5 ways to make the NBA good again

As football season wrapped up, we had a great NFL and College football season. So whats next? The NBA and College basketball season can officially start. The problem is their season's started back in November. So after thinking about how basketball takes a back seat (like third row of your dad's station wagon, back seat) to football during fall and winter, I figure that I could figure a few ways to make the NBA more fan-friendly.

Well what are you talking about? The NBA is so fun, and games are so fun to go to. Thats right, they are, but they still don't matter until after the All-Star Weekend. So lets see how we can make the NBA fan-friendly for the ENTIRE season.

1. Get rid of 82 games- There is no reason on God's green earth why we would need 82 NBA regular season games. We know these guys don't want to play until February anyway. So why play those games? Cut the NBA to 52 games, this way, each win means more, and losses matter A LOT more. Too many games are irrelevant, therefore teams can take a night off which is no fun for anybody.
(The one problem with this is it changes records and how they are set, but the NBA did that with 3-seconds, the shot clock, and the 3-point line, so it's been done before.)

2. Stop playing every team twice- No one wants to see the Timberwolves and Bobcats twice a year, not only would this cut out games between awful teams from the Eastern and Western conferences, but it brings relevance to Division games- Quick! Name the Teams in the Pacific Division... uh.... Suns... Lakers... Uh... Clippers? With only 52 games, and these teams battling it out in more meaningful games every season, division games bring rivalries back to life. (Of course you keep Lakers-Celtics, things like that are sacred in sports.)

3. Use a ranking system like college basketball- If you had a 3 or a 13 or a 16 next to your teams name in the regular season, it gives you pride. Cavs and Wizards fans wouldn't know anything about this but it's something they can look forward to. Rank the top 16 teams, those teams make the playoffs. No more of the above .500 teams in the West missing the playoffs when they would be the 5th seed in the East.

4. Get rid of 4 NBA teams- Sorry Cleveland, Sorry Memphis, Charlotte, and Minnesota, you don't get a team any more... with 4 less teams the talent pool shrinks, and guys like Jared Dudley are 9th on the bench, bringing a much better product to the table. Half the teams aren't making money, so in 5-10 years I wont be surprised if those teams aren't around any more.

5. Change the playoffs- 16 wins to win a title? the NFL has 16 games. We don't need to watch 4 best-of-seven series for almost two months, it takes way too long, and half the teams don't belong any way. I know it makes everyone money to play more games, but there is no reason to start the playoffs mid-April, and end them mid-June. 40 games in 40 nights? get rid of that too, as a passionate fan of basketball, I don't even want to see that. have a best of 5 for the first two rounds, best of 7 for the conference finals and finals. Problem solved.

These are just a few ways we could make the NBA a better place, will it be? Probably not, oh well. In the mean time basketball is the yearly break we get from Joe Buck's football commentary and...well Joe Buck's baseball commentary. So lets enjoy the rest of this season before we have to worry about another lock-out.