The Glaring Problem with the NBA #Basketball

It's amazing when you think about the games-played difference between the major sports. MLB plays 162 games a year, the NBA and NHL each play 82 games per year then there's the NFL which only plays 16 regular season games per year.

This is not even including playoffs! The NHL playoffs seem to last forever, great for die-hard hockey fans but what a grind. I love how the NFL is lose one playoff game and go home but I understand how the sports are different and it takes winning a series in the other major sports to win a championship.

Here's what's crazy about the NBA right now. There are three teams with a losing record that would be in the playoffs if they started today! In the Eastern Conference you have the Chicago Bulls (28-29) and the Detroit Pistons (28-30) and in the Western Conference there's the Denver Nuggets with a 25-32 record sitting in the 8th playoff seed.

To put that in perspective consider that the Golden State Warriors currently have 23 more wins than the Nuggets. Is there any doubt at this stage of the season that the Warriors are going back to the finals? There's nothing wrong with that but it's sort of a buzzkill, where's the drama?

"You don't play against opponents, you play against the game of basketball." - Bob Knight

NBA Western Conference Standings

I've often heard people say things like "you only need to watch the last two minutes of a basketball game," or "just show me the highlights." They're not kidding either.

The NBA is also more of a player-driven league. Players have a bigger impact of where they want to play which is a complete 180 of the NFL. Just look at the Nuggets who did try to acquire Paul George and apparently made a big time offer but couldn't pull it off.

Whereas defensive star Jamie Collins was traded five games into the season from the Patriots to the Browns with little or no warning. Just like, hey, pack your bags you're now a Cleveland Brown. From 1st place to last place just like that.

Then you look at Kevin Durant going from the Thunder to the Warriors and a lot of people didn't like that. Like he gets hate for it. I think it was pretty cool of KD to go play for the so-called enemy. Kudos to him. That was an interesting story and one that will certainly make a Warriors-Thunder playoff series a doozy!