ATL - Season Resumes page 87

[WeekapaugGroove]

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[ReasonablySober]

My sister KILLED it.

[skbucks1985]

Lou Will is going to be in 10 day quarantine and will miss the first 2 seeding games

[Matches Malone]

Now that Phoenix is healthy, they look pretty good. Lots of young players and lots of depth.

[Chuck Diesel]

They gotta abolish conferences so teams like Phoenix have some semblance of a playoff hope. Like, the Bucks would be better served playing the Suns in a couple weeks than the Nets or Wizards, as would TV partners and fans.

[FlagsFlyForever]

I see no benefit of conferences. They frequently result in inferior teams making the playoffs over superior teams which is detrimental to the competitiveness of the playoffs. If you want to keep rivalries intact, you can break the league into eight conferences (like the NFL). The winner of each division is guaranteed a playoff spot and the remaining eight playoff spots go to the remaining top eight teams in the league. Conferences could be aligned as follows (once LV and SEA join the NBA):

North:
MIL
CHI
DET
MIN

Northwest:
POR
SAC
GS
SEA

West:
LAL
LAC
PHX
LV

Southwest:
DEN
UTA
OKC
DAL

South:
HOU
MEM
SA
NO

Southeast:
MIA
ORL
CHA
ATL

East:
PHI
IND
WAS
CLE

Northeast:
TOR
BOS
BKN
NY

[WeekapaugGroove]

Now that Phoenix is healthy, they look pretty good. Lots of young players and lots of depth.

The suns are my other team (grew up in Wisconsin a bucks fan and moved to AZ after college)

Their five man group of Rubio, Booker, bridges, oubre, Ayton has a +20 net rating so no issues there.

They run into big time issues with bench guards, they have a million of them but none have consistently given them good minutes. They desperately need to add a quality combo guard this off-season.

I was the leader of the draft Luka brigade (and was right) but I have to say Aytons growth defensively has been impressive and now he's shooting 3s so he might be a heck of a player. I'd probably take him over any non Luka player from last year's class and I was a big JJJ guy (I've never really believed in Young and still kind of don't).

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[Matches Malone]

How is Ibaka always involved in a scuffle? lol...

[Badgerlander]

How is Ibaka always involved in a scuffle? lol...

Gfycat Video - Click to Play

[HurricaneKid]

I see no benefit of conferences. They frequently result in inferior teams making the playoffs over superior teams which is detrimental to the competitiveness of the playoffs. If you want to keep rivalries intact, you can break the league into eight conferences (like the NFL). The winner of each division is guaranteed a playoff spot and the remaining eight playoff spots go to the remaining top eight teams in the league. Conferences could be aligned as follows (once LV and SEA join the NBA):

North:
MIL
CHI
DET
MIN

Northwest:
POR
SAC
GS
SEA

West:
LAL
LAC
PHX
LV

Southwest:
DEN
UTA
OKC
DAL

South:
HOU
MEM
SA
NO

Southeast:
MIA
ORL
CHA
ATL

East:
PHI
IND
WAS
CLE

Northeast:
TOR
BOS
BKN
NY

To be clear there are enormous geographic advantages to playing teams closer to you and every sport and every league in the world does this to some degree. More than half the league plays on the two coasts (or close enough in that they are in the same time zone). A 7:00 tipoff played on the other coast means either a 4pm tip or a 10pm tip. Neither works.

There has been some imbalance in the quality of teams from the west for a long time. But if that imbalance once in a while means a Dragic led team misses the playoffs as the 14th best team in the league then so what?

The Blazers are 29-37. The Pels are 28-36. Talking about shifting the foundation of the league to enable them to MAYBE earn a 7, or 8 seed in the other conference is absurd.

The Blazers were days away from pulling the plug. Dame had been out with a problematic groin for a while and they were running out of time. This has not only given that elite player back to them but also given them Nurk and Collins back who weren't coming back. Yet
they were the only ones who voted against the restart and we have people here demanding the league be ripped from its moors to help them when their season was already over.

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[FlagsFlyForever]

I see no benefit of conferences. They frequently result in inferior teams making the playoffs over superior teams which is detrimental to the competitiveness of the playoffs. If you want to keep rivalries intact, you can break the league into eight conferences (like the NFL). The winner of each division is guaranteed a playoff spot and the remaining eight playoff spots go to the remaining top eight teams in the league. Conferences could be aligned as follows (once LV and SEA join the NBA):

North:
MIL
CHI
DET
MIN

Northwest:
POR
SAC
GS
SEA

West:
LAL
LAC
PHX
LV

Southwest:
DEN
UTA
OKC
DAL

South:
HOU
MEM
SA
NO

Southeast:
MIA
ORL
CHA
ATL

East:
PHI
IND
WAS
CLE

Northeast:
TOR
BOS
BKN
NY

To be clear there are enormous geographic advantages to playing teams closer to you and every sport and every league in the world does this to some degree. More than half the league plays on the two coasts (or close enough in that they are in the same time zone). A 7:00 tipoff played on the other coast means either a 4pm tip or a 10pm tip. Neither works.

The NFL and MLB don't divide their leagues geographically like the NBA. They still split their leagues in half by conference, but both conferences have teams throughout the entire country because geography is not the be-all and end-all as you suggest. Many times during every MLB season, teams will play on the East Coast and West Coast on back to back days without any issue.

It's also important to remember that every NBA team already has to visit every other NBA arena at least once each season. Since the standard start time is 7pm local time, we see 10pm Eastern and 4pm Pacific start times all the time every NBA season. To say that it doesn't work is to say the current NBA format doesn't work.

Travel is simply not a major issue in today's NBA of luxurious travel and more off days than ever. The NBA clearly does not deem it a crucial problem as evidenced by their decision to abandon the 2-3-2 playoff series format in favor of the 2-2-1-1-1 format. However, even if traveling was a dealbreaker, eliminating conferences would make very little difference in distance traveled per team. After every team plays a home and home with each other and then two more home and homes within their own conference, that's 70 games with less average travel than the current NBA schedule. Remaining are 6 road games that are as likely to be played in nearby Indianapolis as they are in Miami or San Francisco.

The Blazers are 29-37. The Pels are 28-36. Talking about shifting the foundation of the league to enable them to MAYBE earn a 7, or 8 seed in the other conference is absurd.

The NBA has "shifted the foundation of the league" many times throughout its history. They just "shifted the foundation" of their all star game to universal acclaim. To want to keep something the way it is just to avoid change is not a valid reason. The fact that you are using this season as an example of why this change wouldn't be beneficial is exactly why they should make the change. The NBA would lose nothing and gain a ton by inviting the best teams into the playoffs.

You don't believe the Blazers or Pelicans should be playoff teams and in my scenario, the Blazers and Pelicans still would not be playoff teams. However, there are seasons when such a change would be a clear benefit to the league. For example, that 48-34 Dragic-led team you mentioned? They were the 11th best team in the NBA and they missed the 16 team playoff. There is no argument that the league was better off by keeping them out of the playoffs and allowing in a 38-44 Atlanta team that year. Nor was the league better off in 2008 when a 48 win team missed the playoffs while a team they finished 11 games better than made the playoffs. Nor is the league better off when the two best teams meet in the Conference Finals. There is a problem with the NBA playoffs and they should do something to fix it.

[Ron Swanson]

Who cares that a 40-42 8th seed gets in while a 44-38 one doesn't? I don't really get the hand-wringing over conferences, especially in a sport where the 8th seed has only won a playoff series, what, once in the last 20 years? All of this stuff really only ever comes up because of the perceived "unfairness" to a handful of Western conference treadmill teams. In the NFL it only ever comes up when some 8-8 team makes the playoffs and then it's "abolish guaranteed playoff berths for division winners".

It's ok to keep certain traditional formats and not change things based on reactionary thinking. Conference balance realigns (it arguably already has swung back to the East) and if anything, the NBA should be doing more to make division and conference rivalries a thing.

[MickeyDavis]

^^^^ yes

[paulpressey25]

Props to the NBA for doing the bubble.

Thought MLB was stupid to try and do things outside one.

Of course the NBA may still have a “Lou Williams” ruin it for everyone.

[trwi7]

Props to the NBA for doing the bubble.

Thought MLB was stupid to try and do things outside one.

Of course the NBA may still have a “Lou Williams” ruin it for everyone.

To be fair, it's a lot harder to do a bubble with baseball and the two places that could make it work are COVID hotspots. But yes the idea that MLB was going to get through the season with players being allowed to go wherever the **** was dumb and par for the course for Manfred.

[dbrodz7]

Props to the NBA for doing the bubble.

Thought MLB was stupid to try and do things outside one.

Of course the NBA may still have a “Lou Williams” ruin it for everyone.

To be fair, it's a lot harder to do a bubble with baseball and the two places that could make it work are COVID hotspots. But yes the idea that MLB was going to get through the season with players being allowed to go wherever the **** was dumb and par for the course for Manfred.

Why is it harder for baseball than the NBA to do the bubble idea? I've seen this thought in multiple places, I'm legitimately wondering not trying to be a dick. I also think the hotspot argument doesn't matter that much if the bubble is properly implemented, because the NBA one is in Florida and seems to be working.

[trwi7]

Props to the NBA for doing the bubble.

Thought MLB was stupid to try and do things outside one.

Of course the NBA may still have a “Lou Williams” ruin it for everyone.

To be fair, it's a lot harder to do a bubble with baseball and the two places that could make it work are COVID hotspots. But yes the idea that MLB was going to get through the season with players being allowed to go wherever the **** was dumb and par for the course for Manfred.

Why is it harder for baseball than the NBA to do the bubble idea? I've seen this thought in multiple places, I'm legitimately wondering not trying to be a dick. I also think the hotspot argument doesn't matter that much if the bubble is properly implemented, because the NBA one is in Florida and seems to be working.

Find 15 MLB quality fields with lights, camera setups, close proximity, replay equipment etc. Thinking about it, only Arizona spring training sites would probably because the Florida spring training sites are all spread out while Arizona sites are all in the Phoenix metro.

[WeekapaugGroove]

Props to the NBA for doing the bubble.

Thought MLB was stupid to try and do things outside one.

Of course the NBA may still have a “Lou Williams” ruin it for everyone.

To be fair, it's a lot harder to do a bubble with baseball and the two places that could make it work are COVID hotspots. But yes the idea that MLB was going to get through the season with players being allowed to go wherever the **** was dumb and par for the course for Manfred.

Why is it harder for baseball than the NBA to do the bubble idea? I've seen this thought in multiple places, I'm legitimately wondering not trying to be a dick. I also think the hotspot argument doesn't matter that much if the bubble is properly implemented, because the NBA one is in Florida and seems to be working.

Easier to set up NBA courts than it would be to have multiple MLB style ballparks in one spot. Plus the sheer number of players in the MLB vs the NBA.

Not that it would have been impossible for the MLB though, especially considering its a short season.

Heck the NBA is going to have trouble with the 20/21 season if there isn't a vax or much less community spread. This current set up works for a short run but would be tough to replicate for an entire season.

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[jschligs]

I stand by that no sports will happen this fall if they do not have a bubble. College, pro, doesn't matter. The only ones that will work are bubble ones, and even the bubble is suspect because it only takes one Lou Williams.

[dbrodz7]

My thought on baseball was they'd play all the games in shared stadiums in the Phoenix area and travel by bus. It wouldn't be as tight of a bubble as the NBA, as you guys noted because that wouldn't be possible.

EDIT: You've also got the benefit of not being a close proximity sport and the games could be played outdoors, unlike the NBA. You'd think MLB could've come up with something better than what they chose.