Sunday Shootaround: Don't ruin this golden age, NBA

LAS VEGAS -- Here’s a question posed to a number of executives, coaches and observers that helped pass the time between the never-ending string of basketball games: Who’s the second-best team in the Eastern Conference? Miami was a popular choice. Chicago was also high on people’s list. What about Atlanta? Sure, we can go with Atlanta. On my very last night in town someone finally named the Wizards. (Validation was mine! Pass the tapas.)

Here’s another question: Does it matter? The Cavs’ roster may only be about half-full at the moment, but the half that’s filled with LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love makes them prohibitive and overwhelming favorites. Bovada has the Cavs with 11/4 odds to win the championship with the Bulls and Heat further down at the list at 20/1, the Hawks at 40/1 and a whole host of others at 50/1.

The NBA has long been viewed as a zero-sum game. If you’re not in position to win a championship, then you’re ultimately wasting your time. History has shown us that in order to win a championship, you need to have a top-10 player who is supported by other All-Star caliber teammates. LeBron is the only player in the East who received a Most Valuable Player vote last season and he has two young All-Stars beside him. While the list of challengers may be long, it’s not as long as the odds any of them face to actually get to the Finals. And if the odds are that set against you, why even bother trying at all?

That notion seems to be evolving. The cost of signing players may be going up, but contracts are shorter and teams are less likely to extend a core beyond its expiration date. (See: Portland and Indiana.) With more cap space and fewer dead-weight contracts, there’s a shorter rebuilding cycle with more flexibility to revamp rosters. What’s emerging is parity of a sort; a concept that had been akin to a unicorn running through the enchanted forest with a leprechaun on its back searching for a pot of fool's’ gold at the end of a rainbow that turns into a dusty mirage.

Basketball will never be football with its short-season randomness and its postseason will never be like baseball’s where 162 games are condensed into a single month. The best teams tend to win and playoff upsets are few and far between. But basketball doesn’t have to rely on randomness as a selling point, so long as there’s enough savvy and well-managed teams to field competitive rosters. The number of dysfunctional front office ranks have thinned in recent years and the harsher luxury tax has limited unhinged spending sprees. (Not that living above one’s means has ever been an effective roster-building strategy.)

"The goal, of course, is to have a robust 30‑team league, not just a league where teams can afford in large markets or owners who are willing to lose lots of money can have top‑notch payrolls," Adam Silver said on Tuesday during his Board of Governors press conference. "So I think it's very positive. The league is very healthy. I think owners recognize that and our owners are extremely competitive."

Those comments were immediately overshadowed by Silver’s later insistence that several teams are losing money and the current system is about to be destabilized by the massive influx of television money soon to arrive in the league. Set against one another, the commissioner’s words were incongruous, but the clarion call of doom soon became the talk of the town among the chattering media classes. We’ve heard this sort of rhetoric before, but not with the league seeming so healthy.

Back at the Thomas & Mack Center among the talent evaluators, Silver’s statements were viewed mainly as part and parcel of the often messy collective bargaining process. Just a little saber-rattling and thinly veiled messaging directed not at the masses, but toward the union and the press. If the last few lockouts have taught us anything it’s that casual fans don’t start to care about any of this until the two sides have become so entrenched that it leads to a stoppage. Even then, "Wake me when it’s over" is a common refrain. Right now, with playoff ratings at an all-time high and young stars spread throughout the league playing an up-tempo and engaging brand of basketball, no one really wants to be shaken out of this very pleasant dream.

Consider again the state of the perpetually underwhelming Eastern Conference. The Heat will have Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to team with Goran Dragic for a full season. The Hawks won 60 games and bring back everyone besides DeMarre Carroll. The Bulls are still the Bulls, even without Tom Thibodeau on the sidelines and the Wizards loaded up with quality support on the wing to complement their dynamic backcourt.

Even further down the line, there’s a sense that the conference’s depth has improved dramatically. The Bucks pulled off the biggest free agent surprise by adding Greg Monroe to their young core. The Raptors may fall into that good but not great category, but they’ve been a playoff team the last two years and certainly didn’t get worse by adding Carroll. The Hornets should be better. The Pistons added players that fit Stan Van Gundy’s coaching style and the Celtics upgraded their talent base.

The Sixers and Knicks may not be playoff contenders yet, but they’ll be better as well. Several people mentioned the Magic as a team ready to make a nice jump toward respectability with Scott Skiles on hand to mold the intriguing mix of young talent that Rob Hennigan has assembled during the last few drafts. The overwhelming sentiment shared by many in attendance at summer league is that the days of pushovers and easy wins in the East are over.

The conference may lack the juggernaut quality of the West, but as the bottom has improved and the middle has coalesced around a large number of good teams who are all actively trying to improve. (Speaking of the West, it will be even stronger with Utah and New Orleans entering the mix just as Dallas and Portland fade.) To put it another way, the vast majority of teams are trying to win. Mark Cuban’s suggestion that the playoff pool expand to 20 teams may have been met with derision in some quarters, but the larger point is a valid one. If more and more teams are incentivized to win, then why not reward that behavior?

These should be good problems to have. The NBA is in such a good place that only something as dramatic as a massive windfall of television cash can upset this delicate equilibrium. One can even argue that the league is set to enter into a new golden age, dominated not solely by individual stars but dynamic teams. It’s all there for the NBA, provided it doesn’t drive the money train right over the cliff.

A few picked up pieces from a week spent chatting with coaches, executives and other interested observers in between never-ending basketball games.

Even in these inflationary times, the two contracts that raised the most eyebrows in free agency were Detroit’s deal for Reggie Jackson and Oklahoma City’s decision to match Portland’s offer for Enes Kanter. Who, exactly, was Detroit bidding against with Jackson? As for Kanter, kudos to Portland for forcing a rival’s hand into overpaying for a poor defender. Restricted free agency remains one of the toughest nuts to crack.

The DeAndre Jordan affair was met mostly with eyerolls. While there’s sympathy for the Mavericks’ position, it’s not the first time a player has flipped his free agent decision and it won’t be the last. A few execs were cool on the Clippers’ willingness to jump back into the fray with Jordan, while other suggested they did what they had to do. A few wondered why there was such a frenzy for a limited offensive player who can’t make a free throw and almost everyone suggested that 24/7 media coverage blows everything out of proportion. (It also helps drive interest for a multi-billion dollar enterprise, but whatever. When in doubt, blame Twitter.)

Judging players on their summer league performances is fraught with peril. One longtime scribe noted that Kwame Brown dominated in his first summer game. That said, two players who made strong early impressions are Denver’s Emmanuel Mudiay and the Mavericks’ Justin Anderson. Mudiay is big and strong and looked to be in complete control on the court, while Anderson wowed crowds with his long-range shooting and thunderous dunks.

How much is coaching worth? The Pelicans will offer an interesting test case. Alvin Gentry has assembled a solid staff that includes Darren Erman, Phil Weber and Robert Pack while retaining well-regarded player development coaches Kevin Hanson and Fred Vinson. Gentry is a pace-and-space guru and while the Pels already had a top-10 unit, their offense was often slow and congested. Erman is expected to transform a defense that underperformed and was especially leaky in the interior despite having Anthony Davis and Omer Asik. New Orleans brings back virtually the same team that won 46 games last season so any improvement will come from within.

From the huge crowds at Thomas & Mack to the Starters’ live set on the concourse to the mariachi band that appeared out of nowhere, summer league has become a capital-E Event. Even the annual ping-pong tournament has morphed from a casual backroom get-together into a throbbing party with a DJ and black lights. It’s a common complaint that our little thing has become a monster, but summer league keeps the league in the news all the way through mid-July and still offers the best industry access of the year. Now, if we could just find something decent for lunch besides Rebel Dogs and chicken fingers.