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

[NZB2323]

LeBron is correct.
Play-in is stupid considering there's a ton of games in a season.
The 72 games this year should be the play-in.

It's a stupid excuse by the league and the owners to cash in.

I really don’t understand how some people can blame a business for “chasing in.” The point of the NBA is to make money. It exists as a business to make money for the owners and the players. The play in tournament should get fantastic ratings and it makes the end of the regular season get more ratings.

The NBA will, and should, look for every available opportunity to cash in.

Playoffs number after this will be intresting to see but right now regular season numbers are down across the board. Cant call that cashing in

Ratings are down across the board as more people are watching Netflix, Hulu, and Disney +. I also believe that instant replay and the last 2 minutes of a game taking 30 minutes, as well as other reasons, are why ratings are down so much. That really has nothing to do with the play-in tournament.

[Ballerhogger]

I really don’t understand how some people can blame a business for “chasing in.” The point of the NBA is to make money. It exists as a business to make money for the owners and the players. The play in tournament should get fantastic ratings and it makes the end of the regular season get more ratings.

The NBA will, and should, look for every available opportunity to cash in.

Playoffs number after this will be intresting to see but right now regular season numbers are down across the board. Cant call that cashing in

Ratings are down across the board as more people are watching Netflix, Hulu, and Disney +. I also believe that instant replay and the last 2 minutes of a game taking 30 minutes, as well as other reasons, are why ratings are down so much. That really has nothing to do with the play-in tournament.

sure it does it gives the top teams more room to coast and rest thier players and if your in the 8th seed even you an rest your players because if you fall out there's still a play in game. Look at how many 30 point blow outs we had this year as well

[NZB2323]

Playoffs number after this will be intresting to see but right now regular season numbers are down across the board. Cant call that cashing in

Ratings are down across the board as more people are watching Netflix, Hulu, and Disney +. I also believe that instant replay and the last 2 minutes of a game taking 30 minutes, as well as other reasons, are why ratings are down so much. That really has nothing to do with the play-in tournament.

sure it does it gives the top teams more room to coast and rest thier players and if your in the 8th seed even you an rest your players because if you fall out there's still a play in game. Look at how many 30 point blow outs we had this year as well

A lot of the 30 point blowouts are because the losing team was hit hard by COVID protocols.

Teams have less of an incentive to rest because there is a race for the 6th seed to avoid the play-in as well as the 10th seed to get into the play-in tournament.

Also, for the play-in, teams want to be 7th or 8th where they only have to win 1 game out of 2 as opposed to 10th or 11th where they have to win 2 games in a row in order to make the playoffs.

[Da ThRONe]

On the other side it takes away the importance of all the other games played. There's less reason to make watching a sport all season a priority when something like a play in game farther dilutes the already insanely watered down regular season.

How does it reduce the importance of any regular season game when there are less guaranteed playoff spots? Now after the All-star break, there will be several mini tournaments going on:

1. Top seed in conference (top 3 or 4 seeds)
2. HCA in 1st round (3-6 seeds)
3. Avoiding the play-in, as well as earning the 5-7 day break for guaranteed playoff teams while play-in is going on, practically another all-star break(5-8 seeds)
4. Fighting to get in or stay in the play-in, maybe position for HCA (seeds 8-13 [?])

Silver was already talking about the possibility of adding some other in-season tournaments in addition to the play-in, and by the looks of things in a sense he has done that, and it's exciting. It takes advantage of the season we already have though, instead of changing the structure more. Also, it makes teams be smarter about "load management" as they jockey for position amongst each of these mini tournaments. That especially increases the value of each game for the fans, rather than dilute the NBA product, and that is what this is all about, incentivizing teams to not blow of the latter portion of the season. More teams are staying engaged at least, and thus their fanbase, the majority of whom are causals, are watching as well.

I disagree. We are living in an age where the level of access to so many forms of entertainment is much more vast compared to when the NBA started. IMO that's why viewership is down. You can watch individual highlights of bench players on YouTube.

The regular season is incredibly waterdown and giving a handful of teams a chance later in the season may give some fans reason to tune in, but when more than half the league makes it to playoffs it's not a great feat making it anyways. And more than likely that team probably isn't getting great fan support if they are a fringe playoff team. IMO any interest they create on the back end of the season they'll lose more during the regular season, because each individual game matters that much less in an again already water down regular season.

[Rapcity_11]

9th and 10th seed teams just need to coast and get healthy. They are so many games back they cant catch the 7th and 8th seed teams record wise anyway.

They dont need to catch them record wise. They just need to get healthy to win one game. It doesnt matter how many games back the 9th and 10th seed teams are. They can be 5 games back of the 7th seed team but just need to beat them ONCE and that lead is erased.

Meanwhile, the 7th and 8th seed teams are not able to coast and will probably not be as healthy as the 9th and 10th place teams. It's crap.

The NBA has always had one of the best playoff systems in sports. Why change it?

How can the 9/10 coast but the 7/8 can't? That literally makes no sense.

Also, the 9/10 teams have to win TWO games, not one. And the 7/8 have to lose TWO games, not just one.

[Rapcity_11]

For a lot of teams in the 7-10 range, 1 or 2 play-in games is a hell of a lot more entertaining than getting immediately rolled by a top 2 seed. That part is getting slept on.

[Slade3]

The fact he now speaks out against it once it actually effects him says what needs to be said

So that's a no then?

Point is he didn't care really because it didn't impact him. Now it does.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using RealGM mobile app

Translation: I'm going to ignore what LeBron said in 2018 and continue my narrative.

[Effigy]

Everyone who has to fight for their playoff spot always complains about it.

They have been fighting for their playoff spot all season long. Wtf are you talking about?

The problem is a trash team under .500 that is 7 games back of a team gets to erase that entire lead that they fought all season to build and take their spot by winning ONE game.

Right. It's a problem and it sucks. But when people only complain about it when it affects them, it makes them whiners. Have that take when it doesn't effect you. Mark Cuban voted for this rule. He was in favor of it. Oh but NOW his team might have to do it so it sucks? How about having a little forsight when you vote, Mark, as you're one of the very few people who actually gets a say in this being a rule or not? Lebron loved the play in last year, but now he's in it and so now it sucks? That's just whining. It's either a good idea or a bad idea, it's not only dependenent on when it affects you.

Steph Curry LOVES the play in tournament, because otherwise his crap team wouldn't be sniffing the playoffs. But next year if he's the 7 or 8 seed he may feel differently.

[Ito]

While the play-in gives 9th and 10th seeds a chance it doesn’t seem fair for the 7th and 8th seeds who were good enough all season long to definitely be in the playoffs.. now all of a sudden they have to play each other and one of them have to lose their spot? The play-in sucks

[Ito]

What they should have done instead is that the first seeds get a bye in the playoffs and then make the 2nd seeds play who ever wins the play-in out of the 9th and 10th seeds.. that would have made more sense

[AmIWrongDude]

Everyone who has to fight for their playoff spot always complains about it.

They have been fighting for their playoff spot all season long. Wtf are you talking about?

The problem is a trash team under .500 that is 7 games back of a team gets to erase that entire lead that they fought all season to build and take their spot by winning ONE game.

Right. It's a problem and it sucks. But when people only complain about it when it affects them, it makes them whiners. Have that take when it doesn't effect you. Mark Cuban voted for this rule. He was in favor of it. Oh but NOW his team might have to do it so it sucks? How about having a little forsight when you vote, Mark, as you're one of the very few people who actually gets a say in this being a rule or not? Lebron loved the play in last year, but now he's in it and so now it sucks? That's just whining. It's either a good idea or a bad idea, it's not only dependenent on when it affects you.

Steph Curry LOVES the play in tournament, because otherwise his crap team wouldn't be sniffing the playoffs. But next year if he's the 7 or 8 seed he may feel differently.

Why do people complete totally ignoring that he said it was wack back in 2018? People are just gonna make up whatever narrative they want. Last year was very different and unique circumstances.

The Cleveland Cavaliers star didn't mince words when asked about the NBA potentially using a postseason play-in tournament.

"No, no, no," James said, via ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "That's wack. That's wack. Why? You got to earn your spot to be in the postseason. No consolation for finishing last. That's corny. That's corny. That's wack. To play for what? What are they playing for?"

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2765841-lebron-james-on-idea-of-nba-play-in-tournament-thats-corny-thats-wack

[Rapcity_11]

While the play-in gives 9th and 10th seeds a chance it doesn’t seem fair for the 7th and 8th seeds who were good enough all season long to definitely be in the playoffs.. now all of a sudden they have to play each other and one of them have to lose their spot? The play-in sucks

The loser of the 7/8 game plays the winner of the 9/10 game for the 8th seed.