Why the players have only themselves to blame

I know what you're thinking.

The NBA is more popular than it's ever been.

We just had a competitive NBA cup game last night between one of the best young stars on a young Thunder team that's a top seed in the west against a veteran Bucks team with Giannis and Dame.

All that is good and well but what about the NBA regular season product over the course of a 82 NBA game season?

The reality is the ratings are down and have been down for the past couple of years now. All-star weekend ratings (outside the 3pt contest) are lower than they have ever been. The All-star game hasn't been competitive in years, probably since the first time in the new format where the two highest vote getters (example Team LeBron and Team Giannis) become captains and they pick their rosters.

Recently, the NBA has announced their new All-Star game format (click there). It didn't sit well with many players including Kevin Durant who voiced his displeasure.

Well the players only have themselves to blame for all of these changes happening during the season and all star weekend.

Outside of a few blackouts on NBA league pass stopping fans from watching their teams, This isn't a tech problem.

The problems have almost everything to do with the players and the product "on the court".

No product manager can fix this.

Load management

Load management was a practice that started during the Manu-Tony-Tim Duncan era of the Spurs. Gregg Popovich, long time current Spurs coach (Hope you have a speedy recovery Pop), would decide to rest them during the regular season on certain games, mostly the games where they played a western conference team twice at home or on the road.

At the time, it was just called "rest".

But the term didn't become coined until Kwahi came to the Raptors and was being held out games intentionally to rest him during games. That resulted in Kwahi being on a tear during the 2019 playoffs which resulted in them winning the championship that season. Kwahi had problems staying healthy especially after the injury in the 2017 playoffs against the Warriors.

After load managing Kwahi led to a championship and some of the best play we've ever seen by The Klaw, every other team in the league would adopt this with their star players holding them out of certain games, sometimes being held out of nationally televised games which is a big L for the NBA and resulted in some fines for teams.

The league has taken this way too far to the point where some of the better players in the league would coast during the regular season to save their energy for their playoffs. Almost like the regular season didn't matter and that only the playoffs matter.

Uh, you have to get there first which means that you have to win games and in order to win, players have to play harder than the other team.

Marketing

The NBA cup was competitive and it was a good game. Yet, none of the NBA's marketable marquee stars like LeBron, Steph, and/or KD were not participating.

The NBA hasn't done a great job of marketing the next generation, or I should say the next "Faces of the League".

This era's has been dominated by "LeBron, Steph, and KD".

The 2K era had some of the most marketable marquee stars like Kobe, LeBron, D Wade, Dirk, KG, Steve Nash, J-Kidd, Yao Ming, and among others. But you can definitely say that the 2k era was the "Kobe and LeBron Era".

Who are the next faces of the NBA?

Who is going to take the NBA into the next decade after LeBron, Steph, and KD retire?

Where are the true rivalries?

Back in the day, you had multiple rivalries during the 80s and 90s w/ Lakers-Celtics and the 90s between the Bulls-Knicks, Bulls-Pistons, Bulls-Cavs, Pacers-Knicks, the 2k era with Lakers-Spurs, Suns-Spurs, Cavs-Celtics, Pacers-Pistons, Lakers-Suns, Mavs-Suns, and the 2010s was defined by the LeBron, Steph, & KD era.

Multiple rivalries were had with the Cavs, Warriors, and Thunder during this time.

Today, there aren't that many great rivalries.

There's a difference between rivalries and domination.

Maybe you could say Celtics-Sixers but the Celtics dominated the Sixers anytime they played in the playoffs nor have the Sixers beat them in the postseason so that's not really a rivalry.

Some media heads would call the Lakers-Nuggets a rivalry but it's only a rivalry until the Lakers beat them in the playoffs but they haven't. They only won 1 of the last 14/15 matchups against the Nuggets. That's domination.

On the Court Product

The late 80s and the Bad Boy Pistons till about the early 2010s, the NBA has been defined by competitive play. The players always came to play if they were healthy. Players were allowed to play tough defense and players scored in a variety of different ways. You had your scorers, shooters, two way players, and anchors in the paint.

Games were a slugfest.

You had games that were 80-77 or 88-53. If you scored 110 in regulation, that was a hot shooting day and that was back during the time where players like Jordan were averaging 35 a game without shooting a good percentage from 3. I remember the 0.4 Fisher game winner over the spurs, the Lakers scored a total of 72 points.

Since Steph and Klay (aka the Splash Bros), the best backcourt shooting duo in NBA history, entered the league, they brought a new level of excitement to the NBA. They were exciting to watch because of their hot streaks from 3.

They revolutionized how the game is being played today. It has become a 3 point shooting and an offensive league where the defensive rule changes have helped the offenses score more points. It has become boring to watch honestly with everyone shooting 3's.

The ticky tack fouls, foul baiting (looking at your Trae Young and Harden), creating fouls, no hand checking, and lack of physicality can make a game unwatchable.

Now people score 60-70 points at the end of the first half in regulation, and score 130pts in a regular season game. That is something you would usually see NBA all star games which brings me into the next problem.

Sports Analytics & Ridiculous 3pt volume

The ridiculous amount of 3's being taken have diluted the game.

Remember when I said the Splash Bros. has changed the way the game has played?

Well, they did.

Since the 2015 Warriors have won the chip, the number of 3's taken by teams has increased dramatically. The Celtics right now are on pace to average the most 3pt attempts in NBA history with over 50 a game. If you thought the 2017/2018 Rockets were crazy averaging 40 3's a game, the Celtics have taken that to a whole new levels.

Back in the day, teams all had their unique play styles that would win them games. There was diversity in how teams play which made the game exciting to watch.

The mid 2010s Warriors were a better version of what "the 7 seconds or less" Suns used to be. On most days, they were efficient from 3 and were taken as a result of the flow of the offense.

In the current NBA, you have to have a 3 point shot or add it to your game. When all the players play the same way it doesn't make the game fun. I don't know if following sports analytics has anything to do with the current volume of 3's being hoisted, but if it is, it's ruining the game.

All Star Weekend

All star weekend was a weekend a lot of sports heads looked forward to every year even as a kid I remember the infamous "It's over" from Vince Carter as he did his between the legs dunk to take home the crown. The 3pt contest was always a great event because some of the best shooters in the league would participate. Dirk took home the crown, Ray Allen took home the crown, Steph and Klay battled it out for the 3pt crown during the mid 2010s which was some of the best display of shooting we've ever seen.

The dunk contest brought out some of the best dunkers in the league, some of them recognizable faces. Even stars would compete in the dunk contest, Kobe, Vince Carter, Stoudemire, Paul George, Dwight Howard,

Skills competition brought out CP3, Jason Kidd, D-Wade, and some of the best guards in the NBA at the time.

Everyone knew the unspoken rule of the all-star game was the first 3 and a half quarters, put on a offensive show, and the last quarter and a half, that's when the true lockdown defense starts. We would see a competitive pick up game between the best players in the league give the fans a show with some of the best miraculous finishes ever.

Nowadays, the effort just isn't there and players don't take it seriously.

Stars don't participate in these contests anymore.

Everyone says LeBron kilt the dunk contest because he didn't participate in his prime. Then again, we thought Zion and Ja would be in the dunk contest at some point but with Zion being injury prone it may never happen. Ja is just trying to not get injured at this point where he even stopped dunking like he has been and has changed the way he plays.

Not a lick of defense is being played. Coast to coast layups. Just jacking up 3's. Free runs to the rim. It looks like a layup line or a 3pt shooting contest out there. It was fun for the first half but as fans we expect to see more competitive 2nd halves and when that hasn't showed up in the past couple of years, it really affected the way fans even tuned into the games.

Adam Silver is trying to add things to spice things up and make incentives for players to want to give a better effort but its just not sinking home.

The leagues own players kilt the NBA.

Conclusion

The lack of diversity, competitiveness, marketing, 3pt volume, defense, and ticky tack fouls is what is killing NBA's "on the court product" slowly. All these changes like the "In-Season Tournament" and the new All-Star game format are direct results of the players' actions.

This isn't something that a product manager can fix.

Digital access to watching/following your NBA team/player play is one thing.

Forcing players to take the regular season more seriously is another and that's not part of their job description.

Players taking the regular season more seriously and correcting all of current problems the NBA is having will help all the parties involved and bring viewers back to the platforms to view games.