I haven't watched a full NBA game in two seasons now.... 150 points in reg? nah i need some proper defense back before I start watching again, it's just one long all-star game now

Struggle to watch nba regular season! Get interested playoffs

Its a long season... every year I buy league pass excited to watch my team (Orlando Magic) and as the season goes by I watch less and less.

The high scores are a bit ridiculous, even today I think there was 3 games where teams scored 135+

I have no problem with the 3 ball, mainly because you see it just as much in NBL as NBA... but they need to try and do something to make it harder to score.

Playoff time is more interesting as the game slows down

I watch all the Celtics games and enjoy them for what they are, but it's certainly nothing like the enjoyment I had with games in the 90’s. I agree with the fact that all the 3’s have made most of the teams homogenised, that’s why I liked when Ben was in Philly, the tall inverted team was somewhat different. I prefer a more old east coast grind game with some tactics rather then live/die by the volume of 3’s you make.

It's gotten so bad that I find myself barely even following the highlights this season.

I remember in those eras when fans complained about the low scores, scoring in the 80s etc. Knicks and Detroit games were just plain ugly. Then the Sun's came along with 7sol and fans were Wow! Then the real stat Crunchers like Morey came along and turned the dial up even more.
It's a copycat league, eventually everyone joins in. Even guys like Pop who thinks it's a circus has to join in or get left behind.
I think the best solution is to reduce the regular season games. Will limit teams having to rest stars with their load management, at this pace no wonder they complain about their workload. And don't go on about "In my day I played a whole game and then jogged to the gym and did a whole jazzercise class". No-one could play nearly 100 games including playoffs and be healthy.
With reduced games, teams could plan better defensively, wins would count more so you wouldn't necessarily see bench players jacking up 3s to earn more playing time in meaningless games. Players would be refreshed physically and mentally so would play better defence. Fans would probably be more inclined to tune in if games were better. Everyone watches the start of the season till they realise their team sucks, and then watch the end to see if they're team will make it. But games around now are boring as hell, especially with teams tanking and resting.
Implications about tv money, etc. But it should improve standards, scores will stay high until the next new fad comes in. But it would be funny if they took away the 3 point line for a season.
Or they could bring in North Korean rules, that crazy little dictator might have something there. And make Rodman the commissioner while they're at it, Arrest as the deputy!

Yay. Haven't had a good "NBA isn't as good to watch as NBL" post in a few days.

Yeah you'll find your echo chamber her that agrees with you. The rest of the world doesnt. And that's fine. Watch what you enjoy.

NBA needs some tweaks to the rules for sure. Need to make it at least possible to defend. I personally would love the schedule to drop down to 58 games so everyone plays twice. Delete conferences.

I'm a big fan of dropping the corner 3 back to a 2pt shot as it makes things too easy sometimes.

For mine the most annoying rule is sri one that favours the D. Take fouls. Theyve tweaked it a little this season but you can still wrap a guy up at the rim rather than make a play on the ball and it's a "good foul"

I use to love watching the old school Memphis Grizzlies with Z-bo, Gasol and Conley. Even though my Grizzlies are good high tempo team to watch it just isn't the same. Too easy to score now and it’s just free throw after free throw.

The ESPN condensed games are a godsend, specifically the last 3 minutes most of the time for me.

Interesting post. As a lover of Australian/FIBA basketball I find NBA very hard to watch now - like some of the above haven't watched a TV game in years (although have been fortunate to see dozens of games live which is a totally different experience to watching on TV). Recall in the early 80's channel 7 or 10 used to have an NBA game of the week on late at night during the week - often 1am - that I would sit up and watch in anticipation. The game is certainly different now however as opposed to looking forward to the one game a week (usually 76er/Celtics/Lakers involved) we now have access 24/7 via so many platforms which has possibly taken away the mystique and exposed the games good, bad and ugly. Some of the older people here may recall having absolutely zero access to NBA prior to the 80's. I went to high school in the 70's and the highlight of the year was going to the library when the Encyclopedia Brittanica yearbook came in and discretely tearing out the page on the year in basketball! The very first image of the NBA I can recall is one of Wilt Chamberlain - obviously early 70's - and I have followed the Lakers ever since. Possibly now for a lot of us we have become a bit blase about it all

NBA isn't basketball, it's entertainment

I always find the comments of can't watch NBA anymore but I still love Euro/NBL/International basketball interesting.

Do those people realise that a higher proportion of 3s taken is quite a bit higher in those leagues compared to the NBA.

Secondly, offensive rating is extraordinarily higher in Euroleague this year than the NBA!!

Post-Up plays are also higher in the NBA than in the Euroleague.

I’m all cool if you say you don’t have NBA as your preference, but you can’t say you don’t like a league because of XYZ, when XYZ is significantly higher in the leagues you do prefer to watch.

I've only watched a handful of NBA games since the 2011 lockout. Managed to find OzHoops around that time, got Wildcats membership in anticipation of the move to Perth Arena, and when they came back from the lockout everyone was out of shape and the games sucked. Never really looked back.

I was watching this recently, which overlaps with the topic. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IPXSqOhykg

One all time stats list which isnt going to be broken anytime soon is blocks. The amount of threes ensures Olajuwon will stay there forever.

NBA isn't basketball, it's entertainment

[...]2011 lockout. Managed to find OzHoops around that time

Some of the older people here may recall having absolutely zero access to NBA prior to the 80's.

In the land of kiwi,got introduced to live NBA watching Lakers v Celtics. Mate of mine picked me up each game and went to one of the bases where the USA had serviceman based. Couldn't get a stream them days on local Chanels but the satellite dishes at the base streamed it for the armed services world wide.

For a bunch of entertainers they certainly dominate world basketball.

I am probably very bias being Australian, but I get very bored watch 3p shoot outs in the nba, I much prefer watching the NBL, I feel it is more diverse in the type of basketball plays and action.

Remove the corner 3 and make bigs relevant again, there was a time when we had no 3 point line...

To Those mad about "NBA teams take too many 3s"

Here is the actual data Per Min
Cairns, Perth, Tas, Melb, NZ take more 3s per Min than 20 of the 30 NBA teams

Team 3PA/G 3PA/Min
Cairns 30.4 0.76
Perth 29.8 0.745
Tasmania 29.5 0.7375
Melbourne 29.4 0.735
New Zealand 28.6 0.715
Illawarra 27.6 0.69
Brisbane 27.2 0.68
Adelaide 25.3 0.6325
Sydney 25.2 0.63
SEM 25 0.625

From 11th-30th 3PA/G 3PA/Min
Portland 34.2 0.7125
Okla City 33.7 0.702083333
Phoenix 33.5 0.697916667
Philadelphia 33.4 0.695833333
LA Clippers 33.3 0.69375
Charlotte 33 0.6875
Detroit 33 0.6875
Memphis 32.9 0.685416667
Minnesota 32.7 0.68125
Toronto 32.6 0.679166667
Washington 31.9 0.664583333
Cleveland 31.4 0.654166667
San Antonio 31.3 0.652083333
Brooklyn 31.1 0.647916667
Orlando 31.1 0.647916667
LA Lakers 31.1 0.647916667
New Orleans 30.8 0.641666667
Denver 30.7 0.639583333
Atlanta 30.7 0.639583333
Chicago 29.1 0.60625

SO maybe instead of you not liking the game for "too many 3s" maybe its more your attention span has lessened in your old ages, cant focus for 48 min games anymore??

i hope my formatting holds up

Formatting didn't hold up but to sum

Portland 11ths in 3PA per min = .7125 per min
Cairns, Perth, Tas, Melb, NZ take more than .7125 per min


If the NBL was 8 mins longer the volume would even out.

Why are people getting caught up on how many threes are being taken? I don't think that's really what makes the NBA regular season less appealing. For me it's more the lower intensity due to the number of games they have to play. In comps with fewer games they have more meaning, that's inevitable.

I think for the most part its a bit of tribalism. The NBL has teams that represent our cities filled with players who represent our country and we can go watch them live, support them and enjoy all that comes with that. The NBA is on the other side of the world and most don't ever to go it in person and have no connection to any team so for don't have the same passion for it and therefore there's less emotional attachment.

All of the rest, the style of play preference, rule differences etc all comes from a place where you already love the local team/league so of course will often feel that whatever that league does is better. As has been demonstrated above, the "nba takes too many 3s" angle is fiction but it "feels" right because you're not as invested and see any reason that the local product is better as being accurate.

Note, I'm not saying that I'm above this bias. When I had a team to support I absolutely felt I preferred watching NBL to NBA and now that i have an open grudge against the league I watch almost exclusively NBA. Coincidence? Not likely, but also without a team to be connected to, I can just enjoy watching the basketball that I like to watch, and right now thats NBA easy.

Just watch what you enjoy

As another old timer, there are too many teams in all leagues takling too many 3's. Even if they are 1 of 20, they keep jacking them up!
I'm not backing my thoughts with stats,but to me the NBL has a far greater intensity on defence and so , in general has mach more player moving off the ball and less isolation plays. I don't watch the NBA for those reasons.
Its the same as the concept of the "all star" game. I've been to one, and never again. Its just a bunch of 'celebrity - players" taking turns at trying to impress with their offensive skills ( when there is no pressure on).
If the NBL ever bring back an all star match, they need to put $1m purse up for grabs, winner take all.
The best thing the NBL has going for it is the competitiveness of (nearly) every game and the competition in general. The NBA obviously has to many games and the players just can't "be up" for every game.

The NBA is no longer enjoyable to watch, as a whole, across all teams and throughout a long season.

Less teamwork and more individualism.

EuroLeague is a far better spectacle. I never thought I'd say it, but the NBL is better as spectacle too.

See this take is weird too. The NBA has been an iso focused league forever. In the 90s (the glory days to some) there was a crazy amount of iso and post up back then meaning the other 5 guys were mainly standing around watching. It wasn't some team oriented basketball utopia that some seem to hold it up as

The great teams had great teamwork and that is what gets remembered from the past.

The great teams still have great teamwork. The Warriors of the last 8 years have been a thing of beauty

No one is questioning that.

Well if someone thinks that NBA used to be better because of more teamwork they clearly must think that right?