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

[Domejandro]

What? How has this changed anything to date?

Teams at 9 and 10 would be playing to get to eighth place either way. Bottom 8-10 teams every year are tanking like always. It does nothing except make the games next week (maybe the last 4?) maybe mean a little more and at that point, and maybe keep one team from tanking a week earlier.... who cares. It devalues all the other games in the race for eighth.

It absolutely does not devalue games for the eighth seed, getting the eighth seed ensures that you only need to win one of two games.

Last year, it led to some great games, including one where the ninth seed Memphis Grizzlies upset the eighth seed Golden State Warriors. Not only does it functionally give us more Playoff basketball, it gives fans that otherwise have close to zero chance of high stakes basketball something to cheer for. I think the system is great.

It's a ridiculous idea, and I still think it should go away.

Let's play 82 games, work hard to make playoffs, then make it all possibly get thrown out cause of one or two bad games at the end.

Get rid of it.

The play-in is functionally Playoff basketball that is single elimination. I am a fan of the team that is arguably getting most hosed in the entire NBA by the play-in structure, and I like the high-stakes that the tournament creates.

I like the idea of the play-in, but I don't like that it's unconditional. I think they should have some rules like in the bubble, where you had to be within a certain range. The Timberwolves are 43-34 right now, the three teams below them are 37-39, 33-34 and 31-44. The Wolves should be in the playoffs, period.

If the Timberwolves suck so hard that they choke two games at the end of the season, then they were going nowhere in the Playoffs anyways. If anything, I am glad that Minnesota fans have the opportunity to watch high-stakes basketball; it is way more fun to watch a "Game Seven" experience.

[ropjhk]

It has generated more late season interest for lower seeded teams but I feel that something has been lost early in the season for the top rated teams.

Imagine how much more crazy the panic could have been in LA and Brooklyn this season. I feel that those teams got it easy. The play in created less urgency for them to maintain a higher playoff seed.

A top team like the Suns shouldn't be punished for being excellent all season long but that's essentially what will happen to them. The play in will generally result in tougher 7th and 8th seeds since teams who are playing bad at the end of the regular season are unlikely to win the play in and healthy teams playing well are more likely to win the play in.

[7 Footer]

Lebron HATED the idea of a play-in and wanted it gone, now the play-in is the only way Lakers can make the playoffs. I wonder if Lebron still wants to get rid of the play-in.

[jc23]

imo most people were excited for it. now its just been accepted as great. The only issue i have is involving the 7 seed, i understand why they did it (an extra game) but you could still have the play in and remove the 7 seed from it.

[whatisacenter]

I hope it goes away after this season. having teams that are 10+ games under .500 playoff eligible is a joke.

[Hellcrooner]

this year it benefits my team and i STILL DONT LIKE it.

in fact in my opinion nba shoutl stop the " east/west" thing and have only 8 teams qualify for playoffs regardelss of conference/division, just play 58 games one home one away against everyone else and top 8 teams qualify, the rest do all go to the lottery ( with a sistem that actually does give A BIT more odds to get a top pick to the worst teams but only a BIT like in bottom 8 have 2 balls the rest have 1 ball).


but if they want to go on with the play in i think it would be better if this change was implemented.

teams 1-5 make the playoffs

teams 6 plays team 11 team 7 plays team 10 team 8 plays team nine better of five makes playoffs teams 6, 7, 8 have home court advantage.

make the first round then better of 5 too instead of better of 7 ( it used to be like that btw).

[hauntedcomputer]

I'd rather make the draft a 30-team lottery and kill tanking forever. Imagine a world where every team is trying to win every game.

[liquidswords]

I'm not sure about "hated." It was just a fresh look at reducing tanking and allowing more teams to have a shot at the playoffs. Now, the idea that should be hated and that truly is stupid is the mid-season tournament. Is a team going to hang a banner for winning a meaningless tournament?

[JayMKE]

Cheapening the 7th and 8th seeds doesn't really matter much since they're just fodder, we have a really odd year this year with guys returning late and teams that have underpreformed that I'm not sure will be repeated.

It would be better if they just halved the playoffs to 8 teams which would all be contenders and would raise the value of the regular season tremendously.

[zeebneeb]

The play-in punishes those in the 7-8 spots too harshly.

It's already a huge lift to face the #1 or #2 team in the conference, but after a grueling 82-game season, let's ALSO force those teams to play an extra high-intensity elimination game or two prior to those respective series' starting?

If NBA wants to make some money for loser teams, create a week-long NIT-type post-season tourney for 9-16 seeds and give a $$$ prize to the team that wins.

How about getting rid of the play-in, have the tournament you talked about, but make it for draft pick positioning.

Screw the lottery, make the bad teams earn that pick in single game elimination playoff style.

Talk about spicing it up.

[JShuttlesworth]

The play-in hasn't made me any more interested in basketball than I otherwise would have been, and my team was in the play-in range for the majority of the season.

You don't think it's because your team has been safely well above the 9th-10th seed for weeks? If your injuries had been worse this year and you had the same team healthy now but you knew you could only make the 9th seed at best, it wouldn't make things a little more exciting or interesting to have that extra chance at making a run?

Also I feel like people keep setting the bar really high. The question shouldn't be 'is it an epically exciting season-changing addition that gets me goosed af?' It should just be this: 'does this make the season a little more interesting and worth paying attention to than not having it?' I personally think it's no contest, the play-in games themselves were really fun last year and made me care about teams I wouldn't have thought twice about otherwise, and there's a little extra drama in the last month in the middle of the pack. Doesn't have to change the world to be better than what came before.

No, because if we were worse I'd be cheering for the draft as opposed to a first round sweep.

The play-in does nothing for me.

[Tim Reynolds]

Have they figured out how they keep the stats?

Last year, I know that they didn't count for regular season, or post season totals or averages. They kinda just are on their own.

[maxpower8888]

I don't see how it makes the end of the season any more exciting. We would still be watching teams try to get those final playoffs spots, now we're watching teams try to get those final play-in spots. There's no difference.

[dhsilv2]

Have they figured out how they keep the stats?

Last year, I know that they didn't count for regular season, or post season totals or averages. They kinda just are on their own.

That's imo how they should be counted. That way history can ignore these idiotic waste of our time games!

[TravisScott55]

7th seed shouldn't have to play for their playoff lives

[TinmanZBoy]

They just locked up my thread, here we go another one…
I think we should keep this one open for discussion… it is a legit topic…

[otwok]

It's very gimmicky and doesn't value the regular season. For me the end of the season was always very interesting, teams battling for seeding, HC advantage, gaining momentum for the playoffs. The good teams that already secured their spot will always rest players. All this does is make maybe 2 or 3 teams play harder. That is not worth devaluing the rest of the season. 5 good games for entertainment doesn't justify giving a 10th seed that has no chance of catching the 8th to make the playoffs.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[Snakebites]

I don’t see why people have such a strong opinion one way or another about it. At best it’s something that makes things a little bit more interesting for a small number of teams at a particular time of year.

At worst it gums up the works and wastes a bit of time for a couple of teams that were relatively unlikely to make waves in the playoffs anyway.

Change is neither inherently good or inherently bad, so arguments that come off as purist don’t really move the needle for me either.

To me at best isn’t “that good” and at worst it isn’t “that bad”.

Maybe I’ll have more of an opinion when (if ) the Pistons become relevant to any of this. Then again maybe I won’t.

[dacrusha]

The play-in punishes those in the 7-8 spots too harshly.

It's already a huge lift to face the #1 or #2 team in the conference, but after a grueling 82-game season, let's ALSO force those teams to play an extra high-intensity elimination game or two prior to those respective series' starting?

If NBA wants to make some money for loser teams, create a week-long NIT-type post-season tourney for 9-16 seeds and give a $$$ prize to the team that wins.

How about getting rid of the play-in, have the tournament you talked about, but make it for draft pick positioning.

Screw the lottery, make the bad teams earn that pick in single game elimination playoff style.

Talk about spicing it up.

The problem with having a tourney to determine draft positioning is that there are many many players (potential free agents in the summer, could be traded, might retire, don't want their team to draft their replacement etc. etc.) who couldn't care less about where their current team will draft next year.

If the stakes involve money, ALL players will listen.

[Snakebites]

The play-in punishes those in the 7-8 spots too harshly.

It's already a huge lift to face the #1 or #2 team in the conference, but after a grueling 82-game season, let's ALSO force those teams to play an extra high-intensity elimination game or two prior to those respective series' starting?

If NBA wants to make some money for loser teams, create a week-long NIT-type post-season tourney for 9-16 seeds and give a $$$ prize to the team that wins.

How about getting rid of the play-in, have the tournament you talked about, but make it for draft pick positioning.

Screw the lottery, make the bad teams earn that pick in single game elimination playoff style.

Talk about spicing it up.

Cool idea, but it makes the spots just outside of the playoffs way way more appealing than barely making the playoffs. I could easily see a good team that has some injuries or a disappointing year tank it to fall just outside the playoffs so they can dominate and get a high pick.

That’s not really a spot we want to be in IMO.