The NBA would be a much better league if one of two things happen. It would be a tremendous league if both did.

Saturday night, the Los Angeles Clippers came into the Wachovia Center looking dead tired. They’d played in Toronto Friday night and apparently a plane problem delayed their arrival here until 3 a.m.

By the time the game rolled around, they were pretty much toast and were down 59-40 by halftime. It was never really a game.

That brings up to my first point: the season is too long. Take away 20 games, eliminate most back-to-backs and the product would improve almost instantly. Each game would mean more for one thing, and if you spread them out over the same amount of time the extra rest could only help the players.

The other thing that would help the game is contraction. Do you really need teams in Memphis and Charlotte? Neither really draws, and both are more geared toward college ball than the pro game. There are probably a couple other cities you could say the same about, maybe even Philly (although the Sixers have deep roots here by now).

But if you cut the number of teams back you increase the talent pool for the remaining teams.

Neither of these will ever happen of course, but you can always dream.