Teams with losing records not in a playoff spot should not be allowed to play in the play in games

Yeah, I agree. It's stupid. The whole 2 conferences is stupid too. Just make it one conference and put the best teams in the playoffs. Only 6 teams in the East have a winning record.

 

One conference makes sense if you play the same number of games versus each opponent.

 

What if the 7th seed also has a sub 500 record?

 

That's why I say one conference. Everyone plays each other the same amount of games. The East has teams that don't deserve to be there. The West has always had more good teams. Just let the top 16 teams duke it out as one big conference.

 

This part would make much more sense. A team should only be able to qualify for a play-in if their record is .500 or better. Otherwise if the 8th seed or whatever happens to be under .500 leave it as is w/ no play ins Giving more opportunities to some of these loser teams that have had all year is just a waste of time

 

I mean historically hasn't one the NBA playoff teams always below 0.500 since like the 90's?

I'd bet there are way more seasons with 1 <0.500 team than seasons with 16 playoff teams >0.500.

Until one of those teams goes on some magic knocking off the title favs and league's current fav son, it will not change.

 

The point of the playoffs isn't to add more losers. If anything it should be less of them since you have typically every year a team or two from the east that's below .500

And for the most part it usually works out that way where in the west only the 9th seed has a shot at a .500 or better. After that you see the drop off. In the east drop-offs are typical after the ~6th seed.

 

This has been a continuous argument with Eastern Conference teams since I've been following NBA basketball in the late 90s and early 00s.

I don't mind the play in tournaments, give us something else to focus on during a long 82 game season. Plus the Rockets aren't going to do anything interesting outside of Tilmans self sabotaging comments for the next few years anyways.

Hopefully by then the "Team Governors" and NBA players association includes a future anti Super teams by law in the next agreement. It's getting real stale imo.

 

You are forgetting the other part of the playoffs- making the NBA more money.

Play in games will probably become a permanent thing. More games, tv ratings, makes NBA more money.
I've always thought the playoffs are too long and the first round should go back to best of 5. Won't happen. More games, makes NBA more money.

 

Doubt it. A play in for an extra 4-6 individual games of 8 teams and the majority of those team being under .500 isn't much of some make or break money maker. it would have been just fine yesterday with the GS/Memphis matchup. Winner gets the 8th seed. East has a bunch of losers playing each other.

 

I'm more than convinced "stars" are a manipulation of the league. They are catered to develop their talent by selection rather than an even playing field. Every single NBA player are so close in talent anyone can shine under the right circumstances. With that said the top 16 teams are what the playoffs should be about.

 

If they're so crap then the de facto 7th or 8th seed should beat them quite handily.

 

The play in games are a horrible idea. NBA needs to cancel it and stop making changes that make things more complicated.

 

Whoever came up with that s*** needs to be fired

 

I didn't really crunch the numbers but I feel like it's almost mathematically impossible for all of the play in teams to have winning records. As is, the playoffs involves over half the league with 16/30 teams and even then it's unlikely that all 16 are over 0.500. If you expand that to 20/30 it's even more unlikely especially when some of the top seeds are winning 70%+ of their games.

 

it's not impossible. The 2018-2019 season had every single playoff team .500 or better. The lowest seed was #8 Detroit at 41-41. The lowest were the Spurs/Clips both at 48-34 for 7/8

The 2017-2018 nba season had every single playoff team over .500 in both conferences. #8 Washington were 43-39 and #8 Minnesota was 47-35

2016-2017 & 2015-2016 was similar to 2018-2019. It's very logical to only have .500 teams or better only be relevant for playoff spots

A team shouldn't qualify for a play in if they're below .500. That would make this much more meaningful

 

For playoffs, yes I said it's unlikely but not impossible. But for the play in, where you're expanding from 16 to 20 I don't think there are enough Ls to go around.