Steve Kerr: “I want to thank the league for creating the play in tournament. Thank you Adam”
It’s Adam’s greatest invention followed by the 65-game rule
Honestly the play-in tournament is about as much as you can do to convince the 9th and 10th best teams in a conference that late season games are worth winning. It doesn’t help with teams solidly in the 12th to 15th spots, but at least there are 2 to 3 fewer teams hard tanking in most seasons.
The NBA discourse drifts further and further towards “ultimately, only championships matter” and is also becoming hyper-efficient in every regard. Pragmatic team management is “You should either be competing for a championship or losing as many games as possible so you can compete for a championship later every single season”. The play-in was probably one of the only possible tools to combat that on any level short of changing how the draft and lottery work (which is now also coming). Single elimination, even for the right to be a sacrificial lamb to a contending juggernaut, also has a very exciting place in the league.
Silver converting the NBA into a gambling platform that sometimes features basketball games is fucking terrible but he’s been pretty good about improving some competitive aspects of basketball in the face of organic trends that are diminishing league-wide competitive spirit of the game.
Facts let’s be real warriors were only 37-45 because they were without curry for 27 games. If curry didn’t get injured I feel warriors woulda won 48⁄49 games
For sure, and Philly if Embiid has stayed healthy could’ve been similarly deceptively competitive coming out of the play-in. Same with Atlanta if they’d stayed inside play-in seeding. Teams like them and to a lesser extent Charlotte exist as very differently capable teams than they were in October, November, and December. We’re talking about teams that performed like top seeds across a significant sample of games but just really sucked before that. Same with the Clippers, though they unfortunately ran into another strong play-in team.
The play-in gives grace for teams whose records don’t fully reflect their quality, be it because of injuries, deadline trades that completely change them, or whatever. We saw Miami successfully show how much team quality can be hidden in a team with a mediocre full-season record when they made the Finals from the play-in. Some of those teams will be genuinely mediocre, but expanding the potential playoff pool has definitely been a positive.
This year, the play-ins seem to be causing teams to tank harder. Even a “bad” team with an axe to grind can probably get two single elimination games and ruin their draft odds. Front offices seem to be throwing as hard as they can to be below 10.
This year, the gulf between 10 and 11 was huge for both the East and the West. There just wasn’t any sense of urgency from 11 to get past 10. A lot of teams seem to have punted this year, and in the West there wasn’t really any urgency to get the 6th seed to be safe from the playins either.
The play in makes the 9th/10th best teams less motivated in end of season games. Instead of the 8th seed being the sharp in/out line, there’s a gradual decline in value from finishing 6th through 10th.
The 9th and 10th seeds in the east and west this year would have been just as motivated without the play in. And the race for 8th would have been more exciting.
The reason to like the play-in is because more playoff basketball is fun.
You clearly don’t remember the 2023 Western conference season. That season came down to the wire in the west, with 5-8 within 2 games of each other and ultimately determined by tiebreakers despite being comfortably ahead of 11.
It’s pretty clear if you think you can have a playoff run, you do not want to be in the play ins.
I guess it can go both ways, but the Warriors were five games out of spot 8 to finish the season. Granted, nobody was on their tail, but assuming someone was, and assuming they looked at their remaining schedule with 10 games remaining and said “it’d be better to improve our draft pick than go for an unrealistic shot at outpacing a team with an easier schedule by 5 wins”, they could’ve shut down for the last 12% of the regular season.
There’s still every reason for teams to strive for 6 over 7, 7 over 8, etc, but I do think expanding the “desirable” seeds to the top 10 has a positive effect on competition from teams around that bottom mediocre margin in conferences. There certainly isn’t a negative impact on competition, so it’s either neutral or positive, and I think marginally positive, which ultimately results in up to additional dozens of non-tanking games across the NBA per season.
I watched the mid-to-late 2010s Hornets convert to a tank by March in many seasons where they weren’t statistically eliminated from seed 8 contention but realistically weren’t getting it. They probably keep fighting if it’s to maintain or strive for more attainable seeds 9 or 10
and promoting tanking
Actually insane how in an era when everyone but the owners are begging the league to reduce games, Adam Silver went and added 6 play-in games plus a cup final to the already stacked schedule and got praised for them.
Give me the case for the 65 game rule. We have:
Stars missing record time this season, so it’s not working for getting stars to play more
Probably four stars who would otherwise be All-NBA missing out due to games missed, so we’re no longer rewarding the right guys (Luka, Cade, Ant, one of Booker/LeBron)
Load management still happens
How is it a good rule?
hot little slut
you have such a way with words
Hes feeling romantical
Play-in Tournament is better than March madness is my sports hot take and it isn’t close.
That is certainly a hot take.
The basketball sucks if you really watch its just pass around the perimeter and watch shitty 3 pt shooters try to be Curry and at the same time somehow the defense is horrendous. Plus you don’t even get cool underdogs anymore because good players can’t get stuck at small schools.
I like the crowd/vibes and the traditions behind the teams but I usually just watch like a first half and turn it off because im bored of watching shitty basketball. Half of a big schools offense/defense is just being bigger and more athletic not basketball skill.
You get to watch Duke choke every year.
Fuck Duke
It’s certainly a take for sure. He must love ref ball.
Not even close, lol.
Every game has been a banger and such a close game apart from maybe the sixers one (pulled away hard at the end due to the incompetence of the magic’s offense apart from bane)
It’s funny how those teams and fans who win are in favor of the play-in while those who lose, want it gone and think it’s dumb.
Same with the NBA Cup. Your team makes it to elimination? Hey this is kinda fun. Your team gets eliminated? This is dumb as hell what’s the point of this stupid cup.
That ‘ty adam’ gonna earn the dubs at least 1 win against OKC
Gotta start buttering up the refs too. Need all the help we can get lmao
Nothing but amazing games (ignore the depression bowl)
Don’t thank him yet ☄️
The play in tournament is such a really really good way to tease the playoffs
He’s saying that as if they’re locked in
What if they lose the next game…. Then what?
Not according to draymond it ain’t
And Lebron.
A 37-45 team should not be in the playoffs.
It should when it has Wardell on it 😤
A 34-38 wizards team made the playoffs in 2021, A 33-40 magic team (.452win compared to the warriors .451) made it in 2020. The blazers werent much better that year with a 35-39 record. Theres plenty of shit teams that have made the playoffs, and the warriors have to win another game to make it.
Well they’re not atm, so nothing to worry about
I enjoy watching the play-in tournament, but I don’t like the impact it has on the regular season. The regular season means so much less to teams now because it’s so ridiculously easy to get into the playoffs.
Compare this to other sports like baseball or hockey, where getting into the playoffs is genuinely hard. The regular season matters in those sports.
Play-in is basically Game 7
Umm, too soon? You still need to pass the Suns
He isn’t talking about playoffs. If there weren’t play-in games we would have missed out on all the exciting games the past 2 days. I know some people don’t like it but if you’re an NBA fan why would you dislike more competitive basketball games.
Dude they’re so good they have me wondering if the playoffs should single-elimination. Only half-joking.
single elimination has always been the superior format. It elevates the viewing experience due to the stakes and upsets are so so much more common and that is always great for neutral viewers
Wait what he was just thankful that they get to play games as the 10th seed instead of just heading straight to vacation and out of the playoff contention years ago