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

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.

like they already did away with the all star game draft. was fun but probably ran its course.

Allow G League teams to draft the 2nd round instead of the NBA teams then enforce relegation on the bottom 2 NBA and top 2 G League teams.

Elite https://t.co/HNFc4A6BAc pic.twitter.com/9AFSMnfwX7

— Automatic (@automaticnba) November 3, 2023

haha

a man of the people

hoop collective pod did a long segment on the grizz today. apparently the offensive numbers when bane/smart/jarren on the court together have been completely ghastly. also derrick rose has been like a -100,000,000 (approximate) in his minutes this year

was also reading this "convo" on the athletic between hollinger and kelly iko and iko said this of marcus smart:

Defensively, he’s definitely been a step slower than what we’ve become accustomed to. He’s tried to make up for it by being more aggressive and taking more risks which hasn’t paid off but I’d imagine he improves his defensive output by the 15-20 game mark. I know the Grizzlies probably want that done as soon as possible.

Jalen Williams said on the JJ pod that before he hit a growth spurt, he was 5'10" with a 6'11" wingspan!!!

lol tie his shoes without bending down

marcus defense was not totally up to his standards last year fwiw, hes put a lot of miles on diving around and whatnot xp

celtics sold at the right time

yeah sad but true

and they somehow got a better player and draft picks back

Lol at this promo of the players trying to muster enthusiasm for the in-season tournament. They should hold up a newspaper so we know the hostages are still alive.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F-Bs6_ka8AA1NPU?format=jpg&name=small

puro pinche grayson

its pretty funny that the suns chose lowriders to celebrate chicano culture but at the same time yeah theyre pretty sick

why do these guys part their hair at the side of their skull i don't get it

yeah the custom car they built for this looks incredible. booker leaning into his mexican heritage has gone over very well in the valley.

its pretty cool, booker turned out to be a cool guy

ah a bucks fan hit a halfcourt shot for 10k very nice

Watching dubs at OKC. The blue court isn’t ideal for watching the game. Judging by the score, the players don’t seem to mind tho

had no idea gallo was getting minutes for the wiz