JSU2004 wrote:War Years wrote:Mr. Crackerz wrote:JSU2004 wrote:Mr. Crackerz wrote:I predict the NBA players will predictable and boring.
Did you prefer the NCAA Tourney better? Honestly after the first two rounds the rest of the tourney wasn't really that good to me. There were only two games the rest of the tourney were I was like "them dudes making plays." Those were the K-State vs Xavier game and the Tennessee vs Ohio State game. Every other game including the final four games were really that exciting. Which is sad because most of the games were close.
I do agree the NBA playoffs is usually predictable, but that's because you do play 7 game series so the best team usually wins. I don't necessarily agree with the boring. There were a few good series, not just games, last year Bulls vs Celtics, Lakers vs Rockets, Cavs vs Magic, and Lakers vs Nuggets.
I think the NCAA will get significantly worse once it expands to 96 games. It will be diluting the good product. The thing is, I hate it when leagues abuse their power and try to get as much money as possible, often resulting in quality as a casualty. Baseball plays 162 games, and their playoffs are only 3 rounds (1st round being best of 5). NFL only lasts 1 month.
See, for me as a sports fan, it is all about quality. Think about this, the NBA finals START in June. That's absolutely ridiculous. I don't watch the playoffs until the finals (and usually until then, I have minor interest). The NFL/NCAA have each playoff game a single elimination. Only 8 teams make the playoffs in baseball, so it makes the regular season that much more important (even if its 162 games). In the NBA, over 50% of teams make it AND they all have best of 7 game series. IMO, all of that results in a long, predictable and boring playoffs.
My Solution for the NBA playoffs: Keep the 16 teams that make it in. However, 1st round should be a best of 3, 2nd round should be best of 5, and the final 2 rounds then be a best of 7. That takes away the initial predictability in the first couple weeks (and speeding up the initial rounds); while having the deserved 7 game grind where it should be: towards the end of the playoffs. OR, another solution would be to allow 12 teams into the playoffs, with the first two teams of each conference have a first round bye. The format for this would be similar to that of above, which first round would be best of 3, second round best of 5....I mean, look at these predictions you all have... more or less, they all look the same.
If we were to limit teams, I'd go with the Baseball and Football wild card systems. I'd have the 3 conference winners get a bye, and have 2 wild cards from the East and West play each other for the chance to play the #1 seed of the East and West. That would be effectively 10 teams in the playoffs. But I don't think that could happen now.
I agree with you Crackerz, this goes on way too long. Unfortuanately, it's hard to reign in games and teams once you've expanded the playoffs to 16 teams. In my mind if you are going to have 16 playoff teams , you should have at least 40 overall teams. Unfortunately at this time the NBA has enough financial problems with 30 teams. Which is exactly why they won't limit teams and games, because these are the most profitable games of the year. One thing they could do though, . Is to play every other day, Allow no more than 2 days between play off rounds. I could also see having a back to back game on games 3 and 4 of each round.I mean, look at these predictions you all have... more or less, they all look the same.
Yeah, but 2 years ago, the choices were a lot more exciting. I think you would get better playoff competition with fewer teams. Just the disparity between the 1st and 8th seed in the NBA is almost insurmountable.
In essence it sounds like I'm hearing the predictability of the playoffs makes it boring. I've never really thought about changing the playoffs (I wouldn't be opposed to this), but I have thought the NBA needs to reduce the number of teams.
Cracks, you said you mainly watch the final. If that's truly the case, I can't really think of a lot of exciting NBA Finals lately. In the last 20 years, I don't think I can name 5 competitive NBA finals (Heat vs Mavs, Spurs vs Pistons, Rockets vs Knicks).
I never said they were competitive. And you are right. They usually are locks right away as well. And actually, i didn't even watch the finals last year (I was in europe and away from access).
I remember a few years back when the Cav's vs. Wiz series was on in the first round. That was fun Bball... but the inconsistency of calls was absolutely atrocious, it just fueled my suspicion on how this league is run. I dunno, maybe LeBron is just too fast for officials for them not to see him have 4 steps at a time.
But the maybe the funnest NBA finals for me was the one where the Pistons upset the Lakers. That final was Pistons from game one, but the win was so shocking (as of course, the Lakers were heavy favorites) that people were waiting for the Lakers to eventually make that rally and win the series. They never did.
