2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

[BleacherBum2310]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

Embiid could easily win, especially if they finish first in the conference. But Bron and Joker aren’t in the mix solely because narratives.

Joker and Bron are ahead of him in a lot of all in one metrics currently. Backpacks BPM, 538s new RAPTOR rating, ahead in real plus minus, RPM wins, win shares, VORP..

Plus Bron has stuff like this that won’t show in any statistical metrics. Although these are a couple weeks old at this point. And games like the one the other night where he hit the 3 to send it to over time, the assists on the go ahead bucket, and a steal to win the game, those are the type of moments voters will remember when voting is close at year end. Shows up nowhere in a stat, but it’s plays that win games and naturally guys like Bron, KD, Kawhi, etc just rack up more of those than big men typically do.




I still think from day 1 - now Joker has had the best resume for MVP. I don’t know that their record will be good enough for him to get it, and he’s always going to lose a few votes from those who view him as a negative on defense.

Realistically throw in Giannis, KD, maybe even Harden if he keeps his play up and you’ve got quite a few guys right in the mix this year IMO. Joel has a really good shot, probably not if the Bucks end up passing them though because Giannis’s numbers are starting to normalize closer to where they were last year. Bron likely makes or breaks his case with how well he and the team do with AD out. If AD misses a month of action and the Lakers don’t fall out of that top 3 in the West positioning and Bron’s numbers go up in that same time span, he’s going to have a pretty good argument at that point himself.


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I'm not saying Bron is in the running solely because of narratives that would be silly I'm mainly talking about what kind of ridiculous stuff they will run with just like the Giannis MVP last year that will be hard to top. you would be naïve to think that's not going to happen again.

[Majingir]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

I haven't looked too much at the standings lately, but I saw the East standings.

If the playoffs began today, 5 of the top 7 teams are from the Atlantic!

Hornets as the 8 seed are leading their division. But the Bulls are 1 game back.

It's a small chance, but still a chance we could have a division winner not make the playoffs.

[jeebs9]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

I was ready for Knicks-Spurs

[cima]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

I haven't looked too much at the standings lately, but I saw the East standings.

If the playoffs began today, 5 of the top 7 teams are from the Atlantic!

Hornets as the 8 seed are leading their division. But the Bulls are 1 game back.

It's a small chance, but still a chance we could have a division winner not make the playoffs.

The Eastern conference still sucks and remains a far inferior conference some 5-6 years after I made that thread but apologists will still want inferior teams in rather than the 16 best.

[jeebs9]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

The Eastern conference still sucks and remains a far inferior conference some 5-6 years after I made that thread but apologists will still want inferior teams in rather than the 16 best.

You into college basketball? Just asking

[cima]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

You into college basketball? Just asking

Honestly not since all the players were older than me. Was a diehard UC fan back in the day but lost interest once they fired Huggins.


If I could dig it up on the college forum on here, the threads were super active on here and I even had an avatar curse one year where just about every team I put as my avatar ended up losing, lol

[DamnYanks2]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

Honestly not since all the players were older than me. Was a diehard UC fan back in the day but lost interest once they fired Huggins.


If I could dig it up on the college forum on here, the threads were super active on here and I even had an avatar curse one year where just about every team I put as my avatar ended up losing, lol

Yea back in the day the college forums were fire. Now they are all but dead. Sucks. But CBB is killing itself. Also **** Mark Emmert.

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[georgiafan]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

Apparently Justice Winslow is still alive and is questionable for tonight’s game after missing a full year with a hip injury

[dubcity]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

The Eastern conference still sucks and remains a far inferior conference some 5-6 years after I made that thread but apologists will still want inferior teams in rather than the 16 best.

If the season ended right now with a top 16 playoff system there would be 9 from the West and 7 from the East. Is that really worth throwing away the conference format completely? Unless we're going to decide who the best teams are by something other than W/L.

[ojandpizza]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

If the season ended right now with a top 16 playoff system there would be 9 from the West and 7 from the East. Is that really worth throwing away the conference format completely? Unless we're going to decide who the best teams are by something other than W/L.

It’s basically the exact same every year he says this too. He’s really fixated on teams that have won 3-4 more games being so much better that conferences shouldn’t exist. He acts like every year there is 20 wins separating seeds 6-8 in the West from 6-8 in the East. 7 teams from the East would have made it last year too, with the 8 seeded teams separated by like a game and a half.


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[Mentch]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

If the season ended right now with a top 16 playoff system there would be 9 from the West and 7 from the East. Is that really worth throwing away the conference format completely? Unless we're going to decide who the best teams are by something other than W/L.

That's because we're halfway through the season. I'm about to compile a list of notable examples of seasons where this 16 team uncoferenced playoff format would be a better option

[Mentch]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

If we went purely by record, then this is what the results of it would be. For the purposes of this assessment, let's use conference record as the tiebreaker in the unconferenced format. I wont be touching the 2019-20 season because of COVID

2018-19: No changes to playoff teams, BUT #3 seed in East goes to #7 unconferenced, #4 seed in East goes to #9 seed (only because of BS conference record in the East), #5 seed in East goes to #10 seed (once again only because of BS conference record), and #6-8 in East go to #14-16 overall

2017-18: 9 playoff teams from West, 7 from East. This is the only season in this example where the East appears to be stronger than the West as a whole

2016-17: all playoff teams stay the same, BUT the #1 seed in the East goes to the #4 seed unconferenced and the #2/3 seeds in the East go to #5/6 (assuming the tiebreaker is conference record, but guess what, it's obviously easier to accumulate a better conference record in the East)

2015-16: 9 playoff teams from East, 7 from West, BUT #3-6 seeds in the East go to #7-10 seeds in the unconferenced playoff format cuz the East was weak as hell

2014-15: 9 playoff teams from West, 7 from East, BUT #2 seed in East goes to #6 seed unconferenced, #3 seed in East goes to #9 seed (only because of racking up nice conference record in East), #4 seed in East goes to #10 seed

2013-14: 9 playoff teams from West, 7 from East, BUT #1 seed in East goes to #4 seed unconferenced, #2 seed in East goes to #5 seed (only because of BS conference record in East once again), #3/4 seed in East goes to #11/12 seed (once again, only because of BS conference record), #5-7 seeds in East go to #14-16 seeds

2012-13: 9 playoff teams from West, 7 from East, BUT #2 seed in East goes to #7 seed unconferenced, #3 seed in East goes to #8 seed, #5 seed in East goes to #11 seed (once again, ONLY because of racking up easy conference record against horrible East)


tl;dr: It could not be more clear that the West has been the stronger conference for a long time now. You may not think this changes a lot in terms of which teams get into the playoffs in each conference, but it sure as hell does make a difference in terms of seeding because of the quality of the teams. This is without me even mentioning the 2007-08 or the 2009-10 seasons, where the #1 seed in the West was 57-25 and the #8 seed was 50-32 both times

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

^So what you’re saying is under that format, LeBron would probably have 1-2 less rings or wouldn’t have gone to 8 straight Finals? [emoji102]

***runs out of thread***

[ojandpizza]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

It’s not nearly that simplistic though because the teams don’t play the same teams the same number of times, not all teams records reflect how healthy they were throughout the year, which teams had new rosters to start the season and have lots of losses while finding their groove by the time the playoffs started.

No doubt West has been stronger, but not to the degree that conferences need to be deleted for the sake of reseeding teams that are separated by just a handful of wins.

Even in these 2nd seed drops to 7 examples the difference between #2 Knicks in 2013 and the #2 Spurs was only 4 games. It’s not really all that large of a gap. In 2014 #2 Miami would have been a 5-6 seed but DWade only played like 50 games and they had a better win% against Western conference teams than Eastern conference teams. Those are just some examples of why just glancing at wins and losses isn’t enough to just completely overhaul seeding.

The bottom 2-3 teams in the East have been notoriously worse no doubt, but again we are talking just a handful of games in most instances and the 9-7 vs 8-8 does a pretty solid job of illustrating that pretty much all teams are making the playoffs regardless. We’re arguing to deleted conferences so we can move in a new 16th seed, just seems silly.


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[jeebs9]

Re: 2/9 - 2/22 Games Discussion Thread

Apparently Justice Winslow is still alive and is questionable for tonight’s game after missing a full year with a hip injury

I've given up on him. I thought he'd be back by now. But I think this is good second hip injury if I'm not mistaken. Any contribution from him is a steal at this point.