I think we’ve now seen enough Western Conference basketball (The March to .500) to conclude that the playoff format needs to be changed on an emergency basis with one of the following:
1. The playoffs must expand from four to 12 teams, with only the Nuggets, Grizzlies and Kings exempt from any sideline burden.
2. The Nuggets, Grizzlies, and Kings make it to fourth place, with a collection of players from teams 4 through 12: Stephen Curry, Shai Gilges-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, Jrue Holiday, Luka Doncic, Kawhi Leonard, Damian . For example, Lillard, Lauri Markkanen, and Mikal Bridges (Devin Booker missed too much time, sorry). They don’t practice together, are coached by Kendrick Perkins and must play all of their first-round games in Denver. The only assets they’ll have are Perkins and their own wits, and they’ll be called Seattle Vegas Expansion Prototypes because they’ll mostly be in their early to mid-30s when those new teams actually play.
3. The Nuggets, Grizzlies and Kings make it, the fourth team is LeBron Agonistes playing on his own. Ultimately, the NBA’s biggest liability is getting James out this year, whether he brings the Lakers with him or not.
4. The Nuggets, Grizzlies, and Kings make the playoffs in a three-way series in 1948, and everyone stops bothering us after Game 82. Only the Spurs and Rockets are eligible for the lottery, and so are the weakest scumbags. East, as they’ve successfully stuck to their diligent plan (losing four out of five games).
We suggest this because the West is no more ordered or attractive today than it was at Christmas, and a team that can be fifth one day, 10th the next, and sixth the day after that is not very attractive entertainment. If you take out the Nuggets, Grizzlies, Kings, Lakers, Spurs and Rockets, the average nine has gone 67-78 since the start of the new year, roughly equivalent to the Indiana Pacers, and who wants to see that multiplied? nine, or even, to be honest, one.
The NBA, led by Adam Silver, has been trying to create a framework that looks more and more like European soccer, only without the one worthwhile innovation of decline. By that standard, the Western Conference is the Carabao Cup, a mechanism that causes a lot of trouble, except for the TV networks, and guarantees that the young player you pay €80m for today will be ruined and useless at 26 after playing half a game. baseball season every year.
But it’s the new deal, and everyone, more or less, seems fine. But as long as we can’t be sure of Kings-Warriors in the first round, just to see if the last 40 years of non-rivalry can suddenly turn, anyone in the bloated half of this deity-forsaken amalgam of mediocrity deserves nothing, and just the world will get it.
And the Spurs and Rockets? Maybe we can halve Victor Vembanyama and they can battle it out to see who gets the nod.
Comments