LeBron James supports contraction of some NBA teams

[97 bulls]

Originally Posted by DeronMillsap

North Carolina is a big college basketball state but they never cared about the Bobcats or Hornets. Hornets were an exciting team(and pretty decent playoff too) to watch in the 90's. Duke and UNC are a few hours north of Charlotte but yeah, they're in the same region(Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh area...).

I think they packed the house when they had mourning, johnson, rice and co. If you win thell come. Why do you think duke and carolina fill the seats every night? Its cuz they contend every season. Not be a mid 15th ranked team one year and totally garbage the next 10. Who wants to pay to see that?

[Doranku]

He's right, though. If you take the good players from teams that have virtually no chance to make or do anything in the Playoffs and add them to the mediocre/decent teams, the league would be a lot more enjoyable to watch.

[nightprowler10]

Originally Posted by kentatm

Besides, if you dump some of the bad teams, who are the Heat going to get their wins against?

Haha.

[YAH trick YAH]

I agree with him 100%

[guy]

Originally Posted by insidehoops

“Hopefully the league can figure out one way where it can go back to the ’80s where you had three or four All-Stars, three or four superstars, three or four Hall of Famers on the same team,” James said. “The league was great. It wasn’t as watered down as it is [now].”

I don't think Lebron and most people realize how overblown this is. Obviously he's referring to teams like the Celtics and Lakers. Those 80s teams were built more on the intelligence and riskiness of their management plus alot of luck. Sure, its more possible with a smaller league, but even in today's league the only team in recent history to carry out as ballsy of a strategy of those teams did were the Heat. Let looks at the facts:

If Kareem isn't miserable in Milwaukee and demands a trade to either LA or NY, the Lakers don't get him. If the Lakers don't trade a Hall of Famer in Gail Goodrich to the Jazz for a package of picks, they don't get the no. 1 pick 3 years later and get Magic, the Jazz do. If the Lakers don't their their 1980 pick for a future 1982 pick to the Cavs, they don't get the no. 1 pick 2 years later and get Worthy, the Cavs do.

If Red Auerbach doesn't have the patience and intuition to draft Larry Bird a year earlier, the Celtics don't get him. If he doesn't pull off one of the biggest trade steals in NBA history, he doesn't get both McHale and Parish.

In a alternate universe, Kareem's on the Lakers, Magic's on the Jazz, Worthy's on the Cavs, Bird's on the Bulls, Parish stays with the Warriors, and McHale is still on the Celtics (Celtics would've had the no. 1 pick if they didn't make the trade). And by the way, I think its safe to assume that the Bulls don't get Jordan and the Jazz don't get Malone or Stockton. So like I said, it took alot of risky management decisions that are very uncommon for the 80s to be how they were. It wasn't just because there were less teams.