harder to know players. We aren't following these kids in 3-4 years of college getting to know their names anymore.
 

madguy30

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I think your perception is they aren’t playing D because you’re more used to watching the college game.

  1. There are different rules in the NBA that open up drives. Namely freedom of movement fouls and defensive 3 seconds. So perimeter D is harder, and you don’t have a rim protector that can just plant in the lane
  2. More space to cover. The three point line is further in the NBA, which means players who help have more ground to cover to contest a 3 in the NBA versus college
  3. Skill level. For most teams, everyone on the floor can shoot at least 30% from 3 and usually higher. If you help off your man to stop a drive, a guy who, in college, would be at least an average 3 point shooter, is going to get an open look. So defenders have to pick their poison to help stop the ball and give up an open 3 or allow the drive to the hoop.
  4. There are way more possessions. The average NBA game has 100 possessions. The college game has 70. There’s going to be more fatigue throughout the game.
Now there are definitely some individual players who are sub-par defenders or don’t care about D. But it’s a gross over-generalization to say the league doesn’t play D.

I think the accuracy of passing and the quick releases of the shooters deserves a mention in this sort of thing.
 

BigLame

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Not like they do now. Yeah guys like Barkley could hit an open 3. You got 5's handling the ball and taking tough shots off the dribble from 30 ft. now. Somebody like Kevin Durant would have been a matchup nightmare for a team in the 90s. Even the good defenders that size were primarily post defenders. You couldn't put someone like Shaq on Giannes.
Durant is just the 21st Century version of Bob McAdoo from the 70's. Bob didn't venture out to the 3 point line because it wasn't there for part of his career & then when it was it was frowned upon for most players, but in no way does they mean he or others couldn't have shot as good or better than today. Just weren't given the chance in their day due to style of play & what was agreed upon.

Barkley didn't shoot 3's until later in his career after he had improved his shot, the 3-point shot was being more allowed by coaches, and it was less wear & tear on his body not having to fight on the block most of the game. The Wemby kid is the 21st Century version of Ralph Sampson, and had any center been allowed to play on the perimeter at 7 foot tall+ & also put up 3's, he could easily have done it. He added more perimeter shots to his game late in his career when he started to have knee issues. Kevin Garnett would fall into the same category from the 90s-early 2000s.
 

Cyientist

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I like that they changed the format of the All-Star game. 4 team tournament, and first to 40 advances.
 
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