A season of prevent defense.
That’s how one high-ranking NBA official described the 2020-21 regular season: a cramped, white-knuckle ride that saw one team transplanted 1,300 miles, 32 games postponed because of the coronavirus, winter storms and a rolling series of COVID-19 restrictions and countermeasures that NBA commissioner Adam Silver ominously dubbed “work quarantine.”
The league brainstormed a series of on-the-fly modifications to standard operating procedures to manage many of the challenges — health, logistical and financial, among others. Some originated in last summer’s bubble in Orlando, and others came out of an endless series of video conferences between teams, the players’ union and the league office.
Necessity, of course, turned out to encourage innovations. Now that the regular season has played out, which of them might stick around into the future?
Play-in tournament
The play-in tournament has been an unqualified success in 2021. For all the anticipation surrounding a Warriors-Lakers matchup with a ticket to the postseason on the line — the second-most-watched NBA game this season — the playoff appetizer is just as much about the weeks and months that preceded the play-in tournament as the actual event itself.
For years, the NBA internally acknowledged it had a crisis of meaning following the All-Star break, with few having much to play for. The final third of the NBA’s regular season has traditionally been short on intrigue, with more chatter devoted to the tanking exploits of the cellar dwellers and the load management being practiced by teams locked into the playoffs.
By constructing the play-in with the format it did, the NBA managed to create a multitiered landscape over the final month to the regular season. For weeks, teams have jockeyed for a top-six berth, looking to avoid a precarious play-in scenario; all the while, another cluster vied to clear the bar at No. 10. Even within the play-in layer, Indiana and Charlotte, as well as Golden State and Memphis, scrapped for the crucial No. 8 seed, which gives a team an important extra out.
As if the competitive component weren’t enough to support it going forward, the play-in tournament also provides the league with a valuable product that offers novelty and appeal in the NBA’s next negotiation with broadcast partners. That might not translate to life-changing money for the NBA, but that revenue combined with some exciting midweek visibility featuring stars such as LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Jayson Tatum, LaMelo Ball and Ja Morant makes for an appealing promotional opportunity that pays for itself. James might not be a fan, but league sources say the play-in is likely here to stay.
Scheduling
Two major scheduling novelties were introduced in the pandemic season. The first, known as “baseball scheduling,” is where a team stays in a city for multiple days and plays two games against the host. The other novelty is a schedule released in parts, where the second half of the season isn’t set until midway through the year.
Both of these were battlefield strategies, created to deal with uncertainty about postponements and to reduce travel because of the virus. But they’ve had positive side effects. Less travel means fewer expenses and less wear-and-tear on players. The ability to set the back of the schedule after seeing the league play for a couple of months also helped set up the calendar with some intriguing games, including a great weekend finish to the regular season.
The expectation, sources describe, is that both likely aren’t going to remain long-term options for the league but could stay around for the short term. Over the past decade, the NBA had made it commonplace for teams coming to Los Angeles and New York to stay several days to play both teams, a trend players liked. Teams tended to play opponents in pairs: playing both Miami and Orlando on the same trip or both Chicago and Milwaukee.
The baseball scheduling was easier to implement because of the lack of fans. In the past, teams have worried about selling tickets to see the same matchup within days, especially if it wasn’t a premium opponent.
Waiting to schedule the second half of the season has its own challenges, too.
“Right now, it’s easy to move the schedule because arenas are empty and the calendar is blank,” said one team president. “Hopefully we get back to normal, and you can’t hold banks of days. Even if you held certain days, you want to know your opponent. You build promotions around certain games months in advance.”
Roster rules
The league significantly expanded the allowances for players on two-way contracts this season. It eliminated the rule that players could practice or play with teams for only 45 days at the two-way salary before being required to sign a full NBA contract.
The maximum for two-way players on reduced salary was boosted to 50 games, and if they were active for more, they’d be automatically upgraded to the NBA rate without having to sign a full contract. Also in a change from the past, two-way players are permitted to be active in the playoffs.
Several agents pushed for the experience limit to be increased — right now, only players with four years or fewer of experience are permitted to sign two-ways — so veteran players could sign those deals. But after weeks of discussions with the union about it during the season, the issue was tabled.
Expanded two-way rules have benefited numerous players such as Juan Toscano-Anderson (Warriors), Yuta Watanabe (Raptors), Garrison Mathews (Wizards) and Moses Brown (Thunder), who have used the extra time to land full NBA contracts this season.
In recent weeks, the league has surveyed teams about their interest in keeping the expanded rules for next season. Teams have expressed an interest in keeping the rules, sources said, especially with another short offseason. The league and the union would also have to work out an arrangement to extend the rules.
Coaches’ sideline attire
It took a global pandemic, but NBA coaches in the past year adopted the more relaxed look that’s become commonplace in many white-collar industries over the past couple of decades. The suits and ties on the sidelines on game night have been replaced by polo shirts and quarter-zip pullovers, while leather Oxfords have given way to white-walled sneaks.
“I think the league was like, ‘It’s one thing to go through all of this. It’s another thing to go through it in a suit,'” one GM said.
What was thought to be a temporary concession for the swampy Orlando bubble last summer rolled over to this season, as the NBA started the season in unusual circumstances without fans and social-distancing measures, even on game night. Coaches largely embraced the casual guidelines, as staffs outfitted in matching shirts or quarter-zips emblazoned with team logos.
To the extent that opposition existed to dressing down, it was largely muted. When a preference for suits was expressed, it was usually attributed to a desire to honor legends like Chuck Daly or Pat Riley, whose sartorial flair lent a grandeur to the profession and gave it an identity. A few coaches who staunchly prefer suits said they’ve been reticent because being too vocal might suggest vanity. In the words of one coach earlier this season, “I wish I didn’t look like I was teaching third-period gym, but I’ll go with the flow.”
“Being able to wear polos and quarter-zips and slacks has really simplified and economized dressing for NBA coaches,” says Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle, who also heads the NBA Coaches Association. “If you count the amount of money saved on buying suits, dress shirts and shoes alone along with money saved on dry cleaning over the last 11 months, you’re talking about thousands of dollars.”
Carlisle, who grew up as a coach under Daly, says if forced to vote between suits and casual garb, he’d still opt for suits, but he’s come to appreciate the new order. “I’ve come around on quarter-zips and polos,” he says. “The more I watch our game with team staffs in uniform attire, the more I believe it looks good.”
The NBCA and the league office will continue to discuss whether the post-pandemic NBA will return to custom, but there’s mounting evidence that those who occupy the first chair are increasingly comfortable being increasingly comfortable.
Arena/game experience
Anyone who’s ventured into an NBA arena this season has encountered a literal shell of the modern-day game experience. Plexiglas has been the material of choice in 2021, as facilities have had to erect hard barriers between players and anyone outside the immediate team bubble.
The court had traditionally served as a focal point of the building for more than just basketball. It was a place where a kids’ dance troupe or the mascot would perform during a timeout, a community hero would receive an honor during halftime, or local muckety-mucks would hold court at their seats on the floor.
For NBA franchises that are forever looking for touchpoints where fans can connect with their team, pandemic conditions have been a challenge. For example, the tunnel linking the event level just outside the locker room to the playing court offered droves of fans a chance to high-five players en route to the floor.
But even as teams have begun to repopulate the arena bowls, that kind of flesh-on-flesh contact is unthinkable so long as there’s a modicum of risk — and a digital tunnel just doesn’t offer the same intimacy. The question for next season and beyond is: Will an NBA player ever again accept a pen from a 9-year-old to sign a jersey? For that matter, will that player show up in a public venue when the world has come to accept a Zoom session as a viable alternative to such an appearance?
More broadly, NBA organizations are eager to learn to what extent — if any — they’ve lost fans. And teams are eager to get people back in the arena, not solely for the nightly revenue generated by a few thousand in attendance, but because connectivity between a team and its fan base is the lifeblood of the business.
Optimistic as some NBA team sources are that fans have a pent-up fervor to see live sports again, until the recovery from COVID-19 plays out, they simply won’t know whether there will be a spike in attendance followed by a leveling off, a slow but steady upswing, an enthusiastic comeback or — pessimistically — a sluggish recovery that never fully recaptures the market as sports fans learned to love their 65-inch home screens with a side of takeout.
Credit: Source link