Skybox wrote:RookieStar wrote:Skybox wrote:
I agree about Silver's targeting of Eurobasket...I would add that the extended playoffs is incredibly intense play for way too many games. There's no good reason for 7-game series from the first round on...obviously, there's a lot of money to be made with added sellouts and TV time, but that's a LOT of games at that level of intensity vs other playoff-caliber teams. I also miss the potential for upsets with the shorter initial series...it's why the NCAA tourney is the most thrilling thing to follow. "Win or go home" is way too extreme for the NBA, where an 82 game war SHOULD guarantee you serious seeding and home court advantage, but winning 4 is excessive in the first round (maybe even second).
Yeah... but no. A 7 game series shows who the better team is. I mean NCAA shows a 16seed who just happens to get hot for 3 games beat #1 seeds who had bad days when they met. As exciting as it is fpr casuals, i kinda feel for the #1 team who probably had 3 senior starters , hustled and sacrificed, just to et bounced because ot was one of those days that the rim seemed to be nailed shot even on layups
Any non-casual can understand that a best of 5 series is nothing like "win or go home".
The whole idea of playoffs is excitement for fans to pay for - lengthening it to make sure "the best teams wins" is basically just working harder to eliminate upsets (although the reason is obviously revenue) ...a 5 game series is a nice balance of a "better team" maybe being outcoached, showing up overly confident, or otherwise running into a bad matchup. Might as well just give the regular season champ the trophy if that's the goal. If the bigger picture is cutting somewhere to avoid injuries, cutting playoff games makes more sense (from a physical sense) because the intensity is WAY up and there's no resting of players or deeper rotations for most playoff teams - Haliburton heroically put himself in harm's way with a lingering injury for the most glaring example - heroic decision by a star, tragic blow to IND's entire next season and possibly beyond.
But it makes sense no? Imagine a team like us.. we pay and go into luxury tax category to assemble the best squad possible to win the chip. Then we have say X team who has a cheap owner and just wants to go to the PO every season to get more profit. Yet when we (1) face them (8), they have a player who in a normal game has a 35% 3pt shooting average yet like the NCAA, have a 3 game stretch where he averages 55%.
Kinda sucks for the better team. Yet sure for casuals its a great story. Also the cheap owner thinks he can just run it back next season cuz he gets more profit without spending more?
