Beating a Dead Horse

Continuing my diatribe from last week, let’s look at another way to view attendance figures: Percent of capacity.

(As always, figures come from espn.com. Glad we cleared that up.)

Last season, out of 30 NBA teams, the percent of capacity scale broke down as follows:
90-100%: 17 teams
80-90%: 6
70-80%: 5
60-70%: 2

And this season?
90-100%: 17
80-90%: 5
70-80%: 4
60-70%: 4

That’s a pretty even distribution looking at it quickly, but if you delve deeper into the figures, the picture becomes bleaker.

Teams at 99%+ capacity
2008: 10
2009: 5

Also, as pointed out at Wages of Wins last year in a fine article about the NBA’s apparent popularity issues, the NBA has traded a city with poor attendance marks (Seattle) for one with strong attendance marks (Oklahoma City). However, despite WoW’s argument that Oklahoma City was 50% of the problem in last year’s attendance figures (i.e., the trade of OKC for N.O. and the lackluster figures in Seattle), the move of the Sonics to OKC has not alleviated the league’s problems at the gate. In fact, the numbers this year are even worse than last year.

But back to the main point of this story – the capacity scenario. Another way to look at the numbers is to compare each team to its’ figures from last year.

2008 vs 2009
Improved: 8 teams
Declined: 19
No change: 3

In other words, more than twice as many teams are facing declining numbers when viewed as a percentage of capacity this season, a staggering figure. Four of those teams are seeing their attendance drop by more than 10 points from last year’s totals, Philadelphia (from 73 to 62), Sacramento (from 82 to 70), the Clippers (from 86 to 72), and the Heat (from 99 to 81).

How many teams have improved by more than 10 points over last season? Just one, Oklahoma City. (Although, to be fair, the Hornets are on the precipice, at +9.2 from last year).

In other words, the only NBA franchise to see a substantial improvement from last season was the franchise the league decimated in its previous locale. Not exactly a stirring endorsement of the league’s fortunes.

Adieu, PJ

I'm guessing that when Clay Bennett drew up the outline for how things would go in his triumphant return to Oklahoma City this season, it was quite dissimilar to the way the actual story has gone.

Following a Friday night loss to the Hornets which put the Thunder's record at 1-12, wundersenior PJ Carlesimo was sent packing in what was surely his final opportunity at coaching an NBA team.

If you doubt me, and think that Carlesimo will be the Stan Albeck of his generation - a perennial retread coach who always manages to find a way - take a look at these numbers:

19-63
21-29
6-21
20-62
1-12

That adds up to 67-187, and marks PJ's cumulative record in his final five seasons as an NBA coach. It is a remarkably inept performance, matched only by the buffoonery of the people who hired him in the first place.

The Great Wall of Payton?

Details are sketchy, but rumors are beginning to surface about Gary Payton making a return to professional basketball, but this time on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, at least as reported by solobasket.com.

I'm not sure what was more surprising in reading that article, that Payton would like to subject himself to playing overseas, or that Bob Weiss is a head coach in China. I wonder if Bob Hill is planning to snake Weiss' job over there as well?

In other news, Steve Scheffler has expressed interest in returning to professional basketball in the Turkmenistan professional league.

That interest, unfortunately, has not been reciprocated.