There are some questions that need answers around the league. From Adam Silver’s trial balloon, to All-Star omissions that don’t truly feel like snubs, to Bronny James bringing out all the extreme views, hopefully we cut through the noise with less than a week before the trade deadline buzzer goes off. This week in Questions That Need Answers:

Commissioner Adam Silver raised the idea of the NBA going to 10-minute quarters as opposed to 12 minutes. Should that happen?

There are multiple things at work here. First, Silver was responding to a question from radio host Dan Patrick, who asked about the “wildest” change he would consider. Now, Silver did say he is a “fan” of 10-minute quarters and talked about the international game having it that way, but there’s nothing he said that suggests anything imminent is coming to the competition committee for a vote — which I hope would get struck down by Thor’s hammer because it’s ridiculous.

Silver is not the orator that his predecessor, the late David Stern, was, but he can be conversational. The problem is he’s speaking as if his words won’t be taken seriously by the masses, especially those who are looking to find something, anything, wrong with the game. It’s catnip to discuss, and it’s even more seductive to get a commissioner to play in the mud with the folks who have nothing but negatives to say about the game.

The issue in the context of the statement, referencing the international game, is the NBA is supposed to be leading, not following.

If someone could criticize the league, it’s that the NBA doesn’t appear to have a North Star. What is its ethos? By playing to the whims of a very fickle fan base, one the NBA seems to have to constantly court, it looks like you don’t know what to expect as far as where the game is going.

It’s like the scene in “Coming to America” where Eddie Murphy’s pre-selected bride was asked, “Well, what do you like?” And the woman, played by Vanessa Bell Calloway, responded, “Whatever you like.” And that was the answer for every question he then asked, until he told her to bark like a dog and she obliged, in one of the film’s classic moments.

Suggesting 10-minute quarters opens the door to the idea that the game is too long, which plays into the TikTok nature of today’s fans. It’s one thing to meet fans where they are, it’s another to lean full into the short attention span of the fans — just because baseball did it with a pitch clock or football went to “dynamic kickoffs.”

It’s not that tweaking and staying ahead of the curve is out of the question, the rules should reflect some level of the evolution of sport. But even the notion of messing with the structural integrity of the game shouldn’t be uttered, even jokingly.

Trae Young and LaMelo Ball are the biggest surprise omissions from the All-Star lists. But are they?

Young’s raw numbers stand out: 22.5 points, 11.4 assists—almost identical to Magic Johnson’s points and assists in his last MVP season in 1990. But that shows you how numbers lie. Ha!

Young’s shooting has dipped to 40 percent and his 3-point shooting is at 34 percent. Those numbers are well below his career marks and his field-goal shooting is a career worst. The advanced stats aren’t too kind to him, either, which doesn’t give him much of a case to be among the 24 best who’ll play at All-Star. He has moments that are electrifying, like rolling the dice at Madison Square Garden, but the nightly showings don’t support consistency or efficiency from him.

Knick killer Reggie Miller is a Hall of Famer but only played in five All-Star games in 18 years. The position was crowded during his era and that seems to be the case for Young with the guards in the East, and even Tyrese Maxey might’ve been taken over him among the players who aren’t All-Stars.

For Ball, nobody believes in his numbers having any real impact on winning because Charlotte is dreadful.

Now would they be great if the NBA had a serious All-Star Game? Of course. They’re entertaining, but I wouldn’t say worthy.

Bronny James played meaningful minutes in the first half against the 76ers on Tuesday and it didn’t go well. How are we supposed to view him?

For one, as a modern success story that he’s still alive given his cardiac arrest at USC before his freshman year. Perhaps it doesn’t register the same way as Damar Hamlin, because America watched that on Monday Night Football and absorbed the danger in real time while hearing about LeBron James’ son with a measure of distance.

But here’s where it gets tricky: Are we supposed to treat the younger James as a sideshow or a professional basketball player? The James family had the heartwarming moment on opening night, the picture with the Griffey father and son tandem and all the pomp and circumstance Los Angeles has to offer.

As a professional, it’s clear he doesn’t belong right now. A lot of 55th overall picks have a hard time getting on the floor in their rookie year, if at all. The game is too fast for him, and he lacks an overall aggressiveness that would take up the slack for the experience he doesn’t yet have — and at his height, he has to play with a desperation.

You know where he would’ve gotten that? College. Playing big-time college basketball, even transferring from USC and proving he could dominate there, would’ve been ideal. He needs to play basketball and lots of it — and the NBA schedule is too unforgiving for teams to practice much, let alone one with a 40-year-old LeBron James as one of the bell cows.

Even in the G-League, he’s played three regular-season games (he’s played seven in the tip-off tournament, which is the equivalent to the NBA Cup), so 10 total, shooting 43 percent in the three games, and 37 in the tip-off tournament. There’s a discussion to be had about college basketball holding on to itself so tightly that the NBA can’t truly partner with it for the betterment of all, but that’s for another day.

For Bronny James, this can’t be fun and one can imagine this doesn’t seem like it’ll benefit him in the long run. Most competitors want to feel like they belong and have earned it, it breeds confidence and everyone can see it.

And of course, social media has taken it to the extreme. When he had a good game in the G-League, supporters who barely even watched highlights couldn’t wait to crow, as if it’s proof he will produce that way in The Show.

And when he gets eaten alive by Tyrese Maxey (who does it to the best of pros) it’s seen by the more pessimistic that every time he’s on the floor it’s an embarrassment to the league and that LeBron James has put his son in a jacked-up position.

None of that can feel good to a young person in a generation that’s constantly online, seeing and hearing everything. One wonders if given the opportunity to do it over again, he would’ve taken a more pragmatic route, got his stripes on the wall in college basketball and maybe tried to enter the draft after his sophomore or even junior year — if he showed it.

But once you’re handed a guaranteed contract in a dog-eat-dog league, you better show you have the dog in you — otherwise it’s not the folks on social media who’ll make you feel worse, or talking heads.

It’s the ones who desperately need to show to everyone they belong — which means showing to everyone that you don’t.

Quick predictions: Are De’Aaron Fox and Jimmy Butler on the move?

If one is optimistically approaching these stalemates, for the sake of the NBA and its league office, these deals get done this weekend.

For Jimmy Butler, it seems — key word, “seems” — the choices are Golden State and Phoenix. And don’t count out Golden State given the price coming down from Miami’s standpoint.

With Fox, one would assume a deal with San Antonio could be on the horizon. The deadline is less than a week away and it would behoove all to move on sooner rather than later.