The example you posted is not a random selection of matchups, it’s how the playoffs would look if they removed conferences and played purely on overall seeding (as things currently stand).
Making up ideal playoff matchups removes all the sporting merit.
Yeah as the tweet already explains, I would just go further and erase regular season seeding to change match ups.
What is “sporting merit”?
If the NBA still decides to go straight into the playoffs with the regular season cut short has “sporting merit” been removed? Teams that had a chance to make the playoffs can’t potentially without a full regular season, should we insist that we complete the regular season? That doesn’t make sense in terms of logistics in light COVID 19 complications or tv ratings.
No one cares about the regular season or the chase for low seeding spots, No one cares about inter conference play off match ups either. This a unique situation, game are being played at neutral venues, there’ll be no fans and no home court advantage, I think the NBA should jump straight into the playoffs and make it as compelling as possible. Give the people want they want
Regardless of match ups, you still have to play to win a 7 games series, I see zero harm in setting it up for more interesting playoffs in this one off instance
This has actually been carrying quite some momentum in de past five years or so. I think a lot of people would like to see an experiment with the East/West play offs abolished with #1 - 16 match ups.
One thing I really hate about NBA basketball: 16 teams out of 30 making the playoffs is ridiculous and devalues the regular season way too much. There’s also no fucking need to have such a long playoffs, nor for the 1st and 2nd teams to go through the tedious phase of beating the 8th and 7th teams. 6 teams from each conference with no first round for 1st and 2nd place would be a much more honest system.
We all know why it is as it is, though: $$$$ > competitive integrity
Personally I love the extended playoffs, I can see what you mean about an 82 game regular season being devalued though.
If the NBA went straight into the playoffs now, then that wouldn’t remove sporting merit because they’d use the results from the games already played to determine the playoffs. Sure, it’s be unfortunate for teams like Portland, but this season is an anomaly due to Covid.
Also, it’s quite common to have a shorter season when the CBA is re-negotiated and lockouts tend to ensue.
You are trying to make a comparison between a season that gets cut short due to a crisis and a season where a bunch of big wigs pick a random set of teams to play each other based on things like how popular a team is lol
It would be a bit of a shame for us if we have no chance to make it, we’re currently 3.5 games back from Memphis but still were meant to play them twice at home. Nurkic and Collins back healthy I think we’d be more competitive than some teams in the playoffs.
Lillard has stated if we have zero chance do make it, he’s not going to bother playing.
Yeah there will be some teams that will lose out because the last 10-15 games may not be played, or at least not all of them. But likewise, all the other teams in the playoffs currently would say that their position is equally valuable. So either way, we are going to run into parity issues if the regular season has to be ended prematurely.
At least with the lockout, the season is planned before they start playing.
The actual 
speaking up. Michael Jordan won’t cuz he’s got shoes to sell.
Brother Kareem :wenger2: 
Looking like 22 teams heading to Orlando for a potential July 31 restart seems to be the talk ATM @BigWeng_4LYFE
Yup confirmed today 22 teams in Orlando. Fucks us a bit as a Lakers fan but I’m glad the season is gonna go ahead. Maybe by that time it will be safe to get everyone back at their own arena again. Still a couple months until the first game.
When he retired in 1994 he went to play baseball. It was such a weird thing. His dad always wanted him to play baseball and supposedly he did it to honor him (his dad had been murderer just prior). There are a bunch of conspiracies as to why he retired for a couple years and then came back. Some say he was going to be disciplined by the NBA for something, so to spare his blushes he retired and went to do the baseball thing. Supposedly he had a bad gambling problem that had something to do with it as well. Who knows, but he he was a beyond mediocre baseball player who would have never been given the chance unless he was who he was.
I don’t buy those conspiracies tbh…in the 90s there were guys who played two different sports on the highest level (Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson). Fair enough if Jordan thought he could do the same.
Interesting read on it.
You know that if this is true rumours about game 6 in the WCF 2002 or the 2006 Finals all become more credible ;)? Which leads to the conclusion that the NBA is the WWE for basketball.
There’s some sort of weird stigma in sports here in the states where if a player bets on any sports its like a taboo thing. Pete Rose the all time hits in MLB, bet on his own team to win and got banned from the league for life and still isn’t allowed in the hall of fame. So yeh I don’t think the article is saying Jordan threw games like ur referring to the 2002 WCF and Tim Donnehy, but rather the media would have had the knives out for Jordan and the NBA. Stern was always a shady character, so him sweeping something like that under the rug wouldn’t surprise me.
As a Lakers fan im sorry but I don’t want to face Dame in the first round so goooo Memphis. Gonna be tough as u said cause of the schedule and u lost Trevor Ariza.