Around the League: Week 14 3/22-3/28

[pickle]

With this news, how do we rank the teams we want to face/don't want to face in the West 1-10?

my updated list:

most preferred

• Warriors

• Pels

• Spurs

• _

• Memphis

• Portland

• Dallas

[big gap]

• Denver

• Utah

• _

• Clippers

• Lakers (especially in round 1/2)

least preferred

I still think Denver will be a tough out. It might force them to play through Jokic even more, and he is amazing.

I'm not *too* worried about Denver, Portland, and Dallas. I tend to be the more pessimistic guy in the room, but in this case, I feel like even in past years when our team was shit we still played these three teams (and the Grizzlies) really well, so I give us some additional edge in the intangibles during a seven game series. What worries me is the lack of size and CP3's health. If Ayton can stay out of foul trouble we should be favored against all these teams, assuming the season ended today. And I don't mean favored in terms of record, I mean in terms of expectations.

[Cap]

I like the format.

"The worst part of this approach is that it doubles the stress of the compressed schedule," Cuban told ESPN. "Rather than playing for a playoff spot and being able to rest players as the standings become clearer, teams have to approach every game as a playoff game to either get into or stay in the top six since the consequences, as Luka said, are enormous. So players are playing more games and more minutes in fewer days."

“More games matter” sounds like a feature, not a bug.

[The Bobster]

If those games don't matter, just shorten the schedule then.

[Flagrant Fowl]

I like Mark Cuban, he's a good owner. I wish every owner was as competitive as him.

But he's wrong about this and he's obviously being subjective because everything he's claiming would directly benefit the Mavs. I have a solution for teams who don't want to be in the play-in games. Finish in at least sixth place.

[Cap]

Yup. It makes sense that the complaints are emerging from Dallas, not from Utah or Phoenix.

#2 seed means we get to rest while our first-round opponent is playing for their lives. No complaints here.

[BKinSJC]

There are some quirks about the way it's set up that are eventually going to produce some odd results, though.

For instance, the 7th and 8th place teams play one "play-in" game; the winner of that game is automatically determined to be the 7th seed when the playoffs begin. While it probably won't happen this year, eventually we'll have a situation where there'll be a 7 seed that's like 51-31 and an 8 seed at like 42-40, and because of the weirdness that can ensue in any one given game, the much better regular-season team will end up as the lower seed beginning the playoffs.

I don't hate the concept, but they may need to tweak it to prevent some of the more obvious absurdities.

[Cap]

There are some quirks about the way it's set up that are eventually going to produce some odd results, though.

For instance, the 7th and 8th place teams play one "play-in" game; the winner of that game is automatically determined to be the 7th seed when the playoffs begin. While it probably won't happen this year, eventually we'll have a situation where there'll be a 7 seed that's like 51-31 and an 8 seed at like 42-40, and because of the weirdness that can ensue in any one given game, the much better regular-season team will end up as the lower seed beginning the playoffs.

I don't hate the concept, but they may need to tweak it to prevent some of the more obvious absurdities.

So what? The #7 seed loses a play-in game and becomes the #8 seed? I’m okay with that. Or loses two play-in games and goes home. Don’t wanna risk it? Get a top-six seed.

[Split T]

There are some quirks about the way it's set up that are eventually going to produce some odd results, though.

For instance, the 7th and 8th place teams play one "play-in" game; the winner of that game is automatically determined to be the 7th seed when the playoffs begin. While it probably won't happen this year, eventually we'll have a situation where there'll be a 7 seed that's like 51-31 and an 8 seed at like 42-40, and because of the weirdness that can ensue in any one given game, the much better regular-season team will end up as the lower seed beginning the playoffs.

I don't hate the concept, but they may need to tweak it to prevent some of the more obvious absurdities.

Just let the top seeds pick their opponent... then seeds 5-8 don’t actually matter

[bajanguy008]

This is definitely not a tweet I would expect to see
Wow....

[Indy]

There are some quirks about the way it's set up that are eventually going to produce some odd results, though.

For instance, the 7th and 8th place teams play one "play-in" game; the winner of that game is automatically determined to be the 7th seed when the playoffs begin. While it probably won't happen this year, eventually we'll have a situation where there'll be a 7 seed that's like 51-31 and an 8 seed at like 42-40, and because of the weirdness that can ensue in any one given game, the much better regular-season team will end up as the lower seed beginning the playoffs.

I don't hate the concept, but they may need to tweak it to prevent some of the more obvious absurdities.

it is just the NBA's version of the wild card. Not sure there is a better way to do it.

[Flagrant Fowl]

This is definitely not a tweet I would expect to see Wow....

Eh, so what? There are probably at least a 100 guys in the league who could score 40+ points on 30+ shots.

[Indy]

This is definitely not a tweet I would expect to see Wow....

Eh, so what? There are probably at least a 100 guys in the league who could score 40+ points on 30+ shots.

Maybe, but only 18 guys have taken at least 30 shots in a game this year.

The guys that did it multiple times and how many times they scored at least 40:

Curry 2/2
Jokic 2/4
Luka 1/2
Wall 0/2
Mitchell 4/5
Fox 1/2
Beal 2/3

Booker did it once and didn't get to 40 points.

[pickle]

Hitting 16 of 31 shots is not a bad thing. It's not like he went 10 for 31... I don't get the dismissal of what Dort accomplished. I'm also a little upset that this guy was literally playing in our backyard and went undrafted and we weren't the team to have given him a chance.

[Split T]

Him going undrafted was weird...I wonder if his agent told teams not to draft him if he didn’t go 1st round.

[bajanguy008]

[Flagrant Fowl]

Hitting 16 of 31 shots is not a bad thing. It's not like he went 10 for 31... I don't get the dismissal of what Dort accomplished. I'm also a little upset that this guy was literally playing in our backyard and went undrafted and we weren't the team to have given him a chance.

I don't know. I'm just not impressed by it these days, but maybe my familiarity with Dort has something to do with it.

Think about it this way. How many Suns players wouldn't score 40 points if they took 30 shots in a game? I honestly don't think it's that difficult for a large portion of the league.

[bajanguy008]

Guess I have to check out Clippers feed at least for a couple minutes before someone on their team annoys me lol. This seems kool tho tbh

[pickle]

Hitting 16 of 31 shots is not a bad thing. It's not like he went 10 for 31... I don't get the dismissal of what Dort accomplished. I'm also a little upset that this guy was literally playing in our backyard and went undrafted and we weren't the team to have given him a chance.

I don't know. I'm just not impressed by it these days, but maybe my familiarity with Dort has something to do with it.

Think about it this way. How many Suns players wouldn't score 40 points if they took 30 shots in a game? I honestly don't think it's that difficult for a large portion of the league.

I am not familiar with Dort at all other than that he's a shut down defensive player who is discovering his offense.

I disagree though that a lot of Suns players would score 40 points if they took 30 shots. Booker, CP3, Cam Johnson maybe, and Ayton maybe (because he can't get to the line). It takes a lot of energy to actually put up 30 shots, and any time you are able to hit over half of your shots and over half of your 3s at that volume, it's super impressive to me.

[SunsRIt]

Hitting 16 of 31 shots is not a bad thing. It's not like he went 10 for 31... I don't get the dismissal of what Dort accomplished. I'm also a little upset that this guy was literally playing in our backyard and went undrafted and we weren't the team to have given him a chance.

I don't know. I'm just not impressed by it these days, but maybe my familiarity with Dort has something to do with it.

Think about it this way. How many Suns players wouldn't score 40 points if they took 30 shots in a game? I honestly don't think it's that difficult for a large portion of the league.

He shot better than 50%, what do you want form the guy?

[BKinSJC]

There are some quirks about the way it's set up that are eventually going to produce some odd results, though.

For instance, the 7th and 8th place teams play one "play-in" game; the winner of that game is automatically determined to be the 7th seed when the playoffs begin. While it probably won't happen this year, eventually we'll have a situation where there'll be a 7 seed that's like 51-31 and an 8 seed at like 42-40, and because of the weirdness that can ensue in any one given game, the much better regular-season team will end up as the lower seed beginning the playoffs.

I don't hate the concept, but they may need to tweak it to prevent some of the more obvious absurdities.

it is just the NBA's version of the wild card. Not sure there is a better way to do it.

I think they could draw on some of what they used in the bubble last year, as far as the games taking place only if the teams are within a certain number of games of each other. That way you don't have the situation I described, where a team essentially loses a nine-game lead for playoff positioning over the result of one game; make it so the play-in happens if the teams are within three, or maybe four games of each other.