Official 2013-2014 NBA Playoffs Thread

[lupi]

Heard from Wilbon that inside sources have serious concerns over true extent of Parker's injury.


Also listened to Lebatard roast the Pacers, and threw in a reference to Oden having same number of final appearances as Durant.

Until the league goes to an actual hard cap, you'll continue to have 2-3 teams dominate every decade and all this kibbutzing about it is just retarded misdirection.

 

[smackababy]

Heard from Wilbon that inside sources have serious concerns over true extent of Parker's injury.


Also listened to Lebatard roast the Pacers, and threw in a reference to Oden having same number of final appearances as Durant.

Until the league goes to an actual hard cap, you'll continue to have 2-3 teams dominate every decade and all this kibbutzing about it is just retarded misdirection.

The NBA won't stop that. The only decade which saw more than 3-4 real power teams was the NBA's lowest point in viewership: the 70s. They don't care what is "good for basketball" so much as they care what is good for viewership. And people want power teams.

 

[dougp]

Heard from Wilbon that inside sources have serious concerns over true extent of Parker's injury.

Also listened to Lebatard roast the Pacers, and threw in a reference to Oden having same number of final appearances as Durant.

Until the league goes to an actual hard cap, you'll continue to have 2-3 teams dominate every decade and all this kibbutzing about it is just retarded misdirection.

I'm curious if you have a link on that concern - mostly because we haven't seen anything reported on it. Everything that I've seen has basically said that he'll be ready - heck, he's even been cleared to play on Thursday. I mean, they're probably concerned in a sense that it can be reinjured, but that's what happens when Parker decides to play with the full schedule he's had since 2012.

 

[smackababy]

I'm curious if you have a link on that concern - mostly because we haven't seen anything reported on it. Everything that I've seen has basically said that he'll be ready - heck, he's even been cleared to play on Thursday. I mean, they're probably concerned in a sense that it can be reinjured, but that's what happens when Parker decides to play with the full schedule he's had since 2012.

I read that as, since he was cleared to play in game 1, he was actually injured, but will play through it.

I wish Leonard would step up more and take charge of games. I know he is young, but I think he has the talent.

 

[dougp]

I read that as, since he was cleared to play in game 1, he was actually injured, but will play through it.

I wish Leonard would step up more and take charge of games. I know he is young, but I think he has the talent.

Pop doesn't really call a lot of plays for Leonard - but he let him off the hook to run with the ball in the open court, though. I do agree, though, I'd love for him to take over a bigger role.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

The NBA won't stop that. The only decade which saw more than 3-4 real power teams was the NBA's lowest point in viewership: the 70s. They don't care what is "good for basketball" so much as they care what is good for viewership. And people want power teams.

Yeah. The NBA just wishes those power teams were in LA and New York, not San Antonio and Miami. And it really doesn't help that the teams waiting in the wings (Oklahoma City and Indiana) come from even smaller markets than that. The NBA's biggest fear is a championship series featuring Memphis and Milwaukee in the "Who the Fuck Cares Bowl."

 

[DesiPower]

A no Parker is better than a 90% Parker, he can really waste time and break the rhythm of team. Unless he is at 110% he will weigh the team down. He is very egoistic and I am sure he would hate to miss any game. If he comes in at 90% or less, which, I am sure he will, it will be a big loss for Spurs, hope Pop can pull him out in time if needed

Leonard and Green are young and not seasoned enough to play under pressure, they excel when the team has a upper hand. Duncan and Ginobili and Parker and others older players will have to bring that to them, have a lead and block Heat to make them look vulnerable, then Leonard and Green can play their magic.

I think Anderson will be a key player in these games, if Spurs can break through his defense and block his changers and passes, they will have a good chance. Last year Spurs did well in the games when he had less minutes or was not that effective

 

[lupi]

You mean besides it coming from his mouth? Sorry can't help you there.

 

[smackababy]

Yeah. The NBA just wishes those power teams were in LA and New York, not San Antonio and Miami. And it really doesn't help that the teams waiting in the wings (Oklahoma City and Indiana) come from even smaller markets than that. The NBA's biggest fear is a championship series featuring Memphis and Milwaukee in the "Who the Fuck Cares Bowl."

Milwaukee (35) actually has a higher media market than San Antonio (37) and Memphis is ranked 3 below OKC. Although, SA benefits, IMO, from Houston and Dallas' market as well (both of which are very large: 10 and 5, respectively). I do agree they would prefer New York, LA, or Chicago to be up there.

 

[preslove]

How are the media markets accounted for? I live in the rio grande valley and everyone here is a spurs fan, by default. I'd think that most basketball fans in Austin lean towards the spurs because of the recent years of unbroken success.

 

[smackababy]

How are the media markets accounted for? I live in the rio grande valley and everyone here is a spurs fan, by default. I'd think that most basketball fans in Austin lean towards the spurs because of the recent years of unbroken success.

"A Television Market Area (TMA) is a group of counties in the United States covered by a specific group of television stations" is the best definition I see on wikipedia. Likely, you're not covered in the traditional media market for the Spurs. And, with the increasing access outside of local areas, this is kind of a decreasing factor.

 

[preslove]

"A Television Market Area (TMA) is a group of counties in the United States covered by a specific group of television stations" is the best definition I see on wikipedia. Likely, you're not covered in the traditional media market for the Spurs. And, with the increasing access outside of local areas, this is kind of a decreasing factor.

Which is pretty dumb, since cable subscribers get access to every game of the spurs. I know because I tried out nba league pass and I could never watch spurs games, so I didn't subscribe.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

How are the media markets accounted for? I live in the rio grande valley and everyone here is a spurs fan, by default. I'd think that most basketball fans in Austin lean towards the spurs because of the recent years of unbroken success.

The media markets are just the number of TV watching households in a particular metropolitan area. The media market for Portland, for example, would be the Portland metro area, which extends into the suburbs and a few Washington border cities, but ignores that the Blazers have a pretty healthy following throughout the entire state of Oregon. People have done maps which try to better track team popularity beyond metrics like "media market size," but that just shows that people tend to root for winners, as the Lakers and Heat dominate everywhere that doesn't have a home team.

 

[HendrixFan]

While TV ratings in the playoffs grow when the largest market teams have deep runs, the NBA is the most global of the US sports leagues. Someone in China or England doesn't really care if NYers tune in to watch Miami vs SA, they will either way.

The global reach of the game is far beyond football or baseball and is a HUGE part of why their upcoming TV deal will bring alot of new money to the game. You can read tons of articles over the last few years talking about small market teams and sliding playoff ratings but the league is due to double or triple their TV deal. It has everything to do with global reach.

Personally, I think the best thing for the game would be contraction of a few teams. That will not happen, especially with the current valuation of franchises. The talent pool for loaded rosters just isn't large enough to support the number of teams we have. If you chop off two or three teams and distribute that talent throughout the remaining teams you would have much deeper teams across the board.

The upcoming changes to the lottery system will help prevent teams from intentionally sucking, which is as big of a reason as you see power teams as the soft cap.

All in all, there are remedies and I think Silver is the right guy to help improve the NBA in areas where it is weakest, but overall the league is doing great. In terms of pure basketball, the game is played as beautifully as it ever has. Teams like SA and Miami do well because they play unselfishly and move the ball around. As younger and savvier owners keep cycling into the NBA they are pushing their front offices to be more like the Spurs and concentrate on value players, team principles (built up in part through the D league), and stability within the organization.

Basically the opposite of everything Dan Gilbert does.

 

[lupi]

When talking markets there are a couple different things in play. You have the actual cities/area groupings which are the markets you see discussed in relation to ratings/market size. Then from the teams point of view, you have the local market where they have the dominant presence, the secondary (tv) markets where they can claim as local market status, and then you can get into tertiary markets where the team gets can get preferential treatment. These claims are what cause you to have limited ability to view the games by certain means even if you aren't in the city of the team.

 

[Blackjack200]

Personally, I think the best thing for the game would be contraction of a few teams. That will not happen, especially with the current valuation of franchises. The talent pool for loaded rosters just isn't large enough to support the number of teams we have. If you chop off two or three teams and distribute that talent throughout the remaining teams you would have much deeper teams across the board.

I personally think that all four North American Sports leagues would benefit from contraction and elimation of the playoff system. Just award the championship based on points like the soccer leagues.

Everyone is afraid of losing their playoffs, but you'd have playoff level intensity for the whole season because the games would actually matter, consistency would be rewarded, and with the deeper teams, you'd have more parity. Obviously it will never happen though.

 

[smackababy]

I personally think that all four North American Sports leagues would benefit from contraction and elimation of the playoff system. Just award the championship based on points like the soccer leagues.

Everyone is afraid of losing their playoffs, but you'd have playoff level intensity for the whole season because the games would actually matter, consistency would be rewarded, and with the deeper teams, you'd have more parity. Obviously it will never happen though.

And then, you run into the same problem that led to the first championship for the NFL. Two teams tie and have to play a "championship" game to determine who is the winner.

The playoff system works. The problem with basketball is they play 80 games or some stupid number. That is a ton of games and people just aren't interested. Playoff basketball is the only reason a lot of people even care about the sport.

If they shortened the season to say 30 games, the games themselves would have more weight, thus making them more interesting to watch. Shorten the playoffs to best of 3 with the finals best of 5.

 

[darkewaffle]

I think 30 is a bit short but I wouldn't object to the season being trimmed. Maybe 50-60? I'd prefer 7 game playoff series but the playoffs shouldn't be as long as the season itself.

I'd be curious what the players would say about such things.

 

[vi edit]

Dropping 4 teams (NO, Toronto, Charlotte, and...dunno...Orlando?) and scaling the season back to 60 games or so would really make the NBA more competitive. They could also cut the playoff teams down from 16 to 8 and shorten the rounds down by one. You are putting more talent into more teams, putting less wear on bodies over the course of the season, and putting more emphasis onto each game played with less games to compete for spots and less spots available.

I don't like the idea of eliminating playoffs. Playoffs are the only real time I watch the NBA as it is.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Dropping 4 teams (NO, Toronto, Charlotte, and...dunno...Orlando?) and scaling the season back to 60 games or so would really make the NBA more competitive. They could also cut the playoff teams down from 16 to 8 and shorten the rounds down by one. You are putting more talent into more teams, putting less wear on bodies over the course of the season, and putting more emphasis onto each game played with less games to compete for spots and less spots available.

I don't like the idea of eliminating playoffs. Playoffs are the only real time I watch the NBA as it is.

If you're going to contract teams, pick the ones that have the worst attendance. The Hawks, Bucks, T-Wolves, 76ers and Pistons are the bottom five teams in terms of attendance, whether considering percent capacity filled or overall attendance. Of those, the 76ers play in the biggest market, although Detroit routinely draws bigger crowds. That said, the Bucks and 76ers were the worst teams this year, so that might explain the lack of attendance. The Hawks were a playoff team and still no one supports them, so that's telling as well. I guess you would need to go back and take a look at the last decade, see how much teams make in ticket revenue and what have you; just arbitrarily picking four "bad" teams and saying "Cut these" wouldn't be a terribly sound business strategy if those teams happen to be profitable for the league.

 

[lupi]

Problem is length of season. NBA & MLB extended their seasons in the pre tv revenue days to increase stadium gate/consessions and refuse to back off from it now. NFL season is four months + playoffs, the other two run 6+ months of regular season.

 

[manly]

Until the league goes to an actual hard cap, you'll continue to have 2-3 teams dominate every decade and all this kibbutzing about it is just retarded misdirection.

I disagree, the terms of the luxury tax are a huge deterrent to free spending. While it won't stop a crazy guy like Mikhail Prokhorov from wasting his money, it's already led to some adverse affects:

* OKC panic-trading James Harden a year before they had to make a move, simply to avoid paying luxury tax
* Miami amnestying Mike Miller to save some tax dollars, even though he was an important part of last years Finals success
* Even after the Lakers lost DH, their cap situation this season was a mess. And by overpaying Kobe, they have enough room to add one max contract, but limited flexibility to make the multiple moves that typified Lakers summer transactions in years past.

The Knicks cap situation is an absolute mess, and they don't have Donnie Walsh around to brilliantly clean it up. If PJ gets the Knicks to the ECF before he retires, that will be a successful tenure.

 

[DesiPower]

US Soccer Team Coach Makes A Blunt Kobe Bryant Analogy That Explains Why He Cut Landon Donovan

"'This always happens in America,' Klinsmann told me, waving his hands in the air. 'Kobe Bryant, for example — why does he get a two-year contract extension for $50 million? Because of what he is going to do in the next two years for the Lakers? Of course not. Of course not. He gets it because of what he has done before. It makes no sense. Why do you pay for what has already happened?'"

I so so agree with this dude, its such a waste of time and money for any team... Wait for franchise players to "voluntarily retire", its bull shit.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

US Soccer Team Coach Makes A Blunt Kobe Bryant Analogy That Explains Why He Cut Landon Donovan



I so so agree with this dude, its such a waste of time and money for any team... Wait for franchise players to "voluntarily retire", its bull shit.

Kobe - 5 Rings
Donovan - 0 World Cups

 

[smackababy]

US Soccer Team Coach Makes A Blunt Kobe Bryant Analogy That Explains Why He Cut Landon Donovan



I so so agree with this dude, its such a waste of time and money for any team... Wait for franchise players to "voluntarily retire", its bull shit.

So, we shouldn't pay players who have a history of being extremely good, because they couldn't possible continue to be good. No, we have to pay them very little, because we shouldn't base their salary on what they've done in the past, despite that being the only metric we have to even consider their performance in the future.

Yeah, when this guy coaches the US team to a world cup, I'll give a shit about his opinion on coaching. The best result of a US team in the world cup came in 1930 and it was third place. Kobe has actually led his team to NBA championships.