With Sam Smith taking a break from fake KG trades to make up fake AK47 trades, we turn instead to the other big problem in the NBA – that problem being the one that isn’t “Buy out my contract and let me go to a contender on the cheap – I’m a former star who’s now disgruntled.”
What is this problem?
The odd lil’ habit that many teams and players (ahem – SHEED) are developing of not taking the regular season seriously, or what Miami columnist Ira Winderman refers to as “Heat-itis”. The early 2000s Lakers presented this as a theory one year, and Shaq & Co.’s “turn it on in the Playoffs” title of last season has only cemented this as a viable scientific law.
Thankfully, Ira’s already written the entire column on it, and also come up with a solution – weighted numbers of home games for higher seeds.
Failing that, maintain the 4-3 home-road split in the No. 4-vs.-No. 5 opening-round series in each conference, but make it 5-2 split in the No. 2-vs.-No. 7 series as well as the No. 3-vs.-No. 6 opening-round bracket.
And then? A 6-1 split in the No. 1-vs.-No. 8 bracket. Three home games for the top seed, a single home playoff date for the wretched No. 8 seed, and then three more potential home games for a team that actually committed itself to the regular season.
Oooh, we like this.
Not only does it motivate players and coaches, but owners are bound to be getting on their team’s asses because of all the potential lost revenue.
That’s less revenue for a given city’s business on gamenights, as well, which means all kinds of restaurant owners, bus drivers, and mayors will be at practice screaming at ‘Sheed to run sprints instead of pretending he’s not complaining about Flip Saunders.
The big question is, would it motivate Shaq?
The answer, of course, is no.
(The suggestion of giving the top seeds a a first-round bye is also presented, which we disapprove of, which means we don’t like it.)
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You wouldn’t like it if the Cavaliers were an underrated 8th seed in the playoffs that only are an 8th seed because of injuries and you were only awarded one home playoff game…
A 1 seed in the Eastern Conference doesn’t automatically guarantee anyone that they actually “committed themselves to the regular season”, especially if they come out of the weak Atlantic Division.
no, what they need to do is not let half of the league into the playoffs! it’s ridiculous.
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