Red Mosquito

Can't wait to see what Rudy Gobert has up his sleeve.

verb_to_trust wrote:Barkley says NBA returning is 100%. Cites TNT bosses.

Good deal.

when is the NBA coming back?

July is what the rumor is. Same says he's not coming back. What a prince that guy is.

This group play idea is really interesting and could be a motivating factor for players to come back from teams not in contention. It got me thinking about a scenario that would be highly watchable, fair, and pretty exciting in a "campus" atmosphere.

Group Play Scenario:

-Each conference is divided into 3 groups, consisting of 5 teams each
-Teams play each team in their group twice
-Group Play seeds are determined by current standings
-Top 2 teams from each group advance to traditional playoff structure
-Any ties after group play are broken by regular season record
-Top 2 teams from each conference in current standings who don't place in top two of group play make playoffs, but have lowest two seeds
-All lottery odds are locked in now with current standings (would prevent tanking in group play)

Easter Conference

Group A:
Bucks
Cavs
Sixers
Nets
Knicks

Group B:
Raptors
Hawks
Pacers
Magic
Bulls

Group C:
Celtics
Pistons
Heat
Wizards
Hornets

Western Conference

Group A:
Lakers
Rockets
Mavs
Spurs
Warriors

Group B:
Clippers
Thunder
Grizzlies
Kings
T-Wolves

Group C:
Nuggets
Jazz
Blazers
Pelicans
Suns

A random team could easily win a WC style tournament. Watching LeBron crash out of group play would be epic.

verb_to_trust wrote:A random team could easily win a WC style tournament. Watching LeBron crash out of group play would be epic.

Lakers would still make the playoffs in this scenario, but yeah, the randomness could be fun!

conditioning gonna be so important

those who kept exercising during the break v. those who didnt

some dudes are gonna step out there and just explode their hammies

There are pictures out there of skinny Harden

Can we all agree this was no more safe/dangerous to do 2 months ago than it is right now?

Test everyone before they enter the compound, don’t let anyone leave.

The whole thing is stupid.

verb_to_trust wrote:The whole thing is stupid.

Just open it back up. Survival of the fittest.

Last Dance was awesome.

Hope the season starts up soon.

As a Bucks fan this season is already dead to me. If they win the Coronacup it'll be nice but ultimately meaningless. No one will look at it as being on the same level as a regular championship. It'll be like their regular season dominance never happened. If they lose, obviously they got fucked over by the virus. That being said it'll be nice to have games on again, and I'll watch every second of it.

ghost wrote:As a Bucks fan this season is already dead to me. If they win the Coronacup it'll be nice but ultimately meaningless. No one will look at it as being on the same level as a regular championship. It'll be like their regular season dominance never happened. If they lose, obviously they got fucked over by the virus. That being said it'll be nice to have games on again, and I'll watch every second of it.

I don't really the buy the argument that the champion will have an asterisk if they play a full playoff schedule with a few warmup games before it. If anything, more teams will be healthy (albeit slightly out of shape).

Monkey_Driven wrote:I don't really the buy the argument that the champion will have an asterisk if they play a full playoff schedule with a few warmup games before it. If anything, more teams will be healthy (albeit slightly out of shape).

Agreed. I mean we'll have to see how it turns out but it certainly appears a team would have to overcome more than the normal adversity and the top teams will lose some of the advantages they had earned.

I'm also really intrigued to see the production wizardry for these games.

Monkey_Driven wrote:

ghost wrote:As a Bucks fan this season is already dead to me. If they win the Coronacup it'll be nice but ultimately meaningless. No one will look at it as being on the same level as a regular championship. It'll be like their regular season dominance never happened. If they lose, obviously they got fucked over by the virus. That being said it'll be nice to have games on again, and I'll watch every second of it.

I don't really the buy the argument that the champion will have an asterisk if they play a full playoff schedule with a few warmup games before it. If anything, more teams will be healthy (albeit slightly out of shape).

The only asterisk would be if star player(s) end up having to sit out because of the virus. Say we get Lakers/Clippers in the WCF and suddenly Paul George can't play because he has 'Rona.

Other than that, everyone is in the same boat and the 2020 championship ring is just as valuable as any other year.

Bammer wrote: The only asterisk would be if star player(s) end up having to sit out because of the virus. Say we get Lakers/Clippers in the WCF and suddenly Paul George can't play because he has 'Rona.

Other than that, everyone is in the same boat and the 2020 championship ring is just as valuable as any other year.

Agreed.

Whatever format they choose these playoffs should do monster ratings. Hopefully it ends up being exciting. This could be one of the most shared NBA memories among casual fans for a long time. There's no way we all watch this together and then shrug at the end like, "well there weren't fans in the building so it doesn't count."*

Bammer's caveat applied here.

4/5 wrote:

Bammer wrote: The only asterisk would be if star player(s) end up having to sit out because of the virus. Say we get Lakers/Clippers in the WCF and suddenly Paul George can't play because he has 'Rona.

Other than that, everyone is in the same boat and the 2020 championship ring is just as valuable as any other year.

Agreed.

Whatever format they choose these playoffs should do monster ratings. Hopefully it ends up being exciting. This could be one of the most shared NBA memories among casual fans for a long time. There's no way we all watch this together and then shrug at the end like, "well there weren't fans in the building so it doesn't count."*

Bammer's caveat applied here.

Don't you guys dare convince me to get emotionally invested in the outcome of this season again.