Eric Koreen
Appearances
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
And in the walk-up to that season, there were coaches and players asked, how do you react to people talking about tanking? And at that point, It was even less discussed than it is, certainly less discussed than it was now. But the players were all sort of uniform, like, we don't think about that. This is not our job.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
And back then it might have been a bit blunter, even blunter than saying the whole system is BS, but it's just more like as a foreign concept. It's like, we're trying to win. stop bringing this up. It kind of insulting. Um, and I think that's where the reaction comes from. And Garrett Temple, you know, he's a guy I've written a feature about.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
I know pretty well, uh, as, as far as any of us can ever know any players well, which is, you know, limited, but that's a different podcast. I think, uh, where it's for my, my own insecurities. Um, but, uh, Yeah, it's not that he blames the fans. He doesn't blame the fans.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
In fact, his experience, his knowledge of the league's players' association, his knowledge of the CBA makes it so he exactly understands where they're coming from. But he knows how much his younger teammates are putting into that game, each individual game. And so to him, the fact that fans are forced to go –
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
into a game thinking huh what's best for my team tonight winning or losing to him that's what is bs and i don't think most are as angry about it but like the veteran especially the veterans i spoke to and i try i mostly limited it to talking about veterans two veterans because i figured they would have the most context like they understand it but they don't like it and yeah none of that is surprising
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
The league thinks they have improved things. And I think I think that's right. In fact, like I, I do think that's right there, you know, by flattening the odds, which they did in twenty nineteen. By adding the play-in, even though the play-in's not perfect, we remember the Mavs in 2022, 2023, my years are all mixed up, sort of bowing out of the 10th place race. Sure. The Raptors, if they wanted.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
Yes. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. The Raptors, you know, this year, if they really wanted, didn't need to rest Emmanuel quickly and Jakob Pertl and could have chased the Chicago Bulls and now the Miami Heat, who are somehow in 10th after losing every game. Like, to some teams who need to build, who know they have, whose aspirations are
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
you know not currently within reach like losing games is going to be more important than getting that one or two extra road games by the way like you don't even get home revenue from it it's it's road games now i think the the counter to that is like look at the west look at phoenix fighting look at uh um the young blazers who are like sort of the team you know my
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
heroes of the year are almost the portland trailblazers because they are actually incentivized to you know punt on this season and they're not but a team like the suns of course they're trying to make the play and they have there's nothing for them to gain from from finishing 11th they don't have their picks anyway yeah um you you just don't want your fans thinking the result of a game
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
is either meaningless or it could be potentially harmful if you win, because then you're devaluing the individual units of your product. And I think over time that becomes corrosive to growing the game. Obviously, the league is doing fine. They have a nice, rich TV deal. But if you get more micro about that, you get more insular into it. You'll realize that these games that, you know,
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
Even if they're being competed, even if the players are competing super hard, if the organizations don't really care about them, then the fans are going to see that. And, you know, for every fan base that bounces back once they become good, maybe there are some that, you know, just tune out and in a world of many, many distractions, don't tune back in.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
The first thing they have to do is stop incentivizing losing. There are still better odds and a lower floor you can fall to the worse you are. So they've got to stop doing that. My dream scenario is you take the 14 teams that don't make the playoffs and the eight teams that lose in the first round, shake them in a big bucket, pull them out one to 22 at the end of the year.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
That might be extreme for some. I wouldn't mind it. But any amount you can flatten the odds, it's obviously going to help. The other thing is shortening the season. That would account for a lot of the players on the other end, the better teams.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
It would hopefully increase their availability, and when they do get injured, it would limit the number of games that they miss because you're not playing as frequently. There are about 16, 15 back-to-backs for each team.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
If you could get close to eliminating those, move it to a 70-game season, something like that, over the same time span, I don't think that fixes it entirely, but I think it does make a meaningful difference, especially later in the season, in March, if you will.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
It's been a few years now. I couldn't give you like an exact season or an exact date, but I think like sort of in the
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
in the you know online nba consciousness vaguely there has been this acknowledgement that really the worst of of what the league has to offer can be uh seen in march whether it's the teams who you know we're never going to be good in the first place the teams who through a series of unfortunate events have accepted that they're never going to be good and will you know
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
lightly or heavily rest some some stars and then the teams are doing great but that are like well what's the point of playing these guys every night we're not gonna win if you know star a b or c isn't available so yeah and even if you're fighting for seating in some cases especially with the more experienced teams you have to weigh it and be like
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
Do we really feel strongly that game seven in our home building is more important or is it more important that to use the team randomly that LeBron James and Luka Doncic are healthy? I'm not I'm not saying the Lakers have done that at all, but like
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
Teams understandably have to feel that way, but when you get to March and things are a bit more settled and the options for your season are either completely defined or more defined, it really encourages teams to take their foot off the gas pedal to some degree.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
Well, it's funny you mentioned that. I think the year before, so Andrew Wiggins was, year at Kansas, one year at college. This was right before the Raptors went on their surprise run that season. They sort of started the season poorly, traded Rudy Gay. It was looking like a full teardown. And then they miraculously got good five years later, won a championship.
The Athletic NBA Daily
Giddey Game Winner + March Badness
But before all that happened, going into that year, you know, people thought the Raptors were going to be pretty bad. They could see a Rudy Gay trade coming. They could see maybe a DeMar DeRozan trade coming. They could see, who am I missing there? A Kyle Lowry trade may be coming. So just basically a complete teardown. Masayu Jiri was new to the Raptors at that point.