2022/23 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD "TANKING FOR WEMBANYAMA"

volume scoring, even efficient volume scoring, isn't as unique a skill as it used to be

^otm

you could write a nice prog concept album about the fates of Harden, Durant, and Kyrie this year

SGA is fourth in PPG and is unlikely to make the playoffs from 10th seed, either.

let's just jot this down btw, the play-in is entering its third year and this marks the first time a team has decided to tank its way out of 10th place, which is exactly what i said would start happening when they instituted this stupid thing

its good tho it really has reduced tanking enough, plus its fun to see the mediocre teams play a little tournament

its like a miniature March Madness, both teams play weirdly hard given their fate is to get donked out in the 1st, idk I think it's fun

yeah you wouldnt want to watch a seven game series but a little quasi single elimination situation sure lets do it

I mean if you're a professional athlete I think you at least have enough competitive instinct to play 100% in a winner-take-all game that actually means something, like look at how hard NFL teams play when all they can do is knock out one of their rivals

admittedly I can only really say that because I'm not sure Ben Simmons is a professional athlete anymore

Luka Doncic will not speak to the media tonight.

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 8, 2023

I can’t remember my position 4 years ago, I was probably against it at the time but it’s grown on me. the annoying thing is the #1 seed gets like 1 day to prepare for their series which is kinda tough

i def thought it was dumb and bad but now i think its dumb and good

I love it even if it’s gimmicky

It's cool that we get to see SGA and OKC in at least one meaningful postseason game

i still think its bad itd be better if they shortened the season a bit

the main thing is it really has reduced the tanking to acceptable levels, now we have the new problem of teams just not playing their players for other reasons

idk — if the ins are such a poor reward that a team like dallas considers it more advantageous to drop out, that’s ugly. there are a lot of necessary myths around team sports, and ‘trying to win’ is one of them

i don’t really think it happened, because it’s not in the individual mavs players’ interests to do so, but it kinda makes you wonder if there was shaving going on in the second half last night

destroy back to backs its not hard

ya I agree it's bogus to have that much of the league in the playoffs and still have to play 82 games, big problem in baseball too

baseball its still only 10 teams and not 20 though right

idk — if the ins are such a poor reward that a team like dallas considers it more advantageous to drop out, that’s ugly.

― mookieproof, Saturday, April 8, 2023 11:11 AM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

tbf thats one team thats tanked in four years, doesnt seem too bad

you only need to look as far as the actual 10th seed — okc — to find the story of a team that was expected to tank the season but which instead pushed for a surprise playoff seed after their young nucleus outperformed expectations and put together an exciting season for their fans. so to focus on the mavs dipping out & paint it like there’s some huge flaw in the play-in system is not taking a full view of the situation, to say the least

the NBA is the league that prob has the fewest cinderella playoff runs of any sport. fans also now expect their franchises to take longterm views of situations and to understand the value of “assets.” so when faced with the option of a draft pick or one of the last play-in spots, you’re never gonna get a team to pick the last play-in spot 100% of the time. but there’s ample evidence over the last several seasons that the existence of the play in encourages teams that would otherwise be heavily incentivized to tank to instead play the season out. the mavs are more the exception

yeah basically comes down to that once teams have little to no chance of making the offs theyre going to tank a lot of the time but when they do still have a chance theyre going to tank much less, simple math (not actually math)

in some way it does make a further mockery of the regular season 2/3rds of the teams make it into the draw but in another way it makes the regular season more important in that you really want to get a top six spot in order to stay out of the playin to avoid getting knocked out before the offs even officially start

tho that effect is prob small since getting a higher seed towards the bottom of the draw was already quite worthwhile because you avoid the very best teams so might actually win a series

Warriors been preaching avoid the play in at all costs for the last while. Also the mavs tanked 1-2 games where we used to have teams tanking from day one. The lottery odds bring even for the bottom 3 teams did a lot of good too.

yeah the odds change was good makes the lottery more exciting too

and it gives us stuff like KAT playing in a winner take all game and fouling out in 9 mins and pat bev running around the arena screaming and crying

Lmao a classic of the genre for sure

things just not going their way

NBA spokesman Mike Bass: "The NBA commenced an investigation today into the facts and circumstances surrounding the Dallas Mavericks’ roster decisions and game conduct with respect to last night’s Chicago Bulls-Mavericks game, including the motivations behind those actions.”

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 8, 2023

probably this comment by Kidd that went over the line:

Here’s Jason Kidd’s answer on how Luka Doncic reacted to the Mavs’ organizational decision to pull the plug three days after the All-NBA guard declared he wanted to play as long as there were even the slimmest postseason hopes: pic.twitter.com/9hUUBqts4m

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) April 7, 2023

lmao I hope they lose that draft pick it would be the absolute most funny outcome

all because it was solvenia night, sad

before social media most nba exec and coaches had the sense not to talk about this stuff out loud in public

nuggets starters getting run off the court by the jazz B team, someone please put me out of my misery

omg kevin its a meaningless game

then why are the starters playing!!

Cardio

also worth noting that mavs pick this year is top 10 protected, so sort of an unusual perfect storm of motivation to tank out of the play-in

oops that was a many xp, already noted, carry on

Cardio

― four square ups... no punches thrown (Spottie), Saturday, April 8, 2023 5:30 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah with the playin its really a too ling layoff noticed teams like to get their guys some burn in the second to last game

lol jokic with the 6-10-10 draymond line

Looks like the suns have picked their opponent, resting their guys vs the clips means they’ll likely meet the clips in rd1

it almost feels like it's rude now not to rest your guys when you have a seed locked up and the game means something to the other team

Yah but this is different

the mavs getting investigated by the league for how they handled the bulls game is truly a cherry on top of a pile of cherries

Ha otm

#techsupport question - I'd been having good luck watching league pass with a VPN to watch wolves games suddenly it's not working says it's local even when I'm going through Chicago or Detroit. anyone else using a VPN?

na sry i gave up on league pass when they wouldnt let me do the foreign cheapo price deal

btw happy scrub day to all the guys getting burn today lol, celtics are playing a g league guy they signed two days ago apparently for this very purpose