As an NBA fan, I love parity in the league. The fact that anyone can win it is really exciting and lends stakes to each game in the post-season. Otoh, as a Nuggets fan, I was hoping we could buck the trend. Ah well, it is what it is
ChannelNeo
I think it’s great. Pieces move so much now that teams can’t get too comfortable or too down on themselves. Fortunes can change a lot faster these days.
OGistorian
Back in the day, you’d have bench players on the roster JUST to hack and accumulate fouls, no real skills just big bodies. Now the benches have more talent than some starting 5s in the 80s and early 90s.
lopea182
Back when the Warriors had KD, it felt like we were so far from parity like this becoming a reality.
AppropriateAd5225
And yet my Hornets still suck, I just want to win a single playoff series before I die.
blazikenz
I tell you this. A lotta dogs in the league.
GovernmentDoingStuff
The new CBA is going to make it so much harder for any dynasty to form
Tearz_in_rain
And it is a beautiful thing. Fans around the country have something to cheer for and something to hope for.
The play-in keeps more teams/fans invested in the regular season. The success of a team like Miami, making it in via the play-in and the reaching the finals, underscores how good many teams are.
The fact that we haven’t seen a repeat champion since 2018 (we will have six different teams win a championship over the last six seasons).
People say that parity in the 70s ruin the game, but it was really the ABA diluting the league (I think). Once they merged, the national media did seem to give the Lakers/Celtics dynasty a lot of air time, and then the Bulls dynasty heightened the league’s popularity. In the post-Jordan era, I think that the Shaq/Kobe dynasty in LA hurt the league more than it helped. The LeBron/Warriors 4-in-a-row finals got a little boring at the end, but even Miami’s 4-straight appearances led to three different champions in four years.
alajamoo
2021 – it’s time for the buck dynasty
2022 – it’s the return of warriors dynasty
2023 – it’s the start of the joker dynasty
2024 – awoo dynasty?
reck0ner_
As a fan of primarily European sport leagues, I give the NBA huge credit for this. Yes, some NBA teams have an advantage over others because of the market size or because players want to live in certain cities but taken on the whole, you guys have much better parity than we do.
paddiction
This sub loves to talk about parity and legacy, which are completely opposed to each other
Joementum2004
Yeah, speaking as someone who had little to no interest in following the league (beyond hoping the Warriors would lose) during the KD Warriors era this is probably the most invested I’ve ever been in the NBA.
penis_pockets
I’m loving the parity we’re getting to experience. Back when KD was on the Warriors, you really only watched to see who was coming in second place. The only reason they lost to Toronto was because they suffered two catastrophic injuries to two of their best players. Now we’ve gotten different champions every year. This is the parity a majority of us were hoping for.
merle317
If you take away all the star treatment calls and fixing made throughout history, the league would have seen more parity in the past.
Kvenner001
We could have had a conference finals of Orl vs Indiana and Oklahoma vs Minnesota. Can you have negative ratings? Saying this as an Orlando fan.
RealPrinceJay
I know expansion is inevitable, but I really don’t want it yet. We’re in such a good spot right now I just don’t want to fuck with it
Even the bad teams are interesting(except the Wizards, I’m so sorry but it’s true)
honeysmacks18
I watch so much more basketball now that any team can win. I hated those years we knew it was going to be cavs warriors.
alf0nz0
Honestly I’ve always felt that periods like this in the NBA & other superstar-driven sports is just a byproduct of not having a true superstar in their prime. If Lebron turned 23 six years ago, I think this narrative would be totally nonexistent right now as he carries his teams to the Finals every season. Fully expecting Wemby to put an end to this interregnum in three or four years.
Anim8nFool
Tell that to Detroit fans
saucysagnus
Looks like we need to bring winning time baco
xRhai
It just means there’s no LeBron level superstar yet.
AmbitionExtension184
It’s weird reading this article at the time of the Celtics having the 3rd highest net rating all time. People really just assuming this isn’t a dynasty.
Jesotx
Players are getting injured at crazy rates because the NBA keeps congesting the schedule more and more rather than loosening it up.
-InAHiddenPlace-
While there is an increase in parity in the league champions in the last years, the great disparity between conferences this year probably is one the greatest of all time. Reposting a comment from another thread:
The disparity between conference this year is crazy. Outside the Celtics, only three teams in the East have a winning record against the West: Cavs and Bulls with 17w/13L (.57 win percentage), and the 76ers with 16w/14L (.53 win percentage).
For comparison, no playoff team in the West has a winning percentage against the East below .63 (19w/11L). Of the four teams in the West with a losing record against the East (Rockets, Grizzlies, Spurs, and Blazers), three of them have 13w/17L (.43 win percentage), and only the Rockets have a worse winning percentage against East teams compared to West teams. The Spurs are technically even percentage-wise.
Denver had more wins against the East (24w/6L) than the four bottom teams in the East had against the West in total (22w/98L). In the reversed scenario, the Celtics had 23w, while the bottom four West teams had 49w.
AtreusIsBack
Finally. I’m tired of seeing the same names being in contention for the title. LeBron, Steph, Butler, KD, etc.
Nice to see the younger generation taking over.
In the first round, the beaten stars were Butler (he did not play), LeBron, AD, Kawhi, Paul George, Harden, Westbrook, Giannis, KD, Booker.
Now we have Tatum, Luka, Edwards and Haliburton having a chance to win it all. A turn of the tides for sure.
furyousferret
IMO the biggest issue of the NBA is the value a real NBA superstar brings pales over any other sport, except for maybe QB in football.
You can get one of those guys and 2 borderline All NBA players, you’re a contender. The only real team that’s won a title without one recently were the Pistons in 04, the rest have had 1-2 of them.
Everyone knows that, and that empowers those stars so much they can do whatever they want. The movement across teams KD, Kyrie, Harden, Lebron, etc is crazy and its all positioning for championships. Right now the value is so high for those stars its backfiring. The system also worked with Lebron’s teams because he chose his teams wisely and was able to get the best minimum contracts and mid level, it doesn’t work when you gut your core and get g league players to replace them (unless you have a broken starting 5 with KD and Curry).
Legitimate-Software7
It really does feel like any team can win on a given night. The Pacers could blow out the Celtics tonight and I’d just shrug my shoulders and be like “well that happened”
motherseffinjones
And I fucking love it. I hated knowing who was going to be in the finals every year. It literally made the regular season worthless
SigmaColts
It’s great for the sport. Everybody has a fighting chance. Every league is like this, even the NFL. Chiefs are winning Super Bowls but they aren’t the Patriots who made teams piss themselves all the time.
devilmaskrascal
Last year two play-in teams made the conference finals and one of them made the Finals. A 5th and 6th seed are in the conference Finals this year.
Parenegade
How is the viewership?
QBert999
Parity is alright, but I’d prefer a Dallas Mavericks dynasty.
32 Comments
As an NBA fan, I love parity in the league. The fact that anyone can win it is really exciting and lends stakes to each game in the post-season. Otoh, as a Nuggets fan, I was hoping we could buck the trend. Ah well, it is what it is
I think it’s great. Pieces move so much now that teams can’t get too comfortable or too down on themselves. Fortunes can change a lot faster these days.
Back in the day, you’d have bench players on the roster JUST to hack and accumulate fouls, no real skills just big bodies. Now the benches have more talent than some starting 5s in the 80s and early 90s.
Back when the Warriors had KD, it felt like we were so far from parity like this becoming a reality.
And yet my Hornets still suck, I just want to win a single playoff series before I die.
I tell you this. A lotta dogs in the league.
The new CBA is going to make it so much harder for any dynasty to form
And it is a beautiful thing. Fans around the country have something to cheer for and something to hope for.
The play-in keeps more teams/fans invested in the regular season. The success of a team like Miami, making it in via the play-in and the reaching the finals, underscores how good many teams are.
The fact that we haven’t seen a repeat champion since 2018 (we will have six different teams win a championship over the last six seasons).
People say that parity in the 70s ruin the game, but it was really the ABA diluting the league (I think). Once they merged, the national media did seem to give the Lakers/Celtics dynasty a lot of air time, and then the Bulls dynasty heightened the league’s popularity. In the post-Jordan era, I think that the Shaq/Kobe dynasty in LA hurt the league more than it helped. The LeBron/Warriors 4-in-a-row finals got a little boring at the end, but even Miami’s 4-straight appearances led to three different champions in four years.
2021 – it’s time for the buck dynasty
2022 – it’s the return of warriors dynasty
2023 – it’s the start of the joker dynasty
2024 – awoo dynasty?
As a fan of primarily European sport leagues, I give the NBA huge credit for this. Yes, some NBA teams have an advantage over others because of the market size or because players want to live in certain cities but taken on the whole, you guys have much better parity than we do.
This sub loves to talk about parity and legacy, which are completely opposed to each other
Yeah, speaking as someone who had little to no interest in following the league (beyond hoping the Warriors would lose) during the KD Warriors era this is probably the most invested I’ve ever been in the NBA.
I’m loving the parity we’re getting to experience. Back when KD was on the Warriors, you really only watched to see who was coming in second place. The only reason they lost to Toronto was because they suffered two catastrophic injuries to two of their best players. Now we’ve gotten different champions every year. This is the parity a majority of us were hoping for.
If you take away all the star treatment calls and fixing made throughout history, the league would have seen more parity in the past.
We could have had a conference finals of Orl vs Indiana and Oklahoma vs Minnesota. Can you have negative ratings? Saying this as an Orlando fan.
I know expansion is inevitable, but I really don’t want it yet. We’re in such a good spot right now I just don’t want to fuck with it
Even the bad teams are interesting(except the Wizards, I’m so sorry but it’s true)
I watch so much more basketball now that any team can win. I hated those years we knew it was going to be cavs warriors.
Honestly I’ve always felt that periods like this in the NBA & other superstar-driven sports is just a byproduct of not having a true superstar in their prime. If Lebron turned 23 six years ago, I think this narrative would be totally nonexistent right now as he carries his teams to the Finals every season. Fully expecting Wemby to put an end to this interregnum in three or four years.
Tell that to Detroit fans
Looks like we need to bring winning time baco
It just means there’s no LeBron level superstar yet.
It’s weird reading this article at the time of the Celtics having the 3rd highest net rating all time. People really just assuming this isn’t a dynasty.
Players are getting injured at crazy rates because the NBA keeps congesting the schedule more and more rather than loosening it up.
While there is an increase in parity in the league champions in the last years, the great disparity between conferences this year probably is one the greatest of all time. Reposting a comment from another thread:
The disparity between conference this year is crazy. Outside the Celtics, only three teams in the East have a winning record against the West: Cavs and Bulls with 17w/13L (.57 win percentage), and the 76ers with 16w/14L (.53 win percentage).
For comparison, no playoff team in the West has a winning percentage against the East below .63 (19w/11L). Of the four teams in the West with a losing record against the East (Rockets, Grizzlies, Spurs, and Blazers), three of them have 13w/17L (.43 win percentage), and only the Rockets have a worse winning percentage against East teams compared to West teams. The Spurs are technically even percentage-wise.
Denver had more wins against the East (24w/6L) than the four bottom teams in the East had against the West in total (22w/98L). In the reversed scenario, the Celtics had 23w, while the bottom four West teams had 49w.
Finally. I’m tired of seeing the same names being in contention for the title. LeBron, Steph, Butler, KD, etc.
Nice to see the younger generation taking over.
In the first round, the beaten stars were Butler (he did not play), LeBron, AD, Kawhi, Paul George, Harden, Westbrook, Giannis, KD, Booker.
Now we have Tatum, Luka, Edwards and Haliburton having a chance to win it all. A turn of the tides for sure.
IMO the biggest issue of the NBA is the value a real NBA superstar brings pales over any other sport, except for maybe QB in football.
You can get one of those guys and 2 borderline All NBA players, you’re a contender. The only real team that’s won a title without one recently were the Pistons in 04, the rest have had 1-2 of them.
Everyone knows that, and that empowers those stars so much they can do whatever they want. The movement across teams KD, Kyrie, Harden, Lebron, etc is crazy and its all positioning for championships. Right now the value is so high for those stars its backfiring. The system also worked with Lebron’s teams because he chose his teams wisely and was able to get the best minimum contracts and mid level, it doesn’t work when you gut your core and get g league players to replace them (unless you have a broken starting 5 with KD and Curry).
It really does feel like any team can win on a given night. The Pacers could blow out the Celtics tonight and I’d just shrug my shoulders and be like “well that happened”
And I fucking love it. I hated knowing who was going to be in the finals every year. It literally made the regular season worthless
It’s great for the sport. Everybody has a fighting chance. Every league is like this, even the NFL. Chiefs are winning Super Bowls but they aren’t the Patriots who made teams piss themselves all the time.
Last year two play-in teams made the conference finals and one of them made the Finals. A 5th and 6th seed are in the conference Finals this year.
How is the viewership?
Parity is alright, but I’d prefer a Dallas Mavericks dynasty.