OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - 2022-2023 NBA Season Thread

thehef · 04-02-2023, 06:38 PM

Interesting that the NBA is going to implement a mid-season tournament, where the games will count in regular-season standings. Apparently, from something I saw in a tweet:

- “Pool-play games baked into the regular-season schedule starting in November”

-8 teams advance to a “single-elimination tournament” in December.

- “The Final Four will be held at a neutral site, with Las Vegas prominent in the discussion.”

- Each in-season tournament game would count toward regular-season standings

- Final two finalists “would ultimately play 83 regular-season games”

- Winning players and coaches will earn additional prize money.

Seems like there is the potential here for something interesting, but we shall see... The two main things I'm wondering about:

1) How seriously will teams & players take these games? If some teams aren't giving their all (or close enough to it), and the Orlandos and Detroits are making it the final four, it's going to be a joke (except perhaps for the Magic and Piston fans). These games count towards the regular season, so obviously they'll be taken at least as seriously as the regular season. But if, say, we get to the final four and teams are implement their load management as usual...

2) If teams are still ending up playing 82 (or 83, for the finalists), that means that some on-the-fly schedule changes will be required at some point - at least for the 8 teams that advance to the tournament. So how that all plays out should be interesting... And for the two finalists, will that 83rd game count in any tiebreaker scenarios?

One change to the CBA that I definitely like: The 65-game minimum to be eligible for awards. Anything that might curtail load management is good with me. I hope this extends to any awards that might be incentives in player contracts.

Of course, the way around this is to suit a guy up and play him for a very minimal amount of time. Heck, Kawhi won't even need to stretch & warm-up to be inserted for the last few seconds of the first quarter... especially if it's a meaningless game at the end of the season... and load managing a guy to a mere 65 games won't really be much of a challenge; this season no team has more than 15 back-to-backs, with most teams in the 12-range. So now that I think about it, this is going to have very little affect on curtailing load management, in all likelihood.

04-02-2023, 06:38 PM	#334
thehef Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,380	Interesting that the NBA is going to implement a mid-season tournament, where the games will count in regular-season standings. Apparently, from something I saw in a tweet: - “Pool-play games baked into the regular-season schedule starting in November” -8 teams advance to a “single-elimination tournament” in December. - “The Final Four will be held at a neutral site, with Las Vegas prominent in the discussion.” - Each in-season tournament game would count toward regular-season standings - Final two finalists “would ultimately play 83 regular-season games” - Winning players and coaches will earn additional prize money. Seems like there is the potential here for something interesting, but we shall see... The two main things I'm wondering about: 1) How seriously will teams & players take these games? If some teams aren't giving their all (or close enough to it), and the Orlandos and Detroits are making it the final four, it's going to be a joke (except perhaps for the Magic and Piston fans). These games count towards the regular season, so obviously they'll be taken at least as seriously as the regular season. But if, say, we get to the final four and teams are implement their load management as usual... 2) If teams are still ending up playing 82 (or 83, for the finalists), that means that some on-the-fly schedule changes will be required at some point - at least for the 8 teams that advance to the tournament. So how that all plays out should be interesting... And for the two finalists, will that 83rd game count in any tiebreaker scenarios? One change to the CBA that I definitely like: The 65-game minimum to be eligible for awards. Anything that might curtail load management is good with me. I hope this extends to any awards that might be incentives in player contracts. Of course, the way around this is to suit a guy up and play him for a very minimal amount of time. Heck, Kawhi won't even need to stretch & warm-up to be inserted for the last few seconds of the first quarter... especially if it's a meaningless game at the end of the season... and load managing a guy to a mere 65 games won't really be much of a challenge; this season no team has more than 15 back-to-backs, with most teams in the 12-range. So now that I think about it, this is going to have very little affect on curtailing load management, in all likelihood.