Anthony wants fewer back-to-backs, Parker wants shorter preseason

In the wake of the NBA's announcement that they would experiment with a 44-minute game, players like LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki have said it's the 82-game season that should be shortened, not the individual games.

Now Carmelo Anthony and Tony Parker have added their takes on the matter.

Anthony said Saturday that having to play consecutive games is the real killer for players. “Fewer back-to-backs is something we should be talking about," Anthony said, according to ESPN's Ian Begley.

“You go on a road trip and you come back, and you’re gone for 10, 11 days, 12 days, and you’ve got a back-to-back the last two days. It’s always that last game that someway, somehow we always seem to get a TV game that last game. So it affects you,” he added.

Anthony did concede that he probably won't be around to see an NBA with fewer back-to-backs, though.

“I don’t know if that will ever happen, but that’s the dream. Maybe it will happen 10 years from now when I’m out of the league," he said.

The New York Knicks play 20 sets of back-to-back games this season.

Parker, meanwhile, believes shortening the preseason is a viable solution.

"I think what (should be changed) is to play four preseason games instead of eight, and those two weeks you can help spread the season," Parker told the San Antonio Express-News on Sunday.

"You can still keep the week for the All-Stars so we can have some vacation, too. I think that would be the solution. But 44 (minutes), no, that’s not going to change anything. Except for the coaches; there would be fewer minutes for the guys off the bench," Parker added.

Parker's solution might be the most sensible and realistic.

Shortening the games themselves won't make the players happy and eliminating regular season games is likely a non-starter for owners. But cutting the meaningless preseason in half and using the extra couple of weeks to better spread out the regular season could be a happy medium.

It would also likely address Anthony's concern over the number of back-to-backs.