Adam Silver's new Ideas for future seasons: And my ideas. . . and yours?

Hi Dubs Nation fans.

Adam Silver is "pondering" new ideas for the seasons to come: Mid-year league tournaments, maybe one to decide draft position for the lottery teams so there's no more reason to tank. And another to replace the All-Star game. He also brought up the idea of less games in a season, and or shorter games -- 40 min like college B-Ball, vs the current 48 min.

I have my own ideas. I'm wondering what ideas you might have.

As I see it, I don't think the games are too long. 48 minutes forces teams to deal with depth on their bench vs dealing with the salary cap, and gives bench players a chance to shine throughout the season. I also think if you shorten the season from 82 games, or shorten the games themselves, it will skew player career statistics, less records will be broken, and the history of the NBA will be relegated to "a totally different era."

But I am intrigued with the idea of at least one tournament. mid-year, if not two.

Here are my ideas. Would love to see your comments and hear your ideas:

1. Games should not be shortened to less than 48 minutes. But ban back-to-back games, and get rid of "load management. " Fans pay a LOT of money to come to a game. The experience of being there is a key component to having them come back vs just watching on TV or online. Once I'm finally inside the arena I'm in no particular rush to leave! And the games on TV are so fast-paced I don't get bored with 12 min quarters at all. But make the experience more consistent by giving the star players enough rest between each game -- unless they're truly injured -- to play in every game (like the playoffs -- there are no back to back playoff games). . . . The big and only change to games themselves: No more back-to-back games.

2. Adam Silver rightly says that for most fans and most teams the season is too long and often become irrelevant too soon. D-Nation fans are an exception (at least while we're winning at a historic clip and playing in the best of times like the old Harlem Globetrotters). But I think it's fair to say that most fans aren't sitting on the edge of their seat for 82 games. So here is my idea: Rather than shortening the amount of games, or the time of a game, get rid of most of the pre-season games. Have maybe two pre-season games. Then the beginning of Tournament 1, replacing pre-season. Tournament 1 would be a tournament where the rule is that all 15 players have to play for a minimum of 15 minutes. That way everyone gets ready for the regular season without the stars being overused. Everyone gets in their conditioning ,but star players are also not "held out" of these games like they are in pre-season games. You get to know all the players on your team better. The coaches see what their bench players can offer them and develop their best rotations. You only play the teams in the opposite division -- Eastern league teams vs Western league teams (since we play them far less often in the regular season). And the 2 winners of the tournament (the best records in the east and west) face off for one game at the end of the tournament. The winner gets (for instance) a first round draft pick right after the lottery picks, regardless of where they end up in the standings -- unless the winning team ends up as a lottery pick OR makes the Finals at the end of the year.

So imagine if the Rockets played the 76ers in the final tournament game and the Rockets won, but then lost to the Dubs again in the playoffs at the end of the year and didn't make the Finals -- The Rockets would get a chance to get stronger the following year by drafting 15th instead of in the late 20s. If they made the Finals, or became a lottery team, they would simply have their tournament pick revert back to their standard pick. . . The change: No pre-season games, so the season starts earlier in the year thereby preventing back to back games. The bench players have to play 15 min each minimum. The winner of the tournament gets draft pick 15 unless they get into the finals at the end of the year, or become a lottery team. . . . OR. . . what do you think a good incentive for winning the tournament would be? . . . PS: All player stats during the tournament count as part of a player's regular season stats. But after the tournament ends, starting on, let's say, Nov 1st, all win loss records revert to 0-0. And the regular season commences.

3. At the end of the year the April-May playoffs begin earlier in the season -- getting rid of X amount of April games and June playoff games. Instead, the playoffs and Tournament 2 happen. The playoffs begin for the 16 best teams in their current format on let's say April 1st. . . . AND during the same 6-7 weeks, a tournament for the lottery teams begins, The win loss records during this time all revert to 0-0 and the tournament teams instead of tanking for a lottery pick fight for draft position, with the winners picking highest. The two winners of the best teams in the east and west play a best 2 out of 3 final for the first pick in the draft! These picks cannot be traded in previous years, This would end tanking. And even the bottom 14 teams would play for something meaningful while the playoffs are going on. . . .. The change: The playoffs start earlier. The lottery tournament begins with the weaker teams fighting for draft position, with best records picking ahead of worst records, and the first pick goes to the tournament winner instead of having it be picked by a FREAKING ping pong ball.

The end result would be that all teams play about the same amount of games as they do now. Stats in the playoffs and tournaments count as part of the players season stats. (The playoffs can also count as "playoff stats" like they do now.) The players on perennially great teams don't play 16-25 more games than all the other teams. That means less wear and tear on their bodies heading into the next season. Fans would have many more relevant games on their teams' schedule even if those teams aren't playoff teams. It would eliminate tanking and load management, and trades where a team is basically buying out a good player because their season is lost, or they are trading for future cap space and happy to get nothing in return except for a player they will release. . . . It would obviously increase fan interest from the beginning to the end of the year. And also reward "the best" lottery teams instead of the worst. Of equal importance, it would not skew historic or annual or career stats for the players and therefore keep the player stats from yesteryear relevant, as it should be.

Please add your thoughts! I think there are so many good possibilities beyond the ones I came up with. And Adam Silver does seem to want to make positive changes for the league going forward, which I think in theory is great for the future of the game.