LeBron James wants the men who came up with the idea of the NBA’s play-in tournament to be sacked.
“Whoever came up with that s**t needs to be fired,” the Los Angeles Lakers superstar said.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and superstar Luka Doncic are no fans of the addition either.
Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green, in his usual blunt style, stated that competing in the play-in doesn’t motivate him.
Despite the leading lights of the league voicing their displeasure, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN Radio in an interview recently that he wants the play-in tournament to continue.
So what is the NBA’s latest experiment that’s raising hackles of league icons and team owners? Firstpost explains:
How does the play-in work?
Before the pandemic, each NBA team played 82 games in the regular season. The top eight teams from Eastern and Western Conferences made it to the playoffs.
The current play-in is much different from the one NBA tested in the previous—pandemic-affected—season, where a play-in game was necessitated only if the ninth seed had won four games or fewer behind the eighth seed. As per this system, the Portland Trail Blazers met the Memphis Grizzlies for the 8th spot in the Western Conference last season. The Blazers were in 8th spot with Grizzlies 9th. To give Portland an advantage befitting their position, they needed to win just one game to make the playoffs, while the Grizzlies needed to beat them twice since they were placed ninth.
But this was last season’s play-in system. This year, the NBA tried a new system that got eight teams—four in each conference—involved, with six overall play-in games being played. The play-in—approved for this season by the NBA’s Board of Governors—is somewhat similar to the Indian Premier League’s playoffs.
While the first six teams in each conference in the NBA go straight to the playoffs, teams finishing between 7th to 10th compete among themselves for the 7th and 8th spot in playoffs.
Team No 7 and No 8 play each other—with the winner sealing the No 7 playoff berth—while team No 9 and No 10 face off, with the winner getting to play the loser of the other game with No 8 spot in the playoffs on the line.
Why don’t people like the play-in?
“I don’t understand the idea of a play-in (tournament),” Doncic said in April. “You play 72 games to get into the playoffs, then maybe you lose two in a row and you’re out of the playoffs? I don’t see the point of that.”
Mavs owner Cuban, too, echoed Doncic, calling it an ‘enormous mistake’ in an interview with ESPN.
Teams that finish seventh in regular season will have the biggest reason to feel aggrieved about. After all, in regular season, they would be entitled to play at least four games against the second seeded team. Now they have two games to seal a playoffs spot. Two bad games, and they’re going home despite having had a good enough regular season.
Even teams that are first and second seeds have reason to grumble: for they will know very late which teams they will play in the first round of the playoffs.
What’s got the NBA management rubbing their hands in anticipation about the play-in?
As per a report in The Washington Post, NBA’s national television ratings for this season rose by 25 percent in April compared to March, thanks to the excitement around the play-in.
The western conference play-in game between LeBron-led Lakers and the Golden State Warriors, starring Stephen Curry, racked up 5.6 million viewers for ESPN, according to figures released by Nielsen. The hype came from LeBron’s epoch-making dust-ups in consecutive NBA Finals against the Warriors not too long ago. Poetically, it was LeBron who hit the game-winning three-pointer to defeat the Warriors.
Meanwhile, Turner Sports, the league’s other broadcast partners, also reported stellar viewership for games it broadcast: Boston Celtics’ victory over the Washington Wizards averaged 2.5 million viewers, while the Charlotte Hornets-Indiana Pacers eastern conference clash averaged 1.4 million viewers.
Another reason that works in favour of the play-in is that it makes the regular season games more exciting, with teams eager to avoid having their chances of competing in the playoffs dangling by one or two play-in games. Besides, the play-in adds one or two additional games on the plate of teams. Essentially, the prospect of making it to the play-in slots will keep more teams interested in the regular season than usual.
The play-in also provides a cushion for teams who have key players missing large parts of the regular season due to injury. Teams who have star players missing a significant chunk of the season due to injury no longer have to scrap to finish among the top 8, because finishing 10th also gets them into play-in brackets.
So, what next?
Once the current season ends, NBA is said to be keen to host a mid-season elimination tournament that would feature eight teams.
Silver’s liking for the play-in tournament also means that the concept too will be on the negotiating table in the off-season.
The league will need approval from two-thirds of the teams (23 franchises) and the player’s association (NBPA), before they can take the proposal to the Board of Governors.
While players and team owners may have their apprehensions about the play-in, those running the league will know how it can resuscitate their ratings, which took a hit last season.
from Firstpost Sports Latest News https://ift.tt/3yNmZUO
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