Pat Bev doesn't think the NBA has to change anything regarding the 82-game season | First Take 

The point Bev made about having a shorter season also means less time to rehab and inj prior to playoffs is spot on. Imagine getting a meniscus injury that'll take 6 weeks to rehab but the season is ending soon... Vs those extra 2-3 weeks you would had with 82 games

Pat Bev is speaking facts Tho instead of Kyrie and Kawhi playing 40 - 50 games a year they gonna play 20 - 30 now

I agree with Pat Bev. You don’t need to change anything. Just show more young teams on TV like the Wolves and Pelicans. I don’t really want to see an in season tournament because it seems kind of pointless. The playin tournament is good enough

Finally a player not afraid to speak facts, McCollum was weird the other day on the show deflecting because he's on the board. I agree with bev if it was fine since the 60s why change it now.

Pat Bev got his spectacles on for this segment, like he Clark Kent. 🤣

Pat Bev Look Like He A Teacher From O’ Block 🤣

The real problem is prime time scheduling. They need flex scheduling to change games when players are injured. Pelicans without Zion. Clippers without Kawhi and PG13. Denver missing MPJ and Murray. Portland without Dame. Not to mention players resting. Too many games on primetime were missing the marquee talent. They should be able to change the schedule and feature up and coming teams like Memphis or T-Wolves to fill in the schedule.

Pat bev dropped some subtle jewels in this video. Wow. He really trying to wake NBA fans up 👍🏿 good job King

I like pat 😂 straight to the point and he’s stands on what he says

Just hire Pat Bev already!

Nothing wrong with 82 games. Pat Bev made good points. better scheduling would solve most of the issues; take a page from baseball and have more of the regular season games be apart of series rather than one-off’s and back to backs against different teams in different cities

NBA is fantastic! Ridiculously entertaining, still. Keep going... Please & thank you.

There is nothing to change about the 82 game schedule. We didn't see any of these problems 30, 20, or even 10 years ago. This whole thing started with the San Antonio Spurs sitting out their top 4 players on a nationally televised game against Miami in 2012. Ever since then we've had this "load management" and people that don't play because they don't feel like it or the team says it's a rest stop. Another thing the team owners are going to bring up: pay for play contracts and are no longer guaranteed. People like Irving, Simmons, Leonard and others are to blame for this.

I agree with Pat Bev's last point that I don't think enough people in this comment section are considering. Better Training Staff! Why does it seem like every year, a number of players have injury setbacks and require more time to return to the court? Then players get a 2nd or 3rd opinion from their own doctors. What's wrong with the training staff that players are doing this? 🤔 Definitely something to look into.

The NBA should bring back free regular season games on local network tv. Antenna tv 📺 for us poor folks 😆

Changing games would mess with records, plus injuries are part of the game. Just like shootouts are part of being a cop. Fires are part of being a firefighters. Wars are part of being a soldier. Being wrong is part of SAS DNA.

They need to limit traveling not the amount of games. They should more in conference back to back games. For example a team like the Dallas Mavericks has to travel to Sacramento twice a season. Dallas should be able to play Sacramento back to back nights to limit traveling. They should do this for every team in the same conference.

I agree with Pat, no needs to be changed and other teams needs to get more attention. Like Memphis, Celtics etc Those Western ganes are too late for us, who live on the East coast Molly has become marvelous on her intake

Pat Bev Frames 🔥

I think one of the problems is they took out divisions & made it the best 8 teams in conference instead of division winners, because the division winners sometimes weren't the best team they just had the best record in that division. So now, you only have to be "good enough" in the regular season to make the play in & anything can happen in the playoffs like my Suns losing to the Mavs smh.

Can we talk about how good Patrick is ay talking and describing the game

Not a huge SAS fan but he’s doing pretty well today with his takes

Jj Reddick said it best. The way the game is played. Way more fast paced is why injuries are higher. When you just shoot 3s, get out on the break, shoo early in the shot clock, more possessions both ways... the wear and tear goes up... throwing it down to Shaq in the post 15 to 20 times while everyone stands around makes a huge difference for that team because they're not killing themselves on those possessions.

I believe that NBA players should be required to play a number of games before they're eligible for postseasons awards and all NBA teams

Great discussion

Pat Bev got a point

Shortening the 82-game season would have a bad impact on the records. And it would also mean less time played for benchwarmers and 2nd/3rd-string guys. more games is more fun.. more experiments.. more time for roleplayers to make an impact.. more time for benchwarmers to make a highlight..

Who else is glad that Pat Bev is calling out how often the Lakers (and other teams like them) are constantly shown on TV?

For the ones who reads this just know this is only the beginning keep pushing, grinding, and fighting. Whatever it is in life you want to do to go after it life is to short. Life is a marathon not a sprint so go out there and live it up I hope all is well and goes well for you peace and one love! ✌🏽

I think there needs to be a tournament after the first 25 games during the holidays to build more excitement. Then change up the allstar weekend a bit after 50 games then the last stretch is always great then the in game tourny for the last 2 playoff spots.

What does less games have to do with injuries??? U can tear your acl, Achilles, sprain your ankle in practice or even the first game of the season. Keep the 82 game format and may the best/healthiest team be there at the end of the season!!!

Finally, he is saying something that makes sense. Why change something that isn't broken? 82 games is fine. Besides, the owners won't agree to less games when it could affect their money!

It's the footwear that is causing the injuries. About 15 years ago they decided to make shoes immensely lighter than they used to. And about 15 years ago was the uptick in injuries. They don't have the support they once had.

The problem is that these teams have “scheduled rest days” for these players so now let’s say a player has a legitimate injury and they miss 10-15 games now they miss another 10-15 games based on rest so nowadays they’re missing double the games they’re supposed to

Bev 💯‼️‼️‼️🐐🙏🏿

Only the strong survive! Word to Allen Iverson 😂😂😂

The extra time to recover from injury is a good point. The season is fine as it is tho, the NBA just has to figure out how to incentivize regular season games other than HCA in the playoffs.

The Orlando Magic is catching too many strays these days 😂😂

The more games there are the less valuable each game feels. That's one of the reasons why the nfl is far more popular than the nba.

I think mixing up east and west games will make it more exciting.. instead of only playing twice mix it up some more.. like depending on rankings the season Before but idk

I think they need to eliminate back to backs and stretch a little the regular season, so that injuries are a lesser problem. The level of intensity nowadays is absolutely incomparable to what it was 20 or even 10 years ago. That could or could not mean a shorter season. One thing that comes to my mind is a 77 games long season with one more team in each conference, so that every team plays 2 games against the other conference and 3 against the same conference teams.

The point Stephen A said about personality is 100% RIGHT. Think about all the technical fouls players now get JUST FOR STARING AT A PLAYER THEY DUNKED ON or crossed over!!!! That's actually what's really hurting the ENTERTAINMENT factor. NO VIOLENCE for sure but we loved the trash talk...we loved Kemp pointing fingers at the dude he just posterized...we loved MJ walking over to Ewing after dunking on him. ALL THAT IS GONE!!!!! It was such a subtle change but it actually made the game so much less entertaining! EDIT: If you really think about it, it's why the RU-vid Hooper community has blown up! You get to watch two dope players go at it AND talk crazy the whole way!!!

I never realized those points. Those are great points by Pat Bev.

I like swishouts idea, same length of time. 62 games, play everyone 2x and your divisional opponents 1x extra. Allows players to rest just as long since season is over the same course of time. Less likely to be injured aswell since less games per week. More exciting season since games have more meaning and teams can't coast as much. And it also give more mearning and an actual reason to have divisions. Also its a good time to change aswell since we've comming to end of the last generation with players like lebron, curry, Kd, russ, harden etc coming into the twilight of their career and the new gen coming through like luka, book, giannis, young, ball, morant etc. In conclusion, less injuries, more excitement, and more meaning in the games. Also the perfect time to change if we were to aswell.

I agree there should be more teams televised nationally

I don’t like the idea of a shortened season. It will water down the regular season stats and it will affect career points, assists, rebounds and etc. negatively. It will make the current place holders spots virtually secured unless players stay in the league for 20 plus years. Shortened seasons probably won’t allow that to happen.

Just have match-up series throughout the season that counts towards playoff play-in. Point system. This will encourage teams to actually play early season game.

I like the 82 game season as well, because if you make it shorter then it messes with records and things of that nature. But I do agree that they need to make more meaningful games with monetary incentives for the players. There can be like a Road Trip Tournament for West vs East teams and maybe Division tournaments within each Conference

Stephen A’s point about letting players be themselves needs to be vocalized more. Seeing all these technical fouls being given out and players getting ejected for showing emotion and spicing up games with trash talk is infuriating to watch as a fan

Don’t shorten it. They load manage now if you shorten it to 70 they are just gonna load manage that too.

Big bro a GENUS

In South Africa we only get games three games A week.Make the games more visible to the public.

they should shorten the szn and make a knockout competition trophy during the season that ends at least before the all star break. 10 groups of 3 random teams. top 16 teams in wins and points differential go to r16 then straight knockout ball

They all made great points... Can we give it up for Pat wearing a button up tho!

I like pat bev more and more as he speaks

Pat bev be a real good analyst 💯💯💯

I don’t usually give props to Stephen A but I do have to give him credit for pointing out it’s the organizations as well that are suggesting load management

They need to have a real break between the end of the regular season and the start of the POs

Nothing needs to change. If you do change to less games. The future championships don't compare with the past because the grind that the players now and the past had to go through. With the case of injuries, there load management already.

This was actually a good debate.

🙏🏼🙏🏼🖤🖤

Agree with Pat Bev & would like to see more regular season televised games. West Coast teams are typically only televised on local area programming & vice versa.

Postseason needs to be included for the MVP discussion man

The season need to start at the end of November and not October and find a better mesh between marketing teams and marketing superstars.

Injuries in the playoffs add suspense, injuries in the regular season means I’m watching something else

It would honestly make it hard to compare eras if we reduced the season. Season and career records would have asterisks. I like the idea of having an in-season tourney though, it would need to be like the FA cup with it becoming single elimination after a while. The reward should be like a guaranteed playoff spot or increasing your record by +10 wins when determining seeding for the playoffs. Also screw the lottery, let's have a draft tournament at the end of the season to determine pick seeding. Give players an extra $250k each if they win the tournament or something. Would incentivize teams to not tank, plus would reward the best of the worst.

Yea he's right, the shorter season is just for the viewers, but the players love to play and like he said, they need alot of time in some cases to rehab, but they also want to chase greats in statistics, they'll never get that chance.

They could do 70-75 games and the top 6 teams locked will get the rest and recovery time. The rest of the league will play the remainder of the 82 game season. Not saying they should but it would be interesting

For so many reasons, thank you Stephen A

They should have certain seeds play eachother thru the season. Or the same seed from each conference play eachother to see who’s better. Like 3 times out of the season.

Pat Bev a real one.

to make the regular season exciting, you'll need to do away with the EAST/WEST playoffs and just have an open field. the top 16 teams get in no matter the conference. then the regular season would get interesting because you don't get in by being a .500 team

Keep 82 games, make the play in 9th an 8th, 7th should be guaranteed and have flexi games so if a star is sitting or Injured you can take them off prime time

Nows my time to defend molly her injury take after Stephen A spoke on the personality was so facts don’t kill me 💯😂

Why don't we cut back on commercials and extended tv timeouts for ads.

Hes right

There’s always someone calling and telling SAS something behind the scenes lol

Pat bev w da buffs on

we JUST added the play in. can we get a couple years to feel things out before we add 100 rules?

NBA see the playoff numbers and they know the regular season needs to change

I literally don’t start watching basketball till around April 😂 just don’t have that much time on my hands

respect Pat Bev

*75-80 game regular season *14, 15 seeds - Play-in game (toilet bowl) *1, 2 seeds get a buy first round (makes being the best meaningful; rest) *Best out of 5 first round (first to 3 wins), high seed gets first two home games and game 5 at home: 3 vs winner of 14/15 play-in 4 vs 13 5, 12 6, 11 7, 10 8, 9 *Best of 7 second round, 1 plays lowest seed, etc so could be: 1 vs 8 2 vs 7 3, 6 4, 5

I read somewhere that said THIS season only 5 players played all 82, 5!? Really 4 because Looney played 80 out of 82

There are too many commercial beaks during games. It is hard to watch if a games is not recorded and started an hour into the game. What happened to the 15 second and 30 second timeouts. Now it it 75 seconds to 5 minutes.

1:40 oh yes u are Pat, and we all agree too LMAO!

So playing list games according to Molly it's gonna stop somebody from pulling your f****** hamstring or tearing an acl in the 1st game or week of the season

What would be the point of a mid season tournament if you win

Nothing needs to be changed but here are a few ideas. #1- Expansion This needs to happen, we have gone too long without a new team. There has never been a break this long in nba history without an expansion team, I guarantee there is enough talent in the league and outside of the league to make up to 6 new and exciting teams over the next 10 years. Now it doesn’t need to be that intense but I’m saying that it can be done to that scale at maximum. #2- Quarter seasons This ones a bit wacky, split the season up into four 20 game periods. In each of those 20 games we announce the top 2 teams from each conference to join the playoffs. Overall records are still recorded to figure out the standings, if a team that has already qualified for the playoffs is in the top 2 then it is passed on to the team with the next highest record until there is a non playoff team that can qualify. This creates interest in all parts of the season and can prevent tanking as it can motivate teams especially at the end of the season. #3 32-team playoffs Firstly, we need two new teams. Then we have all teams play in the playoffs in best of 5 series. On average they would play less games even with an extra round, fans would get to watch more games also. This does devalue the regular season though where they are only competing for seeds in the playoffs rather than a spot. But it does give a college basketball vibe. #4 A minor league This probably works best for down the road once we bring in six new teams. 24 teams stay in the major league whilst 12 teams get demoted. 16 teams make the playoffs in the majors, four teams remain in the majors and four teams are demoted. In the minor league four teams are promoted and the remaining eight stay in the minor league. I guess you could also do 18 and 18 but this sort of makes it seem worse to be in the minor league if only a third of the teams are in it. On the other hand 82 games makes it a long time in the minor leagues.

A big part of the lack of interest in the sport is players teaming up with one another limiting the amount of competition in the league to a few teams. Half the top 15-20 players in the league play on the same team. If they all were on different teams fan bases would be more involved. Part of this is on the the players and the other part is on the media creating these fantasy rosters for big market teams in which ownership & players try to bring to fruition. A lot of this is media fanboys trying to preserve their favorite players legacies, & the other part is players trying to fast track their careers to greatness. Just my opinion 🤷🏿‍♂️

I wouldn't mind seeing more games throughout the day. You'd get to see the bench more.

So happy that Bev sided with keeping 82 games. He brings up a great great point that I never thought of that it gives injured players time to heal too. Imagine AD, Simmons or Zion spraining an ankle, will miss a 3rd of the season. lol 😂

Pat bev spot on

You know what .. I wasn't a fan of Pat Bev over how he spoke on CP3 but when he leaves his personal feelings out of takes, I like hearing his POV on many things, love our current stars appearing more and more. I want takes from people on the floor not an analyst that's never stepped foot on an nba court - yes stephen a smith I'm talking about you.

I agree. We want to see other games beside the lakers and philly and knicks over and over and over again.

Make playoffs top 16 teams regardless of conference. Then, have the play in games be a mini four team tournament of the 8 and 9s of both conferences.

I would want to see more of Ja, jokic, Giannis, Pelicans, t-wolves, Memphis. Exciting players and teams, less lakers, knicks, Portland, etc…

The game has to evolve like everything else. Play in, in season tournament, shorter season. Improve the game for the future or we'll end up like baseball.

Don’t pay players that aren’t willing to sacrifice for a couple years till they retire. Its a lot others playes out there that aren’t giving the opportunity and they will play 200 games

If starter players don't rest, how do you develop the bench? There is no playing time for them.