Many of the NBA’s Problems Are Structural to Basketball

The season feels too long because, statistically, it contains far too many meaningless games — and that comes with plenty of other side-effects.

LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard (center, in black) has become synonymous with NBA stars watching games from the bench. (Jevone Moore/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

I’ve written a lot about the NBA’s style-of-play controversies recently, from tracing the way analytics reshaped the use of the 3-pointer to whether such a heavy focus on deep shooting even makes sense anymore from an efficiency standpoint. But amidst all of these worried conversations surrounding the league’s product and popularity, it seldom gets mentioned that the biggest issue might be the nature of basketball itself.

Intuitively, we know that the better team, stocked with superior players, wins more often in hoops than in, say, baseball or hockey. But this truism — as borne out in the data — is at the heart of many NBA problems, creating a cascading sequence of side-effects that cuts against the league’s core entertainment quality.