The Play-In: Should it Be Permanent?

agree on 72. just spread that out over a normal 6 month schedule unlike this abbreviated stuff.

play in is here to stay. the only way i see them nixing it is LA somehow ends up getting bounced before the playoffs.

 

This is a great idea for player longevity and quality of product but as the NFL just showed us, no league is going to play less games than they have before if those games can make them extra money.

I expect next season to be 82 games followed the play-in before our all 7 game series playoffs.

 

We’re gonna miss the playoffs this year, right? Morale is down after loss to Suns, right?

 

Don't misquote me. We could have missed the playoffs. The Nuggets just threw us that game and if we hadn't won it (yes we could have won it even if the Nuggets tried) then we would have been in a play-in game against a surging Warriors team and then if we lost that a play-in that would have likely been against a Memphis team that we're 1-2 against. We just weren't that far away from missing the playoffs but I was always leaning towards this being the outcome.

You were sure that Utah, Phoenix and Denver would throw games to us... I wasn't. I wasn't even sure about tonight. That being said... we're in and have three losses that we can afford and still get to the next round. Go Blazers!!!

 

Utah, Phoenix, and Denver all rested players as I predicted. Also- yes we COULD have missed the playoffs, but the Hornets COULD win the championship. Get it? Have some faith in Dame, man.

 

Sadly it's here to stay but the league needs to make some tweaks to it. For those trying to hype up the GS/Mem game as a reason why the play-in is a good thing, it would have been so much better under the old format where it was win or go home. Both teams knew they had more games to play. The only team it might have kept involved this year in the west is the Spurs and that team has been coasting for the better part of a month, not looking real interested in putting up any kind of fight. The league struck gold this season with it being GS/LAL ... if the Lakers and Warriors are healthy and this is a Blazers/Mavs game, then it isn't getting nearly the kind of hype that is. And for all the talk about teams not resting players down the stretch, sure seemed like some lengthy injury reports before games. I get that people are excited for something new, but I really don't think the actual net gain for fans was nearly as much as just six extra basketball games.

 

I think the play in stays and I think that is great.

It provides a larger incentive to be the 5th and 6th seed.

It also gives the 11th and 12th place teams a chance to have more meaningful games in the later part of the season. I can't stand the last few months of the NBA season when a dozen teams are trotting out DLeague lineups.

In a future season we might see a really good team that is ravaged by injuries go on a tear at the end of the season to make the 10th spot, and even compete for a title. That is great. Its still a hard road to do that from a playin spot, so such a team will definitely deserve a title if they can pull it off.

Get rid of divisions entirely, it stupid Dallas got a tie breaker this year as a division winner.

I would like to see the league get back to backs down to under 5 a season. Maybe stick to the 72 game season, or have the finals go into July. Have free agency before the draft.

Have the higher seed pick their opponents. Its stupid teams might prefer the 4th seed to the 3rd seed with a matchup, but if they would have first pick of opponent as 3rd seed the team would always want that higher seed. It also provides a better reward to 1+2 seeds since they could avoid a hot stacked playin team in round 1 if preferred. Lastly it provides a great underdog locker room material to the lower seed as the team wanted to play them.