The Eastern Conference is making a great case for ditching East/West Playoffs

[King_B_Mack]

Quote: Originally Posted by cima

I just don't think this is as big a deal for NBA players (or pro athletes in general) as it is for the general population. As someone stated earlier, these guys are flying in luxury, likely sleeping very comfortably on their luxury jet. I don't see an issue if they have 2 days rest. It's probably more of an issue for EC teams than it is WC teams.

Just because they're in "luxury" doesn't change the affects of flying on the human body and adjusting to different time zones, etc.

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by cima

I just don't think this is as big a deal for NBA players (or pro athletes in general) as it is for the general population. As someone stated earlier, these guys are flying in luxury, likely sleeping very comfortably on their luxury jet. I don't see an issue if they have 2 days rest. It's probably more of an issue for EC teams than it is WC teams.

Last september, I had a deposition to do in LA on a Thursday but I had to be back in DC for a wedding on Saturday. I flew from DCA to LAX on Thursday morning. The job let me upgrade to First Class and gave me a car service so I was in luxury and didnt really have to do anything as it related to travel. I took the red eye back to DC on Friday night.

That **** ****ed me up for days! And I didnt even have to play a basketball game, deal with press obligations or practice. The time change alone can screw you up.

Also its not two days rest. Its one day. Look at your NO/GSW example, there is only one game between game 6 and game 7.

[cima]

Quote: Originally Posted by King_B_Mack

Just because they're in "luxury" doesn't change the affects of flying on the human body and adjusting to different time zones, etc.

I've done my fair share of travelling in the past for business; you can't convince me that two days rest isn't enough time to acclimate. Especially if we're talking about playing a game at 7:00 EST when your body would think it's 4:00? Come on, that's not a big deal at all. 7:00 when your body thinks it's 10:00? More of an issue, but that's what the 2 days rest is for.

[cima]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

Also its not two days rest. Its one day. Look at your NO/GSW example, there is only one game between game 6 and game 7.

That's only between game 6 and 7. Game 4 was 4/25. Game 5 was 4/28. Game 6 was 5/1.

[dsallupinyaarea]

I'm firmly in the best 16 camp, but I can't say that travel is no big deal. I flew from LAX to RDU last year and it took me 4 days to feel right and that was with no return trip. I just think the gains (seeing the best 16 teams) offsets the traveling issue.

[King_B_Mack]

Also to be noted in this discussion, is the financial implications for the league for this sort of change. You're basically killing the rooting interest for almost entire half of the country that's particularly important to your revenue stream for reasons that aren't always simply "run your franchise better."

For example Miami actively tries to get better and put out a solid product every year, but if your team catches the injury bug and you draft a guy who ends up being injury prone, or you sign a free agent to a big deal that's supposed to put you over the hump, but then he gets hurt in some freak accident like what happened to Paul George, you're now punished for that and miss the playoffs because of this stupid format. Just one year though right? Okay, but what if that player is never the same after the injury? What if he continues to get hurt like Derrick Rose? You can't trade him and he's eating up cap space making it hard to make moves to build your team to compete in this format for the life of that contract. Now you have fans of those teams tuning out of the NBA because they're team is missing the playoffs every year and they know they have no chance to compete for a title. That's a big problem if it's going on in cities like Boston, New York and Chicago continuously.

Then there's the scheduling issues. Look at your bracket. Look how many western conference teams have home court advantage there. Either you're starting some of those games at 4 or 5 o'clock in order to play more than one game in a day or games are running at the same time and people are missing those amazing match ups that we changed the playoffs to see in the first place. The playoffs are fine the way they are.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[King_B_Mack]

Quote: Originally Posted by dsallupinyaarea

I'm firmly in the best 16 camp, but I can't say that travel is no big deal. I flew from LAX to RDU last year and it took me 4 days to feel right and that was with no return trip. I just think the gains (seeing the best 16 teams) offsets the traveling issue.

How can it possibly offset if the players are playing less than their best because of the travel issues? Cool, we'll get awesome match ups on paper that suck when we see them because everybody is playing with jet lag


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cima]

Quote: Originally Posted by King_B_Mack

For example Miami actively tries to get better and put out a solid product every year, but if your team catches the injury bug and you draft a guy who ends up being injury prone, or you sign a free agent to a big deal that's supposed to put you over the hump, but then he gets hurt in some freak accident like what happened to Paul George, you're now punished for that and miss the playoffs because of this stupid format. Just one year though right? Okay, but what if that player is never the same after the injury? What if he continues to get hurt like Derrick Rose? You can't trade him and he's eating up cap space making it hard to make moves to build your team to compete in this format for the life of that contract. Now you have fans of those teams tuning out of the NBA because they're team is missing the playoffs every year and they know they have no chance to compete for a title. That's a big problem if it's going on in cities like Boston, New York and Chicago continuously.

I don't think these are very good examples; First off injuries are an unfortunate part of the game. Look at Portland and Greg Oden/Brandon Roy. That set them back years but they recovered and became relevant again. So many teams have been hit with the injury bug this year especially; but it is what it is. It's unpredictable and uncontrollable.

Also you said a team like Miami or Indy miss the playoffs "because of this stupid format"? They both missed the playoffs this year under the CURRENT format, so I don't understand your argument. Miami and Indiana were 4th and 5th best in the league respectively in 13-14. Both teams were still talented enough to be in the top 16 teams this year had they been healthy. But the fact that they missed the playoffs under the current format kind of makes your argument about the new format being "stupid" irrelevant