Arena The NBA Thread

I think one of the primary motivations for an in-season tournament was to boost ratings during the period of the basketball season where it’s directly competing with the NFL (basically right now). And moving it to after the all star break but with only a cash incentive, teams and players are going to prioritize gearing up for the playoffs than going all out for an in season tournament.

So the timing, to me, feels spot on for what the aim of the tournament was.

I really think it’s going to be in a few years but the NBA is eventually going to offer some kind of incentive for the playoffs. The seeding boost idea makes a lot of sense to me.

 

Go on with your fine selves, the Cavs did it up awesomely against the Sixers WITHOUT don and Caris and Isaac. This Craig Porter Jr. dude is gonna be HARD HARD HARD to not convert to a full roster spot.

 

Just came here to say my goodbyes to Josh Giddey. He'll be departing the NBA soon to never be seen again, is my guess.

https://www.marca.com/en/basketball...nder/2023/11/23/655f74dfe2704e572e8b45b2.html

Another massive scandal is brewing in the NBA after Oklahoma City Thunder'sJosh Giddey has gone viral with pictures and videos alongside an allegedly underage girl. Her name is Livv Cook and she is reportedly a sophomore in high school. Livv herself posted images bragging about having sexual intercourse with Giddey and the player does seem like he is comfortable enough around her to make people think this is true. The images were initially posted by an anonymous source. This source took the post down but it was too late, the damage was done and Josh Giddey's career is in serious jeopardy right now.

 

1. I don't understand the complaints about the In Season Tournament personally. So far, whenever we have In Season games, the stakes are higher, the players are playing with more intensity and passion, and we have watched many REALLY good games, some of which have had a playoff atmosphere. Why would anyone want to have it cancelled? Even if you're not into it, at the end of the day it doesn't change anything for the viewers. Just don't pay attention to the standings I guess? And it's great for the players, according to most of them.

2. Scott Foster needs to not be a referee anymore. And that might be true for more referees. Nikola Jokic and Giannis getting ejected about a week ago was ridiculous. Chris Paul getting ejected was vengeful and petty after a personal vendetta.

3. The Josh Giddey thing above needs more information. It is rumored that this girl is actually not still in school, but an adult. Outside of that, apparently the age of consent in Oklahoma is 16, and if she's over 16, then legally it is no problem at all, and morally I would say it is potentially ambiguous. Honestly I think it's far more creepy to see 50 year old dudes with 22 year old "girlfriends" or 45 year old Leonardo Di Caprio breaking up with every girlfriend as soon as she crosses the 25 year old threshold. Both of which are legal, yet morally far far worse IMO than a 21 year old dating a 16-17 year old.

 

the complaints about the in season tournament are that they are not necessary

the NBA all ready has playoffs that culminate in a champion for every season

it's not like the football clubs in Europe, where the champion is who ever has the best record at the end of the season and no playoffs

I personally prefer the European style, but that's just not how the NBA works and there's really no reason to change how the NBA works, it's the best basketball league in the world and until the rest of the world catches up I don't see a reason to change the NBA

 

Well the play in tournament wasn’t necessary either, but the change was made and now people prefer it. Sometimes leagues try new things out to see if they work. The inaugural attempt is not the best time to say “no this doesn’t work.”

Again… there are guys on 10 day contracts that will really benefit from 500k and the games have been competitive and entertaining. So, at least for this season, I’m all for it.

 

I'm not entirely opposed to to it either, maybe it will draw in more casual viewers in the middle of the season, so that's good for the league

I just also think that because the playoffs and championships are so established that they are all that really matter

edit, the play in tournament has definitely been a positive as far as I'm concerned

 

If we were to complain about all the things that are not necessary, then there wouldn't be any professional sports, ever.

And literally every country has an additional national Cup competition, with many countries also having a League Cup. This doesn't even include the European Champions League competition, the various Super Cups, and other European competitions. All of these competitions are established because (A) people like them and (B) players like them. The In Season tournament serves that purpose as well. And the best part about it, is that it doesn't need extra games for the teams, so players don't have to deal with extra workload, with the exception of one game (the final).

All I know is that this year I have had many more interesting conversations with people about the NBA, which usually don't start until March or so, and that I have watched many more regular season games than any other year.

 

the champions league is a separate league based on the previous years champions

my only point was that the NBA has playoffs to determine the champion each season which kind of makes an in season tournament meaningless

 

Pretty good win for the Lakers in Cleveland today; after a 71-point 1st half for the Cavs, adjustments were made, and the Cavs only scored 44 in the 2nd. 38-points from just 3 Laker bench players, and a season high 32 for AD (doing most of his scoring in the 2nd half) was niiiiice. Wasn't a fan, though, of the Lakers wearing their Sunday whites on a Saturday (I believe they've only worn purple once thus far... once! ).




@A Chorus of Disapproval What's going to happen on Monday?!



.

 

The Suns are petitioning to play the rest of their games on the road.

 

@A Chorus of Disapproval

 

Several European soccer leagues also have playoffs to determine their League Champion, and a Cup. The comparison is invalid anyway, different sports, different continents. There is absolutely no reason why the In Season tournament is meaningless, as seen in action. It has proven to be quite the opposite. I honestly hope they keep it every year, as incentive for the players and the fans. It works.

PS. Has LeBron James ever finished a game with 0 rebounds before?

 

LeBron should be a much better rebounder given his size. It wasn’t until this year that he passed MJ in offensive rebounds. How it takes six more seasons seems unfathomable. Guys like Barkley and Rodman showed that getting rebounds wasn’t just a product of being tall.

 

As I don't think that LeBron (or anyone else for that matter) should be glorified for his stats, I also don't think he should be crucified for those. At the end of the day, he has the role of the facilitator in his team, and the one to "take over the game" if needed. So that's a lot on his plate already. I don't think that he should be getting double digit rebounds, especially at his age, I was just shocked to see he didn't get a single rebound in tonight's game.

Schrodinger's Apology!

 

ORebs are a terrible stat to attempt to compare now to the 80’s/90’s. The massive 3-pointer revolution means players aren’t parked under the basket at anywhere near the same frequency, and that (far more & better 3-pt shooters) + the major changes in pace have meant that transition defense is actually more valuable/more of an emphasis than all-out crashing the boards— where if you don’t get it, you’re really boned on the other end.



LeBron remains a spectacular rebounder despite that he’ll end up with like…literally 3000 more 3-pt shots than all those dudes combined lol

 

Also with 7 fewer rings than these dudes combined, even if we leave Barkley out of the picture!

 

Very relevant! Over 100 fewer rings if you replaced Barkley with every other Chicago Bull from the 90’s!

 

^ L O L

The dude who started talking about three pointers in a conversation about rebounds and how many more his idol shoots for no reason at all, is now saying "irrelevant". Can't make this stuff up :')

In other news, apparently Draymond Green can get elbowed in the face and it's not even a foul, because people hate him. Stayed up late to watch the referees steal the show, in what was a great game for 3 quarters. Oh well, at least the Bucks game was awesome and they won emphatically.

 

uuugggghhhhhh

 

I still like the In-Season tournament and think it will come to be a real gem for the league. I think we got pretty clear evidence from a number of games last night that the players care about it, at least on some level.

But point differential as a tiebreaker is absolutely stupid, especially when used among teams without common opponents. Goal Differential works in soccer because goals are relatively hard to come by; that's not the case in basketball.

I don't know that there is a good tiebreaker in the current situation (maybe regular season record and/or record in games outside of the tournament?). I suspect it will resolve itself once we expand the league to 32 teams and we can just do 8 groups of 4 with no wildcards.

 

Well, all I can say is there have been much higher stakes than what they’re going to hype up Suns/Lakers with next week.