Just end it. Go back to the old commissioner tour during the playoffs.

Done.

But seriously

It has been 10 weeks since voters submitted their ballots, 10 weeks since the regular season that these awards are honoring ended. The only reason to wait this long is to find an open date where you can reasonably expect to pull a decent number of finalists — it’s hard to do that immediately after the season, and during the playoffs. Asking East playoff competitors or teams to make an extra trip to Las Vegas or LA or New York in the middle of a playoff run is pretty wild. Doing so at the conclusion of the Finals is less crazy. That makes sense.

But the delay is more detrimental than is the presence of NBA stars in one building. So either move the award show to the days immediately following the end of the regular season (necessitating a longer gap between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs) or just revert to the old system whereby Adam Silver shows up in the cities where the award winners play and presents the award in a press conference or before a playoff game. It’s pretty straightforward.

It’s not like the awards show is a revenue and ratings bonanza for the league — it did 1.1 million viewers on Monday, with a rating in the 18-49 year old demographic below such hallowed programs as 90 Day Fiance: Other Way and Below Deck Mediterranean, not to mention the World Cup and WWE. This is not some money machine that is only critically panned. It seems like a decent failure overall.

Time to give it up, folks.

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Links

Kristian Winfield on the prospect of the Nets and Knicks switching places right before our eyes. Congratulations to Kris on his new gig at the New York Daily News. Get ‘em, pal.

It sounds like ol’ Daryl Morey is up to his old tricks: the Rockets are targeting Jimmy Butler in free agency. Adding Butler of all players to a volatile chemical mix in Houston might be risky, but the payoff might legitimately be a championship.

It’s time to join the Chicago Sky bandwagon, writes Matt Ellentuck.

Zach Lowe on how the Nets might handle a difficult choice between Kyrie Irving and D’Angelo Russell.

Haley O’Shaughnessy on how to lose a free agent in eight ways.

Chris Mannix on Kyle Lowry’s improbable championship journey.

Marc Spears asks whether the Knicks’ culture change is working.

There’s a Holiday sister, Lauren. And despite her having three brothers in the NBA, she might have been the best basketball player out of them all.

Uh, Andre Iguodala is either up to something again, or is claiming that he had a significant misdiagnosis from the Warriors’ medical staff.

James Harden gave the NBA too much of what it wanted.

DeMar DeRozan and Kevin Love on a panel about mental health at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Much love to these guys for the immeasurable good they are doing.

How Kyle Kuzma ended up the last member of the Lakers’ rebuild standing.

Kevin O’Connor on the risk of the 2019 free agency spending spree turning out like 2016.

It looks like all those bizarre All-NBA votes (including Dwyane Wade on the second team and Marvin Bagley III on third team) came from a single reporter.

Be excellent to each other.