The competitive balance of the NBA is in a fascinating moment of upheaval, as evidenced by the league’s standings and viewership trends.
ESPN’s Tim Legler has been around the league for more than 35 years between his playing career and broadcasting work. And while there are numerous explanations for what has been a confusing NBA season — injuries, a new CBA, and legends on their way out — Legler believes a far more simple reason is a “tremendous fluctuation” in effort night to night.
Appearing on The Bill Simmons Podcast on Tuesday, Legler sounded the alarm on the malaise he is seeing even from top teams this year.
“The reason, I think is because … the guys being available, that’s been going on for awhile. The availability of players being as tumultuous as it is, that lends to some of this,” Legler explained.
“But I’ve also seen a tremendous fluctuation, the number of nights that I’ve seen teams either in-person when I’ve sat courtside calling a game or sitting at home on League Pass watching a game, the fluctuation in effort. There are nights when you watch teams where you can’t believe how flat they are. And I’ve seen more of that this year than any other time. Which means on any given night, anybody is capable of beating anybody.”
Just this week, Minnesota blew out Golden State by 25 points on national TV while Cleveland won by 30 in a national-TV showdown with the Lakers that some believe could have been LeBron James’ final game in Northeast Ohio.
Legler added his concern that even highly anticipated games between top teams have ended up as duds because of how often players appear “borderline disinterested” on a night-to-night basis.
“I’ve seen more nights now where those teams have been flat,” Legler said.
“Even in a matchup where two really good teams are about to play and you’re super excited about the game, and for whatever reason they come out and one of them is so flat that it’s almost borderline disinterested. And it leads to these weird scores, these crazy results, some of these blowouts we’ve seen.”
While Legler ultimately landed on a positive note, predicting that the situation would improve down the stretch of the season and into the playoffs, his comments were stark compared with what we typically hear from a top national analyst. And Legler’s take will not do the NBA any favors considering so many fans already believe the regular season lacks meaning and that players slow-roll through the 82-game slate.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.