That has me thinking — could the nba learn something from NASCAR?

Winning a stage gives you 10 points and with only 6 playoff spots — rather than 20 now, yes.

If you don’t win that stage it makes it difficult to make the playoffs.

 

That is obviously a good start to making the regular season mean something.

However, I think if we just do that teams will be coasting and that with 10 points on the line, a team that is in the middle of the pack could win one and flip the standings. It adds more pressure that a team that might be way lower than the top team could flip the standings and so a team on top would need to be that much more paranoid that their spot isn’t secure and so, if you do that, I think you will see playoff basketball in the regular season.

Of course, the nba is never going to do that because the nba is entertainment above all and trying to rest on a few stars to keep the league a float. Which is a mistake.

Most kids today would be way more excited to see Charli D’Amelio than Giannis Antetokounmpo. And that is a fact.

The nba just isn’t that exciting with their star pushing and nice guy routine. Without having a Donald trump type to be the bad guy. All it is is watered down bs and sunshine and rainbows.

 

I did that in my original post. That what I proposed is that the nba treat the season like a nascar race with stages occurring at specific times of the year.

In nascar, they have points in a race where who finishes first on a certain lap (referred to as a stage) get extra points toward being a playoff driver.

In this case, after game 20 — the nba team with the best record would get 10 points for finishing first. Second would get 5 and third 3 points. After stage 1 is completed, all teams records for stage 2 would be reset and we do it all over again. After another 20 games we tally first, second and third and the rest.

Beyond that, each win (regardless of where you finish in the stage) would be added to the end of year totals.

For example, say the rockets go 11-9 and finish (somehow third) in that stage.
They would have 11 points (wins) + 3 points for finishing 3rd for a total of 14 points. Whereas, say the grizzzlies finish 10-10, they would only get 10 points (their wins) for that stage.
So just by the rockets finishing 3rd allowed them to be 4 points ahead of the grizzlies for a playoff spot. And it only increases after that, if you instead go 15-5 and finish first you would have 25 points, whereas other teams would only be counting their wins.

Thus winning one of the 4 stages would be imperative to getting into the playoffs, if that makes sense.

 

What divisions

In fact, what conferences. Which would solve playoff seeding issues altogether.

 

I could also see that a team that is in the lead in terms of playoff eligibility would have a mark on their back similar to playing a board game — when you have a runaway leader, and everybody gang up on them.

the point is is that you have to protect your spot and that means trying to beat the team that’s on top to bring them back to the pack.

 

The other big factor is bringing back the bad guys. The nba wants a league full of faces and no heals. And if you even try to be a heal or a heal team you get punished for it.

But like Jack Nicholson said: deep down you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall.

The league is ridiculous right now because their is no defense that can be played and teams are just jacking threes all game long.

I mean there are a lot of problems with the nba, but I do believe if you want more intensity in games, especially early in the season you have to limit the number of playoff teams and you have to go to a point system like I suggested.