dougthonus wrote:Ice Man wrote:I dunno .. are teams trying that *hard* to make the play-in? I will grant that some of the games have been good, that is fair. They are junk food, but junk food can be tasty.
I think some teams are trying hard to make it, like if you thought you were good but had some early injuries, or if you're a young team. I also like a bit of the 1 and done atmosphere in an NBA game, gives guys in that game, especially if you have a young team, a taste of real pressure.
I'm not going to pretend a 9/10 team is going to win the title, probably not in my life time, but overall, I think it's been a positive change.
I think it's been neutral and maybe even a bit worse than previous. I don't really see what's compelling about a sub .500 team playing a slightly better (and still around .500) club for the right to get slaughtered in the next round. IMO it waters down the playoffs without significantly changing the tenor of the regular season enough.
It's more games though and that means more ticket sales and more revenue so I doubt it will change.