Maybe the HCA would be a one-time consumable (not usable in the finals)? Like, you find out you won't have HCA after the first round. You keep the HCA in your pocket for round 2 and win anyway, then use it for the conference finals to get that extra push into the finals? Adds strategy and risk/reward to the meta-game for the coaching staff.
If you are good enough to win the tournament then you are going to be in the playoffs anyway so a guaranteed play in birth won't mean much. A guaranteed play in berth will also screw over another team who put in the hard work to get there, or will encourage teams to tank end of season instead of going for the play in if a team is already guaranteed their spot anyway.
Not if you're good at the beginning and lose someone midseason, causing you to drop in the standings. This is a way of saying "yeah, but you did achieve this thing so yeah, have that play in berth." It's an insurance policy. I thought it was obvious that, if you didn't need it, you wouldn't take it from someone else, but apparently I overestimated my ability to be coherent, or you just think I'm an idiot. Whatever. No, to be clear, if you're ranked high enough at the end of the season that you don't need it, you don't take it from someone else. Jesus.
So the NBA is handicapping the Inside The NBA crew... great. Edit: To be clear Wilbon will fit in just fine. It's the addition of Stephen A. that is a huge blunder, same as it always is.
Incentive for IST shouldn’t be any different than incentive for NBA Finals. You just play for the honor of winning it.
Really like 95% of the IST and think it'll be a big hit long term. But they need to get rid of the point differential tie breaker. Multiple teams were trying to run up the score last night and that's just not how NBA basketball should be played. Tie breaker should be H2H tourney, H2H regular season, regular season record, common opponent regular season record, etc.
I just don't see giving a 6th or 10th seed to be a huge April hand out. That's not giving out a #1 seed or such. Yes it could bump a team to 7th or 11th, but those teams will know that's the case the whole season. Currently playoff seeds are already determined by games back to October as regular season record is used so I see this change just being an extension of that.
I think letting the team that wins the tournament have one extra win would be cool. Despite all of the criticism, one would have to think the tournament is a success. I know I was watching NBA games Redzone style on a Tuesday night in November. Can guarantee I was not doing that anytime in the past.
The results of the top 8 teams is kind of interesting. In the West you have 4 teams including the Pelicans who are currently in the 9th seeded position in the conference standings. You also had the Warriors who are currently in the 10th spot in the mix up to halftime of their game last night. In the East you have all 4 teams in the top 6 of the conference. Including the top 2 seeds. The West top 2 seeds Denver and Minnesota as well as the Mavs 3rd seed are all out of the tournament. Might be a little bit due to early season Parity? I wonder how al this will look in March?
I guess Indiana and Sacramento. They never win anything and they’re fun to watch. Also Knicks since they are home team.
Agreed. And I think the groups should be the divisions. It’s too hard to remember which team is in which group.
East: Knicks over Bucks Pacers over Celtics Pacers over Knicks West: Suns over Lakers Kings over Pelicans Kings over Suns Final: Kings over Pacers...
