Freak

I definitely see what you're saying.

I also agree there's one thing we should get out of the way before any such discussion: that any type of league-implemented contraction is never going to happen, not with players unions the way they are.

There's a lot of talk every year in the NHL about contraction, but that has a lot more to do with the fact that several franchises (namely the American sun belt teams) are consistently losing money. I'm not sure about the NBA, but it seems like this is much less of a problem; a team like the Sonics, for instance, is in pretty dire shape right now, but moving them to another city and a new building may very well (coupled with the addition of a Kevin Durant) reinvigorate that franchise.

From a competition standpoint, with regards to contraction, I tend to disagree with you. That's because -- from a competition standpoint -- turnaround seems to happen faster in basketball than any other professional sport. (It happens in the NFL, too, but that's more to do with parity.) Look at a team like the Trailblazers: did anybody in America, outside of possibly Oregon, give a rat's ass about the team this year? Well, you can almost guarantee that their merchandise sales will soar this offseason, and I'll personally guarantee they get booked for one of those primetime NBC games next season.

Toronto is another great example. They play in the league's weakest division, but they dominated that division in 2006, one year after drafting 1st overall. And now they're in fantastic shape for the near future and beyond.

I feel like I'm rambling and I don't really know what the original point was. I've had a lot of coffee.

Oh, you were saying how it's about entertainment value, and you used the Pistons as an example. Well, the Pistons are actually one of the very few well-run teams in the NBA, and they've taken great advantage in the past few seasons of the wildly-inept coaching and organization of other teams, especially in the East. Like the Spurs, they play a boring type of basketball, but it's highly effective. Now, if a team could be that well-run AND have a star like Dwayne Wade or LeBron James -- that would be fun to watch. That's what we need.

Too much caffeine.