Philadelphia 76ers Should Oppose NBA Insistance Stars Play 82 Game Season

Philadelphia 76ers fans seldom align with “League Protocol”. But as NBA Warns teams not to rest players, Philadelphia 76ers fans should seek NBA league changes

If you thought the Philadelphia 76ers have been a mess these past four seasons, you need to reset your dials. The bigger issues are at the mother ship, the NBA. You see, the NBA is in a mess right now. Teams have roster limits of 15 players per team per season. Each team plays 82 regular season games. Playoff teams play more. The two NBA Championship teams can play up to 28 additional post season games. Preseason games total 7 games. When you add it all up, that is 117 games out of 365 days.

Baseball plays 162 game season. Hockey plays 82 games. Football plays 16 games. Baseball has 25 players on the roster. Hockey has 20 roster spots. Football has 53 roster spots, plus 10 players in a “practice squad”.

Teams on their way to post season are “sneaking” days off for their major stars. The NBA doesn’t like it. Here’s why Philadelphia 76ers fans need to join the protestors.

Too Much Over Too Few

In the NBA, the team is limited to 15 players, with an active roster of 13 eligible to play on any given night. Each game is 48 minutes of official playing time. That’s a lot of workload to carry on a few players. Ah.. but now factor in the five additional minutes of overtime play. The NBA record for most overtimes in one game is six.

The NBA is aware of the roster limits and has acted in the past. In 2012, the NBA permanently increased the active roster from 12 to 13 players. Keep in mind that is active players, not total roster. 15 players are all a team can have: active or inactive, healthy or out for the season. In Philadelphia, during the 2016-2017 season, the team had games where they had to scramble to suit up the league minimum of eight.

There is no such thing as “injured reserved” in the NBA. From the moment a player no longer counts against the 15 player ceiling in the NBA, they are free game to be signed elsewhere.

And that is just wrong

Fix It Logically

There are ways the league can fix this. Part of the argument has been that the NBA should honor the “iron man” athlete. In short, yesteryear athletes “did it” so why can’t modern NBA players last? Two reasons: it’s a much more physical game now. I can suggest three main avenues of correction for the league to pursue fixes.

I. Increase Roster Size

The simplest solution is just to expand roster. Of course this will certainly meet with plenty of resistance. NBA teams won’t like it, as it simply is more cost without more revenue. Everyone’s share shrinks. But NBA players won’t be thrilled at this solution either. With no more dollars chasing a greater number of players, someone’s paycheck will shrink.

The other argument is that the NBA did just increase the roster size form 15 to 17. But the additional two players are “two-way contract” exceptions. In essence, a team can “protect” a player from poaching by another team while playing in the D-League. Not really an expanded roster at all.

II. Introduce an NFL-like “injures reserve” status for players to heal for a minimum of 10 weeks

This would fix much of the Philadelphia 76ers woes. In short, create an “injured reserve” status for an NBA player to be taken off an official roster while the player heals and rehabs, but still allows that player contact with team trainers and medical staff. Even if the slots are limited to one, two, or three spots, it would make a world of difference for the 76ers over the past four years.

The Philadelphia 76ers have had a major player out for an entire season each of the past four years. Nerlens Noel. Joel Embiid (times two) and Ben Simmons. Additionally, the team has cycled through injured rookies and veterans. Carl Landry, Kendall Marshall, Tiago Splitter, Jerryd Bayless, Jahlil Okafor.

As medical sciences become more sophisticated and accurate, “sore knees” are no longer just sore knees. They are bone bruises, slight tears of the menisus, or hyperentensions. And as the Philadelphia 76ers are learning about even slight tears of a meniscus, surgery is the likely outcome.

III. Mandate D-League affiliation with each NBA team, and allow assignment of injured players to D-League to free up roster space

The third solution is to expand the affiliation of teams with a Development League Team. In short, injured players can be reassigned to the affiliated D-League roster, and free up a roster on the NBA team.

As a reward, the NBA team pays the D-League to host their rehabbing player. And as incentive to ensure 100% participation in a D-League, only NBA teams with an existing D-League association is eligible for this structure.

Hobbled NBA Players Are Not Good For The League

82 game seasons take their toll on an NBA player. But NBA players can play up to 117 games. Now toss in practices and scrimmages and it begins to add up.

Sure, some players will go years without an injury. But once a player gets a nagging “ouch”, there is no relief in sight. Either the player tries to tough it out, or the team gets penalized by carrying a bench body through a long season.

It’s time for the NBA to fix this broken system. If it were fixed years ago, there would have been no opportunity for Sam Hinkie to exploit the league by betting long term on short term injuries. Perhaps the NBA was correct in the assessment that Hinkie was not a genius. But he saw the NBA for what it is. A professional sports league with incentives to play wounded for the title shot, or to sit each and every banged up body for a season and play a minimum of healthy bodies “just to get by.”

It should not be an “either or” in this NBA. And resting the stars, while taking the law into their own hands, is simply an individual team’s way of bucking the trend. Tired players get injured. The way to prevent injury is prevent fatigue.

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This is one time the NBA needs to bend. This is one time the Philadelphia 76ers need to oppose the NBA. In two years, these Philadelphia 76ers will be the team needing to rest their players for the championship run. Fix it now, before the 76ers get there. Or you will get the same treatment Philadelphia fans gave Santa.