Yes since summer of 2020, NBA has gotten very political. Wants to make sure people vote. I think the NBA had a hand in electing Biden. Opening up NBA arenas in Atlanta, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia for early voting pretty much swung the election.
Final 4 is in Vegas so if you make the knockout round (8 teams) and win that first knockout game the team goes to Vegas. Would be super fun some year if the Blazers make that 4 and us fans can go see it. No similar experience has ever been available in NBA history. Really like the tournaments I think it'll be a big hit eventually. It's March madness style win or your out. Playoffs have so many long series where the superior team wins your never going to have big unexpected excitement as is possibly with a win or done format. Heard all the same doubters about the playin but now everyone likes it. Bunch of grumpy old men on this board resistant to change so not surprised there are so many posts here diminishing it. I don't understand the downside, were you super interested in 4 random games in the middle of an NBA season? If anything they should eventually expand the in season tournament or even have two of them, then get rid of the all-star weekend. All-star game has nothing to do with competitive professional basketball. It's about what group of super friends can score 180 with no defense, make 50 foot shots, and dress for parties.
Love for this team to get into the playoff bracket for IST. Anything that ups the pressure and even remotely feels like a playoff game is good for these young guys.
That plaid shirt is a real missed opportunity. Shoulda listened to me. Or simply reverse it - have plain letters on a plaid background.
Agreed, having experience in pressure games is a huge benefit for a young team. Now guys like Grant, Brogdon, TimeLord, Ayton it really doesn't matter. They've been in big playoff series wins and tons of experience. But Sharpe, Scoot, Camara, Walker, even to some extent Ant have very little of this experience. It often takes a couple years of playoff losses for young players just to get used to how the game changes in those pressure moments. If we can get a bit of that with the in season tournament push, as well as a late season push to make the playin it will help these young players immensely in their following season and subsequent playoffs. Then maybe they win a playoff series a year or two earlier, and are ready to contend for a WCF a year or two after that.
Legit question: Why, why, why should a fan care? If we "win" it, what's the point, the advantage? I don't see any, except for the players who become richer.
they are just trying to create some kind hype and reason for people to care about early games when most people say "games dont matter". I dont think theres any reason why a fan should care about this tournament shit, cus youre right its only money players are getting out of it. but least the courts are kinda cool and different.
Now, if, say, the winner got an automatic entry into the play-in tournament, that would be cool and a reason to care.
I listened to Silver explain it on the Bill Simmons podcast, and he explained that they wanted to keep the in-season tournament separate from the playoffs, and went the route of $$$ incentive. Made sense, and it seems to be fun with the colorful courts and jerseys. I think it’s a fun addition to a long season!
And if a sure playoff team wins the tournament they should be able to use the auto play-in tournament entry as an asset and trade it! maybe a bit to crazy, but outside the box.
The championship in June doesn’t mean anything either. We just decide it does. There’s something to win here. Let’s win it.
I'm telling you that I get where you're coming from but in three seasons it will mean a lot. Once a team wins both the tourney and the chip it will be a different type of champion. It will show a level of dominance early and late. So this has the potential to have a lot of meaning.
In 20 years, you’ll tell someone you remember when there was no IST and they’ll say “Wow. How boring.”
