Should the NFL Draft be today?

Looong sigh……no more football….WRONGO PAL! Next year starts now. If you’re looking for NFL draft content, here’s a start:

- The Ringer Draft Guide

- ESPN’s non-Mel Kiper Mock

- CBS Sports Multi-Mocks

Can I be vulnerable? CBS Sports content is leaking into my content roto more and more. Who are these guys? Couldn’t tell ya. But they did well to throw a bunch of the same names in a slightly different order all one one screen.

How to read a mock?

Find your team → read 4 to 5 names on either side of your pick → stew on it, consider your depth chart, text your group chat → check back in a week. That’s how you stay on TOP. It’s only February. We can dig Teach Tape of all these guys in March.

I’m clawing for reasons to invest in the NBA and Bill Simmons’ latest podcast makes me feel heard. Simmons’ and guest Nick Wright unpacked what’s wrong with the league, the draft, the All-Star game, the commissioner, all the above. It’s…..not great right now in the NBA. And if Simmons, who wrote The Book of Basketball, is sounding the alarm, then the League needs to listen.

The NBA’s been playing since October. We should have sophisticated, compelling storylines by now. We should be waitin for the bus, watchin highlights, and then shootin crumpled up paper in the trash at work. Get back to that! Instead, we (me) have to break down what’s suffocating the League:

- Tanking isn’t limited to the NBA but boy, does it look worse in this sport than any other. Adam Silver has taken steps to flatten the lottery odds in hopes of discouraging tanking. Nothing’s worked. Per Simmons, the first obvious tank happened in the early 80’s and 40 years later, we’re still stuck watching teams lose on purpose. Honestly, stop using the word “tanking”. Tanking sounds strategic. “Lose on purpose” is exactly as humiliating as it should be. I’m not proposing draft solutions for this problem tonight. But I am agreeing with Simmons that February is an insane time for tanking to already be present. And perhaps what damages the NBA is that tanking must go on for months and months and months. There are teams (Houston) that have pursued similar NBA tanking strategies in baseball, but the draft is radically less predictable. Suffering through a wasted baseball season has three things going for it: summer, prospects, and cheap seats. Basketball is in this weird sweet spot where there’s so many games that tanking for a full season is insufferable, but not enough games to only tank for some portion. If you want to be bad, you need to start losing on purpose in November.

- Stylistically, the game needs a refresh. Oh, wow? Did analytics break the game? OKAY OLD MAN. I won’t go that far. I’ve been developing this concept for some time now (3 days), and I think it’s more important than the tanking. Here we go. Every team in the NBA plays the same way, and players are interchangeable. I’m not the first to describe this issue as an entertainment problem, but let me outline how I frame it. Do you remember Steve Nash, Mike D’Antoni and the Suns? How about Prime Spurs with Manu, Tony Parker, and Tim Duncan ping ponging the ball around? Can’t forget Ben Wallace’s Pistons (defense), Jerry Sloan’s Jazz, Don Nelson’s Mavs (or Warriors). Add Phil Jackson’s Triangle offense. To a degree, each of the teams and identities and styles overlapped (in era’s if not actual seasons). Point being the league had stylistic divergence that produced BETTER BASKETBALL TO WATCH. I need a little variety baby. Spice it up. How do I know everyone plays the same? Beyond the obvious three point numbers, every team is looking for the same player: 3-and-D wings. That’s it. If you have greater than 1 star, then you’re only job as GM is to find nine 3-and-D wings. It helps to manufacturer a big man or two, but that’s gravy on the biscuit.

Personally, I’ll keep solutioning improvements. I’ll never give up the game. I’ll probably forget some of this come playoff time. I’m annoyed because football is in the rear view, and I’d normally have not just a substitute, but a complementary good like the NBA to keep me fired up. Can’t say that this year. Even in the year of the Great Trae Young Trade. As it stands, I’ll grit my teeth through all-star weekend and then crank up the Jokic highlights. Maybe I’ll feel something.