Cut load management and end the All-Star Game: how NBA veterans would tweak the league

When four-time champion Robert Parish played in the NBA, there was no such thing as load management. While the idea, which was born in San Antonio as the Spurs managed the twilight years of stars like Tim Duncan, has since become widespread, Parish, who played the most regular season games in NBA history, says he doesn’t like it. Indeed, ridding the NBA of load management is one of the many tweaks a chorus of fans and former players have been suggesting lately. As conversations continue about why early season ratings have been down, fixes galore have been suggested. Below, we wanted to share some more ideas from five distinguished NBA vets.

Robert Parish (four-time NBA champion and Hall of Famer): Availability. I think that would improve the fans’ appetite for today’s NBA. In my opinion, if today’s generation of players would take better care of themselves, load management would not even be a concern. I know if I was a fan and I was buying a ticket and I waited a month for my favorite player to come to town and they’re not playing because of load management, I would have an attitude.

Not to mention that most people have to save up and buy tickets to take their family or friends to a game. One of the reasons why they’re going to the game is to see a particular player and this player’s not playing? Now, if you are hurt or injured, I get it. You have to take the time to heal and recover. But if you’re taking off just from fatigue, I find it insulting. That would be the one thing I think the NBA needs to address.

I believe the whole NBA should take a long look at how serious LeBron James and Stephen Curry take their fitness [as a positive example]. They both take their fitness and nutrition very seriously.

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Tim Hardaway Sr (five-time NBA All-Star and Hall of Famer): I heard [commentator] Chris Broussard say something that I really liked. Hhe thinks the NBA should consider having the three-point line go only from free-throw line to free-throw line. Meaning, it wouldn’t go down to the corners. It would be like a partial smile at the top of the key.

That would take away a lot of the three-point shots in today’s NBA and, more importantly, it would make people work on their games. If the league did that, now you’ve got to work on your two-point game, your midrange game. If I was given a second “fix,” I would go back to the old defense. No zone defense, you can’t double-team a guy without the ball.

Bob Whitsitt (former GM of the Seattle SuperSonics and Portland Trailblazers): I would start off by saying that I think the game’s in good shape. I’ve been in meetings over the years when we’ve talked about lots of changes. You can go back to the 80s and there’s a ton of scoring and the problem with the league, fans said, was “nothing matters until the last two minutes.” Then we had rules changes to fix that. Then it got really physical and guys were killing each other in the 1990s so we made more rule changes to get the game more fluid.

You can’t change things every five minutes. But that being said, I would note a couple things. Before I go, “Let’s fix all the three-pointers,” I’d say that my pet peeves would be load management, which I know they’ve addressed some with the 65 game incentive. But one quick fix I’d try to make is [around] the NBA Cup, which I think is a great idea. But I’d change it to make it longer throughout the season and have the championship game in February. Replace the All-Star game with that. I would make guys get $2m instead of $500,000 for winning it.

Showcase it and make All-Star Weekend into NBA Cup Weekend. Fans want to see players play hard. They want guys who play every night, not just 50 games. Especially if you’re paying $2,000 to go to a game but the star decides to rest after you bought your tickets two months before. I don’t think the three-point shot is a bad thing but I think coaches and teams are copycats and if you want to fix that, you have to legislate it a little bit. You don’t have to move the line out or create a four-point shot – I don’t think you rush into it, either.

But my headline is that I think the league and the games are fantastic. This decade now we’re in is just one of bombs away.

Larry Sanders (former center for the Milwaukee Bucks): I like the era of LeBron and Kobe coming out of high school and being able to go straight into the league. I think that was pretty dope. I know you don’t have to go to college now, you can go overseas, but there is still the one-year rule, right? I would fix that. The guys who came out of high school into the NBA, many of them had great careers. I didn’t see much wrong with that. A lot of guys who go to college for a year are good enough to go to the NBA from high school. Maybe the point was to bring hype and money and funding to college basketball, maybe that was the play. But I don’t think it was for the player to get an education.

So, I think it’s more beneficial for the player to just go straight into the draft. Less injuries, you get your money sooner. And after the McDonald’s All-American game, if you get two guys going at it, they can be in the pros the next year. That’s pretty exciting.

Xavier McDaniel (former NBA All-Star): The thing I see, and I think everybody sees, is a lot of three-point shots. There is no inside play anymore. The physicality ain’t there like it used to be, but that’s the way analytics have it. Shoot more threes, make more threes and you’re supposed to win the game. But I don’t always agree with that. I look at Houston [with James Harden] and they lost to Golden State [in 2018] because they kept shooting threes when they only needed twos. [The Rockets missed 27 threes in a row.]

If it’s a two-point game, why are you taking a three? If you’re Steph Curry or Klay Thompson or Luka or maybe a few other guys – then OK. Otherwise, take it to the hole, tie it up and take your chances in overtime. I understand that analytics say three is better than two. And people are talking about a possible four-point shot. But I think sometimes ESPN has people fooled – you see a guy hit a deep three [on highlights] and you’re like damn! But they don’t show you all the ones he missed before that. I’m not saying don’t shoot them, but nowadays when a team is on a fast break, guys go out to the three-point line. I’d just like to see the game be played the right way – today, it’s strictly a guard’s game.

Jake Uitti (humble Guardian writer): I know there are complications when it comes to arena size, permanent seats, hockey rinks and all that – but I think making the NBA court a bit bigger could help the game. Perhaps increasing it a foot or two on each side and then the league could extend the three-point line accordingly. Also, I would love to see referees be able to assign fouls to players who flop.