It’s been a long season for the National Basketball Association. The criticism has been especially loud this year, with every load management or “fake injury” headline seemingly worse than the last.

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But now it’s almost bread-and-butter time for the league, and the suits couldn’t be happier. This is when the NBA rebounds (pun intended), crowns a champion and MVP, and hopes everyone forgets about the 82 often painful games from October to April.

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The problem? This time, it doesn’t feel like anyone is going to forget. And worse yet, it’s very possible the playoffs won’t be able to bail them out.

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The negativity comes at an ironic time. The talent and athleticism have never been higher. Players are knocking down shots from all over the arena, flying through the air, and producing offense at a level that would make the Greatest Show on Turf blush.

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So what’s the problem?

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It starts with the paradox at the core of the NBA. Teams have to be bad in order to eventually become good. And if you’re not bad enough, you’re stuck in the middle with no real path forward.

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The result is an unwatchable product.

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Post-All-Star break NBA basketball has been especially rough—even by regular season standards. Point spreads are routinely in the double digits, with some pushing into the 20s. We’re seeing nights where teams are laying 18, 20, even 22 points. This is supposed to be professional basketball, not a random Duke–Georgia Tech game on a Tuesday night in January.

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And the league is starting to lose the one group that never leaves—the degenerate gamblers.

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Because one of the core assumptions in betting is that both teams are actually trying to win the game. That’s a luxury NBA bettors haven’t had lately.

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Adam Silver has vowed to fix this dumpster fire before the bottom completely falls out of the league—though he’s made similar promises before, with little to show for it. If I were a betting man, I’d put a paycheck on a similar result.

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But this time, the clock feels like it’s actually ticking. The results speak for themselves, and fans and analysts alike aren’t mincing words anymore. For the NBA’s sake, let’s hope they can double dip with a great playoff run—and maybe, just maybe, Adam Silver finds a way to save this sport in the offseason.