I have no idea. But whenever players complain about safety issues with a playing surface, I always assume they know what they're talking about since they're the ones risking their bodies on it.
NBA In-Season Tournament 2023 Discussion and Gamethread
- Thread starter InstaFace
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Is it possible the floors need to be "broken in" in any sense? Like, I know polyurethane needs to cure for a few days, I dunno if its properties change at all after that.
Pretty much. MLB baseballs need to be rubbed (slightly scuffed) with "mud" pre-game. New plastic-coated products, like a floor, can have a level of slickness to it. You'd think they would test it out beforehand.
BUT the NBA rushed these asinine floors to add more shiny, pretty ribbons. It took all of about 5-minutes for most to realize the floors were poorly thought out and executed.
Hopefully Silver/the NBA will course correct (it's an easy fix)
The floors are slippery. It wasn't just the Cs game; guys were slipping in other games and there's a video of LBJ doing a rather thorough inspection of a floor pre-game.
Given that the Lowe article I posted above said that this was a rush job, I wouldn't be surprised if something happened in the manufacturing process. (I'll note that there are three companies who made the courts; it would be interesting to know - though I doubt anyone would ever leak this information - if all of the slippery courts came from one manufacturer.)
BTW, some website quoted Forbes that the costs of each court is from $75K to $150K. The NBA is putting a ton of money into the IST. Apparently ratings are way up so I guess it will be worth it.
I would have guessed a court like these would cost way more than 75-150K
The floor issue could also be something as simple as the floor crews aren't fully adapted to the different visual cues of a wet surface on a court thats a new color and hasn't been broken in yet.
There has to be some shenanigans with how the NBA is collecting or counting ratings numbers and attributing it to the in season tournament. I’m not necessarily Johnny Social but I have various groups of diverse populations I talk to and o one has said shit to me about this tournament that isnt already a hoop head.
95% of the basketball I watch is Celtics games, but if I'm going to pick up and watch some or all of another game, it's far likelier this year to be a tournament game. That first night of games was sporting magic.
I go for players. I’m an almost all Celtics game and then put some game on in the background. YTTV quality alone has me watching more non C’s games this year. Tourney has nothing to do with it for me but I’m just one data point. the floors are the only way I know it is a tourney game.
I'd guess it's mostly bball heads watching random November games anyways, so increasing their interest is already going a long way to boosting the numbers.
Totally anecdotal, but had a casual NBA fan text me last night asking what the in-season tournament was and why they should care.
That's sort of good for the NBA though, right? There's little chance that person was paying attention at all in November before.
I think they'll need an iteration or two of the elimination game for casual fans to get it. Putting it as multiple games in Vegas is a great idea for that purpose.
Yes, for sure. Normally that dude waits till football is over to pay attention.
It might also be that the Pats suck out loud, tho.
Is anyone else hopping on the Craig Porter Jr bandwagon?
Undrafted 23-year-old rookie, out of Witcha St., on a 2-way with the Cavs.
Looked good against Denver the other night.
Undrafted 23-year-old rookie, out of Witcha St., on a 2-way with the Cavs.
Looked good against Denver the other night.
I first need to know why is every Porter in the NBA — Otto, Michael, Kevin, now Craig — is a Jr.
when I first heard Porter Jr for the basket the other night I was like NFW thinking it was that Rockets cretin.
Another great tourney game. These players clearly care more than a typical November contest.
Murray gets out on a fast break down 3 with about 6 seconds left and proceeds to … clank a layup. Game over.
Beverley takes like 4 steps fighting over the ball with a Cavs player leading to his basket. No travel, no jump ball...how is there not SOME whistle there?!!
The tournament has produced a lot of really high level games so far.
This. Seems to me that the added pressure/bonus/intrigue/bravado/etc no matter how minute, has brought out the competitors in many of these games
1) it is not actually giving you a headache
2) stop being old man yelling at clouds
This first year no casuals are paying attention except when they notice the floor surface on SportsCenter. This will all change once they get to Vegas and begin promoting the F out is this.
I do agree in general but to be fair to Cleveland, no Mitchell tonight. Any team missing their best offensive player is gonna have some rough moments when facing a solid defense in a game that matters.
Don't speak for other people, some of these courts have definitely hurt my head and I've had to switch those games off quickly.
The NBA has long been quite good at putting in new things and then tweaking them pretty quickly to fix them (remember the season they called tons of violations for hanging on the rim until they realized how dumb it was?), presumably the floors will be a lot better next season but that doesn't make them easier to look at now.
Also they were missing LeVert, he is big for their offense too, 18 PPG in 33 minutes off the bench.
I'm not lying to you, trying to follow the game on a few of the backgrounds literally hurt my head. Two people here are telling you the same thing, maybe accept that your experience isn't universal.
Yeah some of these are literal eyesores. It's a very cool idea and to some degree any press is good press, but I'm occasionally finding myself distracted from the [better than average] play, which is a shame.