2023/24 NBA REGULAR SEASON THREAD "THANKING FOR WEMBANYAMA"

Wemby ballin

He def doesn’t seem just happy to be out there, dude wants to win

KD and booker are both having quite good games but victor looks like the most unstoppable player on the floor

that three he just put on eubanks was disgusting

damn he’s cooking

En fuego

38 points in his 5th nba game

Already getting gravity assists too. Defense has to be aware and ready to help which opens up cuts

when he starts to shoot 50% from midrange and 40% from three with everything else he can do i’m not sure i understand how the other team will win

Spurs beat suns b2b in phx

Already getting gravity assists too. Defense has to be aware and ready to help which opens up cuts

it is literally unthinkable how good wemby is at 19 years old

like i think it should be a crime to try and think about it

funny thing is hes not even that good right now its just easy for him

when he memorizes all the stuff and what all the other guys usually do he’s gonna destroy us all

JFC just watched highlights! dude can not be real

it literally rhymes with "mama" which is the first word ever uttered by babies

Wembanyama there goes that man.

"Webanyama Mama" would be a great obscure rockabilly song

I apologize for the Mark Jackson content of my last post.

lol

"Webanyama Mama" would be a great obscure rockabilly song

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, November 3, 2023 12:55 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Lol it writes itself. I may follow through with this. Get some nice nba licensing deal

Throw in a drama rhyme for the TNT tie in

wait uh so the in season tourney starts TONIGHT? ha i thought it was like after the new year or something.

get ready for regular season games except with a very painted court

yup, starts tonight

https://i.imgur.com/CAu8cRU.png

+ the semis and finals will be played in vegas

the theory is that by handing out bonus bucks to all the players on teams that advance, the players will try harder to advance, making early season games feel more meaningful.

wait uh so the in season tourney starts TONIGHT? ha i thought it was like after the new year or something.

― infinite wiggles (Spottie), Friday, November 3, 2023 3:49 PM (five minutes ago)

the championship game is on dec 9 lol. it's funny because the tourney was framed as a way of making ppl care more about the regular season but the way they scheduled it makes it seem like the goal is to try and engage fans during football season specifically

It does seem very early in the season. Friday and Tuesday nights is smart to avoid football crossover. idk this seems kinda fun. they need the stars to care about and get up for it, though, thats the only way this will work.

feel like it could work in making people vaguely more aware that early season nba exists rather than just doing a cold start on christmas

yup

I'm sure it will be fun in its own way but it's hard to care about the outcome.

we all know the best nba players love their awards and accolades

so these still count as regular season games? idk I think it is a pretty neat idea but I'm curious why the office thinks it needs stuff like this and the play-in tournament, those are "oh shit our ratings are sliding" moves and I think the NBA is as popular as ever right now

no matter how any of these leagues are doing they will obv always want more viewers. and they clearly want to find ways to make the regular season matter more. this in season tourney, plus the play-in, plus the 65 game limit for awards, plus the bottom three teams having equal lottery odds are all ways to do that.

everything counts as a reg season game except the final game, those two teams will play 83 games xp

plus the resting policy.

i do think the league has taken some recent big hits to the casual sports fan for resting players as well as foul baiting/style of play.

I read somewhere that teams right now have only 80 games scheduled, with the missing 2 being played during the tournament. Finalists will be playing an 83rd game, though I expect that won't count in the regular season standings.

The missing 2 are played during the knockout rounds, make that.

i think the way they did it means there is basically zero downside for the fan — if you don’t want to pay attention that’s very simple & it won’t impact your ability to follow the season otherwise. the 3-4 games in vegas should be pretty fun. i have a hard time getting worked up about this in a negative or positive way until proven otherwise

I'm curious why the office thinks it needs stuff like this and the play-in tournament

You just know that they held dozens upon dozens of meetings about whether to do the tournaments and what they should look like if they did, and focus groups were held, and white papers written, so that all the league front office people looked smart, busy and productive. But most especially like they were intently focused on making more money for the owners.

I mean easiest way is to make the regular season matter more is to reduce the number of games and playoff teams but I don't think any major sports league has ever done that

personally I wish they'd kick around that All-Star 4th quarter idea more, where you take the highest score at the end of 3, add 24, and say whoever hits that score wins. that feels like it would make the games feel way more exciting, everyone loves game winning shots and it would get rid of some of the gamesmanship in the final minute that grinds down the whole experience. they should at least try doing it for a preseason

i can answer that question pretty simply for you — the NBA’s revenue is still largely based on television money. the league is renegotiating its TV deals with the major networks. the major networks have told them (slash they realized themselves), your regular season is devalued and that has to be accounted for in this deal. so the NBA is now trying to reinvigorate its regular season so it can still hang the networks over a balcony and shake out their pockets

an important addendum to my post is that because salaries are tied to the cap and the cap is tied to TV money, the players have equal incentive as the league office to prop up the value of the regular season

think silver is prob feeling pretty confident re trying new things after the success of the play in tourney + new lottery format too

for sure

yeah, worth a shot anyway, like you said no downside

i think i’d prefer the league be overly experimental than overly static, if i had to choose

true, not everything will work obv but if you have a league built on constant evolution then it's easy to pivot as needed.