{"id":5691,"date":"2017-04-10T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/?p=5691"},"modified":"2017-04-10T15:51:56","modified_gmt":"2017-04-10T19:51:56","slug":"nba-competitive-balance-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2017\/04\/10\/nba-competitive-balance-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Can the NBA’s Competitive Balance Issue be Fixed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Competitive balance among the NBA’s 30 teams has always been an\u00a0issue for the league.\u00a0Dating back to the 1960s, the Boston Celtics held a stranglehold over the rest of the Association. Led by Bill Russell<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0the C’s won ten titles in eleven seasons\u00a0between 1959 and 1969, including eight straight. While that lack of parity\u00a0hasn’t been seen since, the NBA still faces a challenging issue: the league’s few elite teams are\u00a0that much better<\/em> than\u00a0the rest.<\/p>\n

Let’s take the 2016-17 season for example. Since way back in the preseason,\u00a0there’s been widespread consensus that the Golden State Warriors\u00a0and Cleveland Cavaliers\u00a0will meet in\u00a0the Finals for a third consecutive year.<\/p>\n

Sure, there are some\u00a0dark-horse contenders like Houston, San Antonio, Boston, and even Toronto. But the\u00a0Warriors’ and Cavaliers’ star-powered lineups position them as odds-on title favourites once again.<\/p>\n

Being able to have a good idea\u00a0of the NBA Finals matchup\u00a0before the actual season starts is an issue. Sure, injuries\u00a0and unpredictability can play a role, but the NBA is\u00a0one league where shocking playoff upsets are rare. Only five<\/a> eight-seeds have upset one-seeds since 1994. Two\u00a0of those five upsets came in the old best-of-five\u00a0first round series format. Given the lack of upsets and ease of early round matchups, the league’s best teams typically have an easier path to the Finals, especially in the weaker Eastern Conference.\u00a0The main reason for that: the best teams have the most star players.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0NBA Relies on its Stars<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Basketball is a sport where star\u00a0players carry the majority of a team’s workload (Russell Westbrook<\/a><\/strong> this season and mid-2000s Kobe Bryant<\/a><\/strong> are prime examples of this). In the past 30 seasons, there has only been\u00a0one NBA championship winner (’03-04 Detroit Pistons) that\u00a0wasn’t<\/em> headlined by\u00a0one or multiple star players. Even then, one\u00a0could argue Rasheed Wallace<\/a><\/strong> and Chauncey Billups<\/a><\/strong> were star players\u00a0on that Pistons squad.<\/p>\n

Here’s the proof:<\/p>\n