"We're going to Disney World!" NBA to resume season July 31 at WDW
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
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As stated above, for most teams they need around seven games to hit the 70-game threshold that kicks in a lot of the regional TV money.
unless we do not think this is about money
Ed: play ten games and give me 8/9 play-in games.
Id rather any other season restarts over the NBA.
LA is a favorite, and I have no interest in seeing those fucks hoist another banner...
LA is a favorite, and I have no interest in seeing those fucks hoist another banner...
I'd say a well rested Lebron geared up for a short burst of a "season" is primed to steamroll the garbage that is the western conference in any format they roll out to finish this.
Add in the rumors he's been holding workouts with guys to stay sharp and yeah, the lakers should be heavy favorites.
Get ready for some more Kobe dedications and weeping lakers fans.
At least hockey and football can have visors attached to their helmets, and they have gloves. Basketball offers no similar protection. Although it has a smaller roster, it seems the virus can spread faster among NBA players. Especially when we know there are brainiacs like Gobert on rosters.
Give the Bucks an asterisk'ed title and start sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas for the next season.
Give the Bucks an asterisk'ed title and start sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas for the next season.
I'm not sure how masks over their eyes will help what they breath in? With testing and quarantine in place, I'm not sure how the NBA is anymore at risk that any other sport. I also don't think the Gorbert line is fair. You don't think Bergeron would have been playing through a sore throat before this all became the news of the day? Marchand wouldn't have fucked with the media and his teammates? Gobert was the first big case, but I don't think he's unique in any sport or industry you can name. All that to say I think there's inherent risk in anything restarting. I think they're doing everything they can to lower that risk with no fans and testing/quarantine.
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You have to think that some guys won't play because of medical conditions but I have no idea how many that is.
It will be interesting to see if they get full pay if they don't.
Was listening to talk radio over the weekend and one sportswriter (can't remember who) posed the very good question of what happens if a player or two gets really sick - will the games just go on? That could be a really bad look. It could also make additional players will drop out.
If the players are willing to play, I'm willing to turn on my TV but given all of the sports leagues that are re-opening around the globe - I just hope nothing tragic happens. Don't think I've read anything terrible about sports during 1918 but I'm sure other people know better than I do.
The popular rumor is that they want to bracket the teams 1-16. The Celtics would get totally screwed in this format. To get to the Finals, they’d have to beat Philly, the Clippers/Mavs, and most likely the Bucks.
In that situation I have it 76ers-Clippers and Celtics-Pacers to open. Am I missing something?
Everywhere I’ve seen is Celtics-Sixers as the 5-12 matchup with the winner playing the Clippers-Mavs.
2 seed Lakers would get the 15 seed Nets led by KD. Bron vs KD for the first time without superteam interfence. That’s legacy defining right there.
It's not that different than how it currently is where they would have to beat PHI, TOR, MIL to get to the finals
You think it would define LeBron's legacy if he beat a rusty Kevin Durant in some cobbled together tournament designed to save the 2019 - 2020 NBA season? Agree to disagree on that one.
Also:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2020/05/22/sean-marks-hints-at-nets-having-to-wait-for-kevin-durants-return/amp/
My feeling re their seeding is that they get what they deserved for multiple stretches of super low-energy basketball this year. I'm glad that the regular season still has some meaning tbh.
Toronto had similar injury issues, less overall talent (imo), and also worked in lots of inexperienced players, and was able to get it done. They do and should get rewarded for that.
Toronto had similar injury issues, less overall talent (imo), and also worked in lots of inexperienced players, and was able to get it done. They do and should get rewarded for that.
You saw PG13 and Heydoo play after they came back from injury, right? If that ends up being legacy defining for one of those players, then something went very wrong.
Hmmm... I'm going by the NBA.com standings where they rank the pacers 12 and the 76ers 13. They have the same record but the Pacers lead the season series 2-1. We'll see if re-seeding 1-16 actually happens.
Oddly enough, if they resume the regular season the first game for the Pacers and the 76ers is against each other.
Well if the Nets destroy the Lakers,And win the title, it may be legacy defining.
If it is the Pacers, it would be easier than the Sixers but still having to go through the Clippers rather than Toronto in a 2nd round series is much harder. LAC is arguably the 2nd best team in the game.
Again, excepting W/L, its remarkable how close the Lakers and Clippers are statistically. A playoff series between those two has the potential to be an all-timer.
As BSF notes, Boston played both teams so well this year makes a possible playoff/championship matchup really intriguing as well.
edit: referencing seeding discussion.
As BSF notes, Boston played both teams so well this year makes a possible playoff/championship matchup really intriguing as well.
edit: referencing seeding discussion.
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Ahh... even if the Mavericks have won one more game then the 76ers and the Pacers, their winning percentage is lower so they are slotted lower then those two. Never mind. Carry on.
We really ought not call this the "NBA playoffs", right? I mean, it's a fun tournament to have and someone is going to win it, but it's not really the NBA playoffs.
That's why I don't think it will happen. Silver isn't afraid to experiment, but I think he wants to do everything possible to legitimize the playoffs/champion. I think it's more likely that we see more fun, weird stuff to set the 7/8 seeds.
Mark me down as very in favor:
https://www.theringer.com/platform/amp/nba/2020/5/26/21270365/nba-restart-world-cup?__twitter_impression=true
https://www.theringer.com/platform/amp/nba/2020/5/26/21270365/nba-restart-world-cup?__twitter_impression=true
I've never heard anyone regard the '81 Dodgers, the '82 and '87 Washington football team or the '99 Spurs as anything but Champions. How is this all that different from those?
They didn't radically change how the playoffs are done. This is a wholly different prospect here.
Are you referring to the 1-16 seeding or another plan? Maybe I missed something.
There's been discussion of numerous radical plans. One of them is to group teams and then play it like the World Cup.
Is that really that radical? You'll likely get 0-1 false negatives (a team that could have won the title is eliminated) and 0 false positives (a bad team winning the title). In exchange, you get a compelling group stage in an environment that is starved for sports entertainment.
Legitimacy of the title is mostly about not having tons of random-feeling false negatives or having a false positive.
Apologies for the unintended verbiage overlap w covid, probably shows where my brain is at.
Kobe stans in recent weeks like to say the '99 Spurs title doesn't count.
I'm in the mindset that whoever wins the title this year, it will not feel like a real NBA Championship. Unless the Celtics win, then it is Banner #18 Bay-bee!
I don't get the hangup about what you call this or the ultimate winner. "NBA champion '19-20"? "COVID Cup 2020 Champion"? "Orlando Special Summer League 2020 Best Of Match"?
Whether anyone likes it or not, the legitimacy of the ultimate winner and what it means will almost certainly be debated by sports fans. Its kind of what we do.
Whether anyone likes it or not, the legitimacy of the ultimate winner and what it means will almost certainly be debated by sports fans. Its kind of what we do.
I think if the players seem reasonably in shape and not totally wack/rusty, it will feel like a real championship. The depth of the league this year helps that: there will be a LOT of slugfests even for the eventual winner.
They should institute that "target score" gimmick from the All-Star Game. That was compelling, and the guys played HARD. I'd never seen that type of fervor in an exhibition game.
The WC model is a good one but the league has to be having an internal debate that says: the more non-standard we go, the higher the chance this championship gets an asterisk, especially if the Lakers, Bucks or Clippers don't win. Ultimately, the real equation for continuing the season is health and safety + money / whatever LeBron wants = what they eventually do.
Totally off-topic but here’s my rule change of the day. Except in the last two minutes of the game, when someone is awarded two free-throws it now becomes one free throw worth two points. Sort of a variant on the old college 1&1.
(Although it would mess up the box scores)
Still, why not? Free throws are boring, except occasionally at the end of games.
(Although it would mess up the box scores)
Still, why not? Free throws are boring, except occasionally at the end of games.
FWIW, the World Cup model is very similar to how European basketball works - the "regular season" involves group play, with the best few teams advancing to the knockout stage. (The latter is anything from best-of-five to best-of-three to two-game aggregate score contests or even the Euroleague's March Madness-style Final Four, but that's more because there's not enough time to schedule more games and still have domestic seasons.) So it's not like this would be completely out of left field in basketball terms.
(EDIT - The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor has a good piece on what a World Cup-style format might look like, as well as what some of the other suggested alternatives might look like.)
(EDIT 2 - Having now digested O'Connor's article and thought more about the World Cup-style format, what if they had the five groups of four and played two or even three games against everyone else in the group, but tweaked the standings so that the Tier 1 teams started with an extra 4 wins, the Tier 2 teams an extra 3 wins, and so on? Or give three points for a win in the Group Stage, soccer style, and start the best teams with an extra 8/6/4/2 points, respectively? That would be the compensation for having the best regular season record and not having home court advantage as such in the playoffs; the latter would also make ties in the standings at the end of of the Group Stage much less likely.)
(EDIT - The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor has a good piece on what a World Cup-style format might look like, as well as what some of the other suggested alternatives might look like.)
(EDIT 2 - Having now digested O'Connor's article and thought more about the World Cup-style format, what if they had the five groups of four and played two or even three games against everyone else in the group, but tweaked the standings so that the Tier 1 teams started with an extra 4 wins, the Tier 2 teams an extra 3 wins, and so on? Or give three points for a win in the Group Stage, soccer style, and start the best teams with an extra 8/6/4/2 points, respectively? That would be the compensation for having the best regular season record and not having home court advantage as such in the playoffs; the latter would also make ties in the standings at the end of of the Group Stage much less likely.)
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I get that some people see value in preserving the purity of a "season" but setting that aside, are there people who won't watch particular formats? Because at this point, I might consider paying a small sum to watch Scal play HORSE vs Vincent (S) Porier.
My dream rule change: allow a team to decline fouls like football teams decline penalties. Instead of free throws, you take the ball out of bounds. Committing an intentional foul after an already declined foul results in a technical.
If they really want to make round one more exciting they should dump the best of seven format, which always favors the better team (at the upper end of the bracket), and go back to the best of three format. Because under that format you'd see a lot more 7/8 seeds advancing. Under the current rules the interesting series tend to be the competitive 4/5 and 3/6 pairings.
I really want to get into this but I think the lack of fans and the neutral site is going to make this feel a lot more like a summer league exhibition than the NBA playoffs. Something about the Garden not rocking just makes me feel sad.
And with the add-on idea of letting Pot 1 teams draft their own groups. Can you even imagine? With the petty grudge-holding of NBA personalities?
I love it. If it's not going to be as rigorously defined and traditional as the regular playoffs, then make it as entertaining as possible while maintaining some competitive credibility. Round-robin groups would absolutely accomplish that.
All of the suggestions around trying to eliminate end-of-game intentional fouling - and it's a real problem, real ugliness - are outdone by using the Elam Ending. Trailing teams always have an ability to catch up: just play defense. They can't run out of time, just out of points. And they never have an incentive to intentionally foul, because it brings the other team closer to the winning score.