I just wrote this on realGM and wanted to share it here: True SOS is hard to calculate right now. 4 months off. People have literally grown older. No homecourt advantage. This is a completely new season and we have no idea which teams play best on neutral court and under these new conditions. Yes the 2019-20 record is staying on the board but when it comes to determining who is the best team in Orlando/Summer2020, truly everyone is 0-0. I expect lots of “upsets.”
I have no issue with NOP having the easiest schedule for the Seeding Games. They had the easiest remaining schedule when play stopped so that is only fair. .... ...Portland had something like the 4th easiest remaining schedule (someone will have the exact ranking) when play stopped, and the have the 5th most difficult schedule in the Seeding Games? 'Mr. Commissioner, your motivations are not subtle.'
Shitty teams like the Kings may try really hard while the Clippers save their starters for the playoffs. So let's hope this backfires and New Orleans has trouble.
They managed to give NOP the easiest schedule (fair). They could have done something similar instead of giving Portland one of the toughest. (not so fair)
But we had already played a lot of those Orlando "basement" teams 3 or 4 times. Wouldn't have been fair to give us more. Our easy games were against teams like the Cavs and they will not be in Orlando.
They made the schedule based around those teams. There were good teams left on the Pelicans schedule that they didnt end up having to face. The Pelicans schedule got easier.
We’re playing the teams we had yet to play. It’s not like they added games against Raptors, Bucks, and Lakers. For us to have an easy schedule, Detroit, Minnesota, and Cleveland would have to be invited to Orlando. Tell me which teams we should be playing? More games against Wizards? We already played them twice. More games against Spurs and Kings? We already finished our season with them too. What exactly would you have done to make our schedule “easier”?
AND- we don’t know strength of schedule anyway because we have no idea what any of these teams look like in August 2020! The Oct-March records don’t mean much. This is a new season. You know how when a new season starts, there are a bunch of surprises and disappointments? That’s gonna happen now.
Blazers fell three spots in CBS power rankings as a result of schedule. "With the return of Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins, Portland looked like a decent bet to challenge for a playoff spot ... and then the schedule came out. The Blazers go from the 16th most difficult remaining schedule to the fifth-toughest during the restart, which makes their climb to the postseason that much steeper. You never want to count out Damian Lillard, but this will be a monumental task, particularly since Trevor Ariza opted out of the restart for family reasons." https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/...-favorable-disney-schedule-bucks-lakers-stay/
From the Ringer, give Blazers only a 5% chance of making the playoffs. "New Orleans leads the way because the Pelicans boast both the best-rated team of the bunch by advanced statistics and by far the easiest schedule. After opening the eight-game stretch against the Jazz and Clippers, New Orleans finishes with six consecutive games against sub-.500 teams." https://www.theringer.com/nba/2020/6/29/21306311/nba-restart-schedule-odds
If New Orleans loose against Utah and the Clippers there first games and win ours it really will put new Orleans in a big hole to catch us.
Getting pumped for sports again. We've got NBA playoffs, MLB playoffs, MLS, NFL & College football this early fall. The NBA is a Marketing machine so don't be surprised to see some great additional features to help offset no fans. Id love to see Dame and guys show the league, they should not have rigged the schedule in favor of the Pels.
Not necessarily, but it certainly would hurt the cause. The Blazers have to finish in 9th place and within 4 games of the 8th seed in order to force a play-in. Giving the Grizzlies another game advantage, plus giving the Pelicans the 9th spot at least for the time being, would really hurt. OTOH, it would depend on what happens in the remaining 7 games.
I thought they were talking about possibly letting a WC team win the 8th seed in the EC. What happened there? Is it 3 EC teams fighting for 2 EC spots & then 6 WC teams fighting for 1 spot
Yeah, I guess mathematically that's the way it works out but I don't see a realistic way for Dallas to be out of the playoffs or really for Phoenix to get in. The important thing is, yes there will be 8 seeds from the West and 8 seeds from the East. I'm sure you know this but if the 9th place team at the end of the 8 "play in games" is within 4 games of the 8th place team then they (8th v 9th) play to see who gets the 8th seed. The 9th place team has to win two games to get in, while the 8th place team only needs to win one.
