Sydney Swingers - just s suggestion for the new Sydney team

reduction of teams is not a totally bad idea, reducing playing times is, fans will see it as same $$$ but 10% less playing time

The Oxford Street swingers

Why are some people so interested in reducing the number of teams ?

Do you consider 15 home matches to be too many for supporters to come to during a season ?

How do you select the teams which should not be part of the NBL ?

Imagine having to tell some private owners they can no longer be part of the game and their investments now have zero value ??? So I guess this means that the teams to be removed will have to be teams not being able to pay their bills and this is not likely to be either the Breakers or the Slingers in 2008/09.

defence wins games

15 home games is way too many when:

a) you only have 22 weeks to play them in (you play a home game very 10 games on average which is just not promotable)
b) the league's crowd numbers are stagnant and have been for years

point b is a basic of marketing for sports franchises - quite simply there is no (little) demand for the product.

Ruckers most interesting comment is the 40 minute game - praise the lord someone had the balls to say it. Gaze senior for years bemoaned the 48 minute game - subscribing to the theory that the last 2-3 minutes of each quarter were junk time. Just watch some of that brilliant 4 x ten stuff we get out of Europe just to see how much more intense the game is.

I fail to see how reducing the game time would reduce the Junk time....

I think potential fans would rather see more scoring than a more intense game. Defense may win championships however fast paced, high scoring games is what most fans would rather see, hence why Sydney has a lower average crowd each year since BJ took over coaching. They might have the best team but there boring to watch most of the time.

The NBL needs Jackie Moon. Pancake night, clown makeup night, put a live camel in here and just see what happens.

That will bring the crowds.

I am a huge fan of the shorter version of the game, it tends to be more physical, more intense (closer games D16) and you get better value out of your good quality playing stock. I am not sure fans do want higher scores - especially when the margin blows out - they want close games and just by the virtue of the length of the game 40 minute games are closer. You want high. Gorj's teams would struggle more in the 40 minute game - they work on a theory of wearing you down and they have an extra eight minutes to do that in the longer game. Interesting comments about Goorj though, seeing as he generally struggles with the 40 minute game internationally - he would probably be less effective in the shorter version if it was implemented here.

It's not the length of the game that stifles Boy Goorg internationally, but the style of game. International referees don't allow tackling.

Here is some radical thinking

Take away split line defence. More dunks more scoring. More crowds as the game is more exciting. Keep ABL operating under fiba rules but bring in the illegal defence rule in NBL

Also drop number of teams down to one per state:

Western Wildcats
New South Wales Coasters
Southern Sixers
Tasmanian Devils
Victorian Blues
Queensland Suns
New Zealand Breakers

Does Tasmanian have enough people to fill a team?

Only if they do a head count..... 1000 people equals 2000 heads.

"FORMER NBL star Derek Rucker says only a radical shake-up can revive basketball in Australia and has declared the game "dead" in the key Sydney market."

In related news, Captain Obvious will be appearing at the Sydney Kings games for the remainder of the season.

Watch "Hoosiers' or 'Coach Carter' or NBA.
Don't think the game is dead, just dear old NBL has a lotta problems at the moment.

Isn't Rucker GM at the Kings these days? Nice way to build confidence amongst fans!

"I think potential fans would rather see more scoring than a more intense game."

are you kidding me? i would love to see my team in an over time game every week, it makes it so much more exciting to watch and is much more value for money

Quote curious from OzHoops:
"Rucker was Executive Director (Sales & Marketing)".