People hated the fact that Adam Silver pushed to add a play-in tournament

[Nate505]

If the TWolves don't want to be in the 7th seed, they should have done better in the regular season.

Hell, if the Jazz end up falling to the play in game, same with them. I won't be upset if they have to be in the play in game. Unless the regular season really just doesn't matter.

[thelead]

Eliminate it or use it to fix tanking by giving the bottom 10 teams equal lotto odds.

[wegotthabeet]

So you are ok with 14 teams being eliminated.

Than i have a better idea, why don't we eliminate 28 teams and go to the finals right away.

I love the play-in format. It is very entertaining.

I mean, yes? Not to the two team idea, but generally the point of having a long regular season should be to have less playoff teams. In the end, that’s what would actually make the regular season intense all season long. I would actually want to eliminate 20 teams. 5 teams from each conference. The battles between the actual good teams would be fun to watch. Right now y’all are having fun watching a 9 and 10 seed battle for seeding. Imagine if it was that intense for the 4-6 seeds. Better quality teams fighting it out.

If we wanted to make division titles cool again, the NBA could go back to 4 divisions and just have the 4 division winners meet in the playoffs.

It would make being in the playoffs a real accomplishment rather than what it is. But the flipside, and why the NBA would never do it, a lot of fans only follow the NBA for their team.

Once they're eliminated in December you'll have a ton of empty seats.

how's about keeping 6 divisions. division winners make the playoffs. the remaining 24 teams play a round robin + elimination tournament for the final two playoff spots. that would keep everyone engaged all season while still giving the regular season meaning.

[BrianFitz]

I have come around slightly on the play-in but still do not agree with the current structure. Play-in should not trigger when you have 5+ games separating a seed...

hmmm ... for the life of me, I can't quite put my finger on why you may have "come around" on the play in.

[LivingLegend]

Eliminate it or use it to fix tanking by giving the bottom 10 teams equal lotto odds.

I feel like the NBA is overly concerned with tanking. They have multiple MASSIVE measures in place to prevent tanking to the point where its almost hurting the game.

They already have the lotto odds all crazy to prevent tanking--I dont understand why you need to add this play-in garbage to the mix too. Whats more important? A legit RS rewarding the best teams, or putting a bunch of rules in place conspiracy style to prevent tanking.

Guess what, the Cavs have had the 2nd worst record in basketball 2 of the last 3 years. They ended up with the 5th pick in the draft both times. Seems like the lottery odds works perfectly fine as is.

[LivingLegend]

I have come around slightly on the play-in but still do not agree with the current structure. Play-in should not trigger when you have 5+ games separating a seed...

hmmm ... for the life of me, I can't quite put my finger on why you may have "come around" on the play in.

Its easy, if your team is the 7th-8th seed--you hate the play-in game. If your team is the 9th-10th seed you love the play-in

[ChuckChilly]

While I do think the 7th seed shouldn't be participating because they are usually a few games better than 8th, I don't get how so many people are worried about "punishing" the 8th seed. How about teams be good enough to not be in the 8th seed in the first place.

Whats even more ridiculous is that the board hates "treadmill" teams with passion, but all of a sudden value the 8th seeded teams so much. I thought it was supposedly better to just not make the playoffs at all if you don't have a chance to win the championship?

[sp6r=underrated]

While I do think the 7th seed shouldn't be participating because they are usually a few games better than 8th, I don't get how so many people are worried about "punishing" the 8th seed. How about teams be good enough to not be in the 8th seed in the first place.

Whats even more ridiculous is that the board hates "treadmill" teams with passion, but all of a sudden value the 8th seeded teams so much. I thought it was supposedly better to just not make the playoffs at all if you don't have a chance to win the championship?

Great point about the board's contradictory stance on treadmill teams and the playin.

There is a contradiction between thinking teams that win between 38-44 games are just spinning their wheels and need to do a true rebuild and thinking the playin hurts integrity by punishing the team that wins 44 in favor of the one 38.

[herbiehancock00]

I love the play in format, as it unofficially starts during the last 10 games of the season. There are so many games that are high stake during this last 2-3 weeks and the dynamic shifts every game.

What needs to happen is a more convenient way for casual viewers to track this journey to the play-in tournament. As of now it takes too much effort to manually keep track of what's going on with the standing each day and I don't think it is something that casuals want to deal.

[Karate Diop]

I have come around slightly on the play-in but still do not agree with the current structure. Play-in should not trigger when you have 5+ games separating a seed...

hmmm ... for the life of me, I can't quite put my finger on why you may have "come around" on the play in.

Its easy, if your team is the 7th-8th seed--you hate the play-in game. If your team is the 9th-10th seed you love the play-in

It has nothing to do with the Nets seeding.

Others pointed out that the play-in does give meaning to games that are otherwise meaningless and you've seen that this year... I wasn't necessarily thinking of the downstream impact of the play-in, was more concerned with how it directly affected seed 7 and 8.

It's OK to change your mind when others make valid points / criticisms.

[AbeVigodaLive]

The play-in is entertaining, so it'll stay and grow in popularity... sans frustrated fans from #7 seeds every few years.

Case in point...

The Minnesota Timberwolves are closer to the #2 seed than they are to the #10 seed.