LeBron James on the play-in tournament:"Whoever came up with that needs to be fired"

[Antinomy]

The play-in tournament made sense last season but should’ve been scrapped this year with every team slated to play the same number of games.

The idea is dumb as hell over a 70-82 game season.

Dragging in the #7 & #10 teams is even dumber.

You play hard, endure injuries, hardships, etc just to potentially get knocked out of playoff spot by a hot shooting team on the last day.

And even if you win, your reward is losing a lottery pick & getting your ass kicked by the #1 & #2 seeds.

The idea is to get more teams trying to make the play in and less teams resting guys and tanking. It’s working.

Teams have been resting guys & tanking all season. It hasn’t solved anything. If anything, teams are tanking harder now.

OKC, Toronto, Detroit, Houston & Cleveland have all been blatantly tanking since January. There are a few other teams fighting for the last spot, just like ANY other season.

The teams that rest players the last few weeks are always top teams. They tried to fix a problem by giving a non-useful solution.

All they’ve done is devalue the regular season even more by letting 4 additional teams have the opportunity to get in when they have no business being there.

Tanking will always be problem but before, all you had to do was dodge the 8th seed. Now you gotta dodge 8, 9 & 10.

Why fight to be 1st round fodder when you could get a lottery pick instead?

[Marrrcuss]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/lebronwire.usatoday.com/2018/03/21/lebron-james-not-a-fan-of-nba-play-in-tournament-thats-corny/amp/

Wasn't hard to find this article so the media and others just wanted to soil him

[heezyo2o]

I don't mind the play in, but think they should have limited it to the 8th and 9th seed and that's it. That would still make for more meaningful games down the stretch.

A lot of people don't like the idea now, but I think many will enjoy the games when the happen. That do or die game in baseball makes for one of the best games of the year.

[heezyo2o]

And even though Lebron feels that way, if he just didn't leave the game for an ankle and the lakers weren't just really bad right now, I don't think he'd say it. Looks like all the frustrations coming out at the time

[Myth]

I would be fine with play-in tournaments for playoff spot determining tie breakers, especially if the record is tied and the head to head matchup series is also tied. Having 8th seed get in over 9th seed because of something as arbitrary as "Better record within their division" is dumb. They would be somewhat more rare, yet still exciting. I don't think they should be done for seeding, because that doesn't hold enough importance to justify a game where somebody could get hurt.

[pilkoids]

Funny he only bitches about this as soon as they drop to 7th

[Harry Garris]

Good. I hope more players start speaking out against it.

You don't have to like the play in tournament but the vast majority of NBA fans do want more fun playoff games. It's about time the NBA did something to improve the fan experience instead of just constantly catering to doing whatever their star players want.

lol who the heck wants more PO games?

People who actually enjoy watching competitive playoff basketball and don't just follow the league for the memes and the drama. I swear there are less and less people every day who enjoy watching the sport.

[clyde21]

You don't have to like the play in tournament but the vast majority of NBA fans do want more fun playoff games. It's about time the NBA did something to improve the fan experience instead of just constantly catering to doing whatever their star players want.

lol who the heck wants more PO games?

People who actually enjoy watching competitive playoff basketball and don't just follow the league for the memes and the drama. I swear there are less and less people every day who enjoy watching the sport.

who are those people? most people I've talked to actually want 5 game series instead of 7 game series, especially in the first rounds...who actively wants MORE playoff teams? that doesn't make any sense, it actively devalues making the POs even more than it already is.

[Rapcity_11]

lol who the heck wants more PO games?

People who actually enjoy watching competitive playoff basketball and don't just follow the league for the memes and the drama. I swear there are less and less people every day who enjoy watching the sport.

who are those people? most people I've talked to actually want 5 game series instead of 7 game series, especially in the first rounds...who actively wants MORE playoff teams? that doesn't make any sense, it actively devalues making the POs even more than it already is.

Yeah, who in their right mind would want to watch Dame vs. Steph for the #7 seed?

[clyde21]

People who actually enjoy watching competitive playoff basketball and don't just follow the league for the memes and the drama. I swear there are less and less people every day who enjoy watching the sport.

who are those people? most people I've talked to actually want 5 game series instead of 7 game series, especially in the first rounds...who actively wants MORE playoff teams? that doesn't make any sense, it actively devalues making the POs even more than it already is.

Yeah, who in their right mind would want to watch Dame vs. Steph for the #7 seed?

what does this have to do with wanting more PO games? and if ya'll want more PO games, just throw everyone into the POs. why stop at 10 seeds each conf?

[Rapcity_11]

who are those people? most people I've talked to actually want 5 game series instead of 7 game series, especially in the first rounds...who actively wants MORE playoff teams? that doesn't make any sense, it actively devalues making the POs even more than it already is.

Yeah, who in their right mind would want to watch Dame vs. Steph for the #7 seed?

what does this have to do with wanting more PO games? and if ya'll want more PO games, just throw everyone into the POs. why stop at 10 seeds each conf?

Uhh, because the result of the play-in is gonna be some entertaining matchups, such as Steph vs Dame....

Why not just have the top 2 in each conference make the playoffs? Or just go straight to a finals, 1 vs 1?

[clyde21]

Yeah, who in their right mind would want to watch Dame vs. Steph for the #7 seed?

what does this have to do with wanting more PO games? and if ya'll want more PO games, just throw everyone into the POs. why stop at 10 seeds each conf?

Uhh, because the result of the play-in is gonna be some entertaining matchups, such as Steph vs Dame....

Why not just have the top 2 in each conference make the playoffs? Or just go straight to a finals, 1 vs 1?

you're sacrificing the integrity of the entire RS for a couple of one-game cool match ups, it doesn't make any sense, the more chances teams have to make the POs, the less they give a **** about the RS because it's just that much easier to make the postseason...it's ridiculous.

and again, why stop at 20/30 teams making the playoffs? where is your threshold where it's enough?

[KyRo23]

Is it 7 vs 8 and 9 vs 10? How is this even fair. So a team that earned a spot during the regular season (7 and 8) will for sure be out and a team who fell out of playoffs (9 and 10) for sure will get in? It should be 7 vs 10 and 8 vs 9. Correct me if I'm wrong though as I may be. I'm not entirely sure how the play-in works.

[Impuniti]

Is it 7 vs 8 and 9 vs 10? How is this even fair. So a team that earned a spot during the regular season (7 and 8) will for sure be out and a team who fell out of playoffs (9 and 10) for sure will get in? It should be 7 vs 10 and 8 vs 9. Correct me if I'm wrong though as I may be. I'm not entirely sure how the play-in works.

I think you have another game if you lose between 7-8 vs the 9-10 winner.

[VanWest82]

OKC, Toronto, Detroit, Houston & Cleveland have all been blatantly tanking since January.

Nitpicking a little here but Toronto went 10-5 from Jan 31st through end of Feb and beat Nets, Sixers, and Bucks x2 during that stretch. Then all their main guys got hit with covid. I'd say they've been openly tanking since the trade deadline.

[Rapcity_11]

what does this have to do with wanting more PO games? and if ya'll want more PO games, just throw everyone into the POs. why stop at 10 seeds each conf?

Uhh, because the result of the play-in is gonna be some entertaining matchups, such as Steph vs Dame....

Why not just have the top 2 in each conference make the playoffs? Or just go straight to a finals, 1 vs 1?

you're sacrificing the integrity of the entire RS for a couple of one-game cool match ups, it doesn't make any sense, the more chances teams have to make the POs, the less they give a **** about the RS because it's just that much easier to make the postseason...it's ridiculous.

and again, why stop at 20/30 teams making the playoffs? where is your threshold where it's enough?

Except that teams have to give more of a **** about the RS in order to get a top 6 seed. That's why Cuban/LeBron etc. are whining about it. They actually need to prioritize winning RS games. Also, if you lose in the play-in you didn't make the playoffs. 16 teams make the playoffs.

I'd be ok with less teams making the playoffs. 12 would be ideal, but not sure byes are a good idea. 8 seems too low. Bottom line is the play-in for 7/8 is way, way, way better than the old system. Adds importance to the RS without changing the # of playoff teams. Oh, and we get to watch 6 bonus high stakes games. Wins all around.

Answer this....

Why not just have the top 2 in each conference make the playoffs? Or just go straight to a finals, 1 vs 1?

[Ballerhogger]

Funny he only bitches about this as soon as they drop to 7th

There’s the 5th seed right now

[Rapcity_11]

Is it 7 vs 8 and 9 vs 10? How is this even fair. So a team that earned a spot during the regular season (7 and 8) will for sure be out and a team who fell out of playoffs (9 and 10) for sure will get in? It should be 7 vs 10 and 8 vs 9. Correct me if I'm wrong though as I may be. I'm not entirely sure how the play-in works.

I think you have another game if you lose between 7-8 vs the 9-10 winner.

Yup. I think a lot of people might be missing that. The 7/8 seeds have massive advantages.

If a 7 seed loses 2 home games to lower seeds, I really don't feel bad that they missed the playoffs.

[clyde21]

Uhh, because the result of the play-in is gonna be some entertaining matchups, such as Steph vs Dame....

Why not just have the top 2 in each conference make the playoffs? Or just go straight to a finals, 1 vs 1?

you're sacrificing the integrity of the entire RS for a couple of one-game cool match ups, it doesn't make any sense, the more chances teams have to make the POs, the less they give a **** about the RS because it's just that much easier to make the postseason...it's ridiculous.

and again, why stop at 20/30 teams making the playoffs? where is your threshold where it's enough?

Except that teams have to give more of a **** about the RS in order to get a top 6 seed. That's why Cuban/LeBron etc. are whining about it. They actually need to prioritize winning RS games. Also, if you lose in the play-in you didn't make the playoffs. 16 teams make the playoffs.

I'd be ok with less teams making the playoffs. 12 would be ideal, but not sure byes are a good idea. 8 seems too low. Bottom line is the play-in for 7/8 is way, way, way better than the old system. Adds importance to the RS without changing the # of playoff teams. Oh, and we get to watch 6 bonus high stakes games. Wins all around.

Answer this....

Why not just have the top 2 in each conference make the playoffs? Or just go straight to a finals, 1 vs 1?

you could do that actually, plenty of leagues worldwide just take the top 2 teams in the rankings and put them in the championship game, so not sure what your point is.

and what you are not realizing is that while single game play-in games can be exciting, creating MORE opportunities for teams to make the POs does 2 things...1) devalued the RS even more because it's even EASIER to make the PS now and 2) devalues the POs themselves...all the arguments you are making for a 20 team POs can be made for a 24 team PO or 26 team PO...again, why should it end here?

in what other league in the world do 66% of the teams make the postseason? how the heck is this a good thing?

[clyde21]

what would've been MUCH better is making the 7/8th seeds the play-ins instead of 9/10. THAT would have been much more exciting.