You telling me that the Nurkic-Plumlee deal might be one of those rare trades that improved both teams?
Jokic can stretch the floor which helps. It would never work if Jokic could not shoot from pretty much everywhere. He's quite amazing.
Nothing worth doing ever came easy. Think positively: if both Portland and Denver can pass Memphis in the standings, that can improve our pick from them. Of course, they're messing up that plan by winning, but we can still hope!
I'd hoped that they would lose, but playing at home against a Clippers squad without Griffin or Jordan it's not exactly surprising. The Nuggets are two games up on the Blazers and the two teams' relative strengths of schedule strongly favors the Blazers catching them. The Nuggets have 14 games remaining on their schedule, 5 at home and 9 on the road. The Nuggets still have a 5 game road trip on their schedule. They play 8 teams with records over .500 and 5 of those are away games for the Nuggets. The Blazers have 15 games remaining, but 10 of them are at home and only 5 are away. The Blazers only have 5 games remaining against teams with winning records. There is one head-to-head game between the Blazers and Nuggets and it will be played in Portland. For those of us hoping for playoffs, the picture is pretty rosy. For those of you rooting for losses and a lottery appearance...not so much.
Ok that makes me feel better. It's just that Denver is playing so well. Maybe they'll win those games.
Are you also proposing the NBA and D-League teams swap cities and arenas? Seems like this would royally fuck with season ticket sales, either way. Also, what about the owners and front office personnel, and other non-player personnel. Do they also get demoted/promoted? If so, who plays for their relocation? What if they have kids and a home and don't want to relocate? I really don't see how this could possibly work on a practical level. BNM
Every once in a while someone says something so perfect that I really have to grit my teeth and resist the temptation.
Grizz pick is only top 5 protected. No real way they get bumped into the lottery unless GAsol/Conley both get injured but its a dream.
nope, glad we won at SA but still want the best lottery pick we can get and really don't care about playoffs this yr
If the OP is modeling the idea on the European football system, then there's no relocation. (Were you reading "relegation" as "relocation"?) Unless you're pointing to the fact that D(soon-to-be "G")-League arenas are too old and tiny to make money in the NBA, and thus suggesting that the NBA team should get the NBA arena. Arenas are indeed the main problem. It's a shame, though, because relegation battles are great for (a) combating tanking (it would therefore remove the need for a lottery) (b) making the end of the season as exciting for shitty teams as it is for good teams. And hey, it works in the EPL, which makes a shit ton more money that the "Championship". And this would be a way to get megarich assholes to buy D/G-League teams with the intention of losing a ton of money up front with the plan of getting promotion and making the money back.
The best way to combat tanking? Flip winning and losing after the all-star break. Having wins count like losses and losses count like wins. (In terms of the lottery, that's it).
So that Golden State could rack up wins over the first 55 games, coast through to the end of the season, still make the playoffs, and then add a top-5 pick in the offseason? No thank you.
Yeah, I don't see how it could work with, or without, relocation. How do you suddenly add NBA teams in Boise and Ft. Wayne when they don't have adequate arenas to host NBA teams? What happens to corporate sponsorship when a team gets demoted to the minor leagues? What about season ticket sales. How do you not end up the target of a class action suit when you sell season tickets to an NBA team and then that team gets demoted to the minors. It just seems like there are way too many logistical and financial reasons for this to ever be feasible. BNM
