NBA - Main

This is the first I’ve heard of anyone listening to what “candice parker” has to say.

Candace Parker’s idea is to ignore the group and just advance the top teams with the best records, out of all the groups. Then what’s the point of the groups? It’s a tournament. I don’t think she realizes that point differential would still come into play.

Huh? When did she say that. I saw that she had the idea that wildcard tiebreakers should be based on records, not point differential, but that's totally different from what you're saying now, and I can see the sense in it.

Have the 18 coaches who didn't win or take second in their group select the fourth team in each of their respective conferences.

Selection has to be one of the three runner ups per group. Coaches can't vote for their own team, of course. Adds some discussion and drama to the wildcard. In the case of a three way tie, do tech differential.

If players don't want point differential, the NBA won't keep it, which sucks because I want teams to just absolutely run scores up in group play.

It’s going to take people a couple years to REALLY understand the points system. It will come along in time. Right now the games just need to be great, which they have been.

Cuz it’s new

As much as I love the crew it’s very obvious these guys do not put any effort into making sure they know what they’re talking about on set. Ernie is the only one you know actually sits down and takes notes on EVERYTHING. He is well prepared because he knows he has to be. The other guys can just wing it because it’s their personalities that sell. If none of them knew what was going on that would be bad though.

It's really poorly put together. Having regular season games double as tournament games is just fucking dumb. Easy fix. Split the season into 2 40 game halves. Tournament will be all single elimination and seeding is based on your record after the 1st 40 games. In addition to prize money winner gets an extra few home games and teams knocked in round 1 lose a home game. The groups are just stupid since the league has 32 permanent teams imo. It works in soccer cause you really never know who you will play and you get cool once in a lifetime match ups

because it's just a bullsh*t moneygrab

They probably think its dumb and dont care to learn.

They will just make it 16 teams tourney next year. If you can't make it, no one will feel sorry for you.

Don't expect good analysis from any of these halftime/post game shows. I hope people realize that even if the Inside guys are entertaining, they don't care enough/prep enough to have a good understanding of the league.

The tournament games counting for the regular season is actually a really good idea. If they didn't, you would have some teams resting all their players.

I don't think it's complicated at all, but the dual meaning of regular and in-season games was always going to confuse people that didn't want to put the time in to understand how it works

I do believe that these games need to be independent of regular season games though.

I disagree with this. To begin, you're either adding games to an NBA player's season or to keep games the same, you're shortening the NBA season.

The other thing is that what makes in-season tournaments in soccer fascinating is that teams sometimes have to make tough choices: play full out in a tournament game or save those tournament games (at risk of losing them) for the sake of being at 100% in regular season games. It seems to me that the Dubs absolutely played this game differently at the end than they would have if they weren't worried about advancing in the tournament by winning by 12. But that's a choice! They could have played for the win by running out the clock, but they wanted to preserve their tournament chances. Which is what makes it interesting.

Boomers don't put in the effort to try to understand new things and hate change

The biggest problem imo is the inconsistent scheduling. OKC literally went over a week of playing ball - twice against the Warriors who are in their group by the way and neither of those were tournament games.

I think if they just did games over x stretch of time, that would be way easier to follow vs playing for a week, maybe longer of regular games then having a tournament game randomly occur.

Stacey King suggested it be quarters won instead of point differential. It would help with "breaking the code" and running up the score.

Honestly I just wish it was based on your Division. I miss that meaning something and it would help build up rivalries again.

The amount of utter confusion that this simple tournament has caused for so many players, coaches, fans, and pundits has me convinced that Americans are just too stupid for anything more complex than “preseason—>regular season—>postseason”

Everything about the In-Season Tournament will be forgotten 48 hours after it's finished.

In June 2024, when the real NBA Championship is won, no one on this planet will remember who won the IST, or that it ever took place.

Yeah, I don't get it either. I literally did round robin tournaments with my action figures as a child, advancing to any kind of hellish knockout round afterwards lol

I don't really understand it mainly because I don't care at all about it. At least when it's over we won't to look a these ugly ass courts.

It’s not you idiots

Can't force me to understand it, hell you can't even force me to care.

Don't give a shit if soccer does this, this is a reaction to Ice Cubes BIG3. Fuck the NBA

Because it's all about gambling

I think Candace’s stance was for the one wildcard winner. Not the whole conference. Just the whoever is the wildcard gets in by the your current record. That also really doesn’t make sense though, what if your schedule so far just has been really easy?

It’s not that they can’t understand it, a lot of them just don’t want to. It’s really not hard.

Because they didn't create it as a separate entity with any promo that explained how it works. It's just regular season basketball that they've arbitrarily selected certain games that would have already happened to count as "tournament games."

Because if you don’t watch soccer you won’t understand it compared to other tournaments we have in the US.

We don’t do group play in March Madness. College football, hockey, etc.

So unless you’ve been interested in a sport where it’s present, it’s a brand new and admittedly confusing concept at first.

After you know what’s going on it’s obvious this is a good system.

my issue with point differential is the potential “running up the score” element a team must do to stay in the tourney and how this “beating a man while he’s down” approach contradicts how sports should be played.

also the special courts are a disaster imho. don’t even need them. waste of funds and adds nothing to the game.

and gambling bs and the toxicity in fan communities that arises from gambling bs.

Because it encouraged Hack a Drummond with 7 minutes remaining while already up 30

I think it was also frustrating they hid the tournament standings on the NBA website.

They were in such an awkward place that I could never navigate to them from the home page, but just had to Google search and click the direct link each time.

Hopefully they keep it and invest a bit more in marketing it beforehand.

Only one team from each group advances? What are they gonna do with a top 6?

And if more than 6 teams make it then why didnt the Wolves? Went 4-1 on their group. Im not trying to be rude I am legitimately asking. Ive watched tons of tourneys with brackets and never seen one where the 2nd best team in a 5 team group doesnt make it out

Because the inside the NBA guys don’t really watch ball like that anymore and take the time to understand how new things work.

Shaq doesn’t know 80% if not more of NBA players. When he was called out on it his response was unless you’re a superstar I don’t need to know your name.

Laziness

Candace Parker was the one who understood point differential the most due to her experience playing tournaments in Europe, where point differential matters. She stated that's why the teams over there play until the final buzzer so that they can increase their differentials. Seemed to me she understood it 100%

In Candace’s defense, she said the tie breaker should be based on records not point differential. So just advancing the better team/record if they’re tied

Because your reading comprehension is low

The same reason that craps is difficult to understand. Because it was created specifically to allow for a lot of gambling options.

I’ve loved it and it’s easy to understand. Adds a nice new element to the regular season and watching teams go full force in November has been a lot of fun.

"If you’re still struggling to understand how tournaments with groups work, play some FIFA or watch any sport outside of America."

I have no desire to play FIFA or watch fucking cricket or whatever. If I did, I would have already been doing so.

The issue with the tournament is just the latest example of Silver doing what he does: Changing things for the fuck of it to draw an audience that....isn't going to watch anyway. The courts are headache inducing. No team worth a fuck is going to risk their title aspirations to win a November game.

Players and the admin for official social media accounts are of course given their talking points, but is a SINGLE SOUL that wasn't ALREADY GOING TO WATCH ANYWAY really tuning into the Kings vs Pelicans or Celtics vs Pacers next week?!?

It was presented messily.

it's wild how this is a common format in gaddamn AAU tournaments yet it's boggling their minds