So, LeBron Doesn’t Like The Play-In Tournament
Let’s talk about it.
I don’t know if you’re aware of this but Lebron James Sr. is a big deal. The 36 year old, is the reigning Finals MVP and NBA Champion after leading the Los Angeles Lakers to their 17th championship. Some highlights of his career resume include 4 NBA championships, 4 Finals MVP Trophies, 4 league MVP trophies, 17 All Star selections, 16 All - NBA selections, 2007 - 08 Scoring Champion and over 35,000 career points, as well as a whole host of other accolades. So yeah, he could be anybody, you’d be forgiven if you didn’t know who he was.
Recently, the Los Angeles Lakers have had to deal with some fitness issues which have caused LeBron himself and his All-NBA co-star Anthony Davis to endure extended spells on the sidelines.
On the 21st of March, LeBron came down with a high ankle sprain and missed 20 straight games which is the longest injury-related layoff of his long career. In the time where both primary weapons for the team were down injured, the Lakers initially started fairly well as they do have a resilient group even without their two superstars.
They remain capable on defense as this is something that, Frank Vogel, the head coach, has long since been renowned for. But it became evident that, offensively, there was a clear drop off as LeBron is critical to the way offense is generated for the team.
They eventually slide to an 8 -13 record with him out of the lineup, despite Anthony Davis recovering from his long layoff late into that stretch. This series of events causes them to drop all the way down the standings in the very competitive Western Conference.
LeBron is then reported to have recovered enough to be “questionable” ahead of the team’s May 1st match-up v the Sacramento Kings. He starts in the the game, plays well but the team’s rhythm is off and they end up losing the game after he misses the final shot for the win.
This was followed by another loss to the Toronto Raptors and that left the Lakers at 6th in the standings with an identical record with the fifth seed Dallas Mavericks and the seventh seed Portland Trailblazers. This puts the defending champions in serious danger of having to participate in the play-in tournament for their right to defend their right to defend the title come playoff time.
Prior to playing against the Raptors it was announced that Dennis Schroeder, point guard for the Lakers, who had been a bright spark in LeBron and Anthony Davis’ absence, would not be participating in the game because of the NBA’s health and safety protocols and is likely to miss 10 - 14 days of action and this would likely mean he’s out of contention for the rest of the regular season.
During the game LeBron is said to have been dealing with some soreness in the injured ankle and was not exactly at 100- uh, I mean at full health, was kept off the floor for the later stages of the game and it seems that, going forward, LeBron and the Lakers will be more cautious about giving the superstar athlete game time and he’s expected to be day-to-day for most of the remainder of the season despite the Lakers form
Now, your Great-Aunt Gladys knows exactly diddly-squat about basketball and the closest thing she comes to “sports” on a regular day is binge watching bake-off marathons on TLC, but you could give all I just said and two guesses and she’ll probably tell you that it is not an ideal situation the Lakers find themselves in.
After the game, in the presser, LeBron was asked all the expected questions. About his health, about the form of the team and about trying to balance easing into his full fitness and returning to help his team and eventually he was asked about the play-in tournament.
As is the culture of sports stars, press conferences are not particularly engaging. Players are conditioned, it seems, to say the most pre-packaged, cookie-cutter things to stay on the right lane and stay out of trouble because when news is made from revelations in a press conference, 9 times out of 10, it’s not good news. Thus even though press conferences are “mandated” by the league (quotations marks - signed, Uncle Drew) it often is just players speaking in non-offensive and often vague terms and it seems whatever chess match is afoot between the players staying distant and the press trying to wring an emotional response, the players typically win. Thus it often feels like there’s not a lot of earth-shaking revelations we discover from the pressers (Cue the Russ “Execution” Interview). Not to imply that there aren’t quite a few interesting ones (Cue the Russ “Execution” Interview again, it really is an intriguing piece of satire) but it seems like the general route for facing the media is non-confrontational or at least it is the advised route
As for LeBron James, having to shoulder the burden of being the face of the entire league for many years comes with a mastery of these types of activities and he is usually very careful with how he uses his voice while still saying quite a lot. Negative narratives to have emerged about him and his character are largely baseless and, frankly, seem to come with the territory. He’s a man who knows who he is and is as honest as he needs to be to everyone while understanding that being a black man, in his position, with his level of success and influence his actions and words are under a tougher microscope.
So with all this in mind, he goes about his presser in a normal non-offensive manner. Now I’m not into the science of body language like that but he looked like he didn’t really want to be there. I suppose even after 1000+ games it doesn’t get any easier to sit and talk after a loss. When addressing the question on the play-in tournament, he fumbles the actual name of the tournament and, as if under his breath says “whoever came up with that s--t needs to be fired”
So now it’s a whole big thing.
Naturally, the first question is what even is the NBA play-in tournament.
The play-in is a small gauntlet of games, with advancement by single game knockout, where qualified teams play for the traditional 7th and 8th seeds in the NBA playoffs.
They are scheduled to take place between May 18 and ending May 21, with the first round of the Playoffs tipping off May 22. It’s a four team competition involving the teams in the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th seeded position when the regular season comes to an end. The 7th and 8th seeds will compete against one another and the winner will play as the 7th seed in the playoffs. The 9th and 10th seeded team will play one another as well, the loser will be eliminated from playoff contention and the winner will have earned the right to play the loser of the 7th v 8th match-up for the 8th seed.
It’s pretty simple but I’ll give you a minute.
Now the Lakers are in the 6th seed but are tied with the Portland Trailblazers for record and they would slip into 7th and into the Play-In tourney if they lose their upcoming match-up against the Blazers. That’s why, heading into the final few games of the season, this is a question that is being asked of LeBron James of all people.
Now, considering all of this, LeBron’s cutting and seemingly disapproving response has rubbed some the wrong way and understandably so. It has also led to a bunch of people coming up with receipts of when he seemed to have a different opinion on it last season when it was believed that the NBA was contemplating throwing teams into the Playoffs right away after the long suspension due to a COVID-19 outbreak ahead.
Now, I’m not gonna talk about the talking heads with baseless, unresolved issues with LeBron crying blue murder, attempting to use this as some sort of smoking gun that proves that LeBron James is against any kind of competition and always folds when the chips are down. I’m not even trying to talk about all that. I mean, to my knowledge there’s a lot of people they pay very well to talk s--t on LeBron, I suppose everybody’s gotta sell their fish.
So, about these “receipts”. On the 26th of March 2020, an article was published on NBA Sports’ website that featured quotes from LeBron’s appearance on the Road Trippin’ Podcast with Allie Clifton along with Talkin’ Blazers host Channing Frye and Richard Jefferson. There he stated that the league cannot simply go right into the playoffs from the stoppage because seeing as the outbreak isn’t something anyone could have anticipated, going straight to the playoffs would discredit the 60-plus games that those teams have spent vying for the final playoff spots. He then goes on to suggest that all those teams reasonably in contention for the final playoffs spots play themselves a couple games to decide that spot. This leads to the sensational headline of “LeBron James wants a play-in tournament for final NBA playoff berths”. So yeah, it doesn’t exactly look great for his current stance.
However, let us not get into the habit of stripping things of their context in order to make a flimsy point. What is this, F*x News?
First of all, there’s some blazers representation on the podcast while LeBron is on and also Damian Lillard is a good friend of his. Pray tell, what exactly is he supposed to say? “F--k all of you, no playoffs for you man lol”. Yeah, that’s not likely.
Moreover, last season was supposed to be a typical 82-game season and an actual global pandemic came to prevent that. And faced with the choice of either starting the playoffs right away, damning those who weren’t fortunate enough to have strung together a great run of form immediately prior to an event they could not have anticipated, or setup a system where the teams reasonably within reach of the playoffs spots had a chance to play themselves into shape, then play for their seeding and then, if they were within a certain number of games of the 8th seed, to play the against them for the right to play the No 1 seed in the first round of the playoffs, they chose the latter, and rightly so.
What ended up happening was the Blazers got Jusuf Nurkic back, Damian Lillard went nuclear and the eventual play-in was played between the Portland Trailblazers at the 8th seed and the Memphis Grizzlies in the 9th. Portland came out on top in what was a very entertaining basketball game between two capable teams which had as cherry on top the fact that this is largely a winner-takes-all scenario and clinched their playoff spot. Even though the Blazers, by virtue of being the 8th seed had two bites of the cherry because the 9th would have to win two in a row against the 8th to progress while the 8th seed need to win only one, it is still clear that there wasn’t a single game as important to either or those teams chances at the playoffs as that one and they played like it.
The question now is, is that a good thing?
And here’s where a consideration of the context matters. Prior to the playoffs last season there was a sudden and unforeseen stoppage, at that point jumping into the playoffs right away would be manifestly unjust. Thus they set up the whole Play-In game to offset some of that unfortunate luck and give the teams a fair enough chance at clinching a playoff spot. Prior this season though, it was stated that there will be a compressed 72-game season. What this means is, come hell or high water, there will be 72 regular season games. All parties know this. The NBA also instituted the play-in on a unanimous vote by the NBA board of governors . This hasn’t stopped some some crticism of the play-in. Draymond saying he isn’t motivated by the potential of playing in the play-in and recently Luka Doncic and Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks franchise have also expressed displeasure at the concept of the play in tournament.
Luka is quoted by ESPN as saying “You play 72 games to get into the playoffs, then maybe you lose two in a row and you’re out of the playoffs. So I don’t see the point of that.” Mark Cuban’s thoughts are in line with Luka’s but are more focused on the consequence of a play-in tournament at the end of a very compressed regular season.
What is the result is that teams that are in the playoff hunt cannot afford to rest players as much which they should because the stress of the compressed schedule is in constant contest with a view of the consequence of potentially not making that elusive 6th spot and standing the chance of having your entire season decided by 2 games. Teams play their players more, rest them less and injuries abound. It especially seems to be the fate of the teams that were able to make it far into the playoffs last season.
So, maybe the argument now is if we know how many games we’re gonna play why do we need the play-in at all? why don’t we just go back to the old way, whoever’s top 8th by the triple-zeroes makes the playoffs. Well, the virus is still a factors and along with a host of other factors envelopes this season in uncertainty, and it is simply much more attractive for teams to be able play themselves out of trouble and having that as an option serves to offset a lot of bad, bad luck
When the NBA came back for the seeding games and the playoffs, all players had to be domed away in a theoretical bubble and if one was to escape this bubble, you wouldn’t be allowed to play until you’ve quarantined for a couple days and tested negative for days in a row. These along with many other restrictions and rules we’re how the league was able to return, have good negative testing results throughout and complete the season.
This season isn’t the same as last. There is no bubble, just a complex mess of contract tracing, travel guidelines, and testing. Typically the consequence of any kind of hiccup in the process is borne by the franchises themselves. For instance The Boston Celtics have had a whole host of players out because of the health and safety protocols, most of the starters for the Philadelphia 76ers couldn’t feature against the Denver Nuggets in January (which turned out to be Tyrese Maxey’s career night) and very recently we’ve learnt that Dennis Schroder will miss 10 - 14 days of action for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Pouring in a play-in tournament that threatens the playoff berths on top of all this has to make one think, why could this be good for the league? For that, I wanna take you back to the 2015/16 NBA season.
Now I don’t know if you remember where you were that season but the baddest man on the planet had announced he was going to be retiring at the end of the season, The Golden State Warriors were the reigning, defending champions and in general were pretty damn good and LeBron had a healthy team around and was waiting for his next shot at them.
By the time the regular season came to an end the Golden State Warriors had set a new record for wins in the regular season going 73 - 9 on the season (You’d be forgiven if you didn’t know about it because you were too busy watching The Black Mamba that night.)
Dominance, simply.
However by the time the Finals were over it was not their hands on the trophy. When all the smoke cleared, it came down to Kyrie side-stepping to one of the most clutch shots we have ever witnessed and it was Cleveland holding up the Larry O’Brien trophy.
Simple enough.
Now, the concept of a contending team taking it easy in the regular season once seeding has been secured so one has enough juice come playoff time was hardly a new phenomenon at that point and it is not expected in the NBA that the team with the best record always win it all but for the team that had just broken the regular season record to fall at the final hurdle the way they did and then become the subject of relentless derision from all corners was probably the final nail in the coffin for the way regular season games are perceived.
Suddenly a hard earned 40 - 45 win season a playoff and a likely second round exit (if that) isn’t as appealing to a franchise that is honestly aware that they do not have enough pieces to be a genuine contender as blowing it all up and starting the rebuilding process with the aim of putting the franchise in better position to eventually challenge for a title. Suddenly, pursuing franchise records and NBA records are no longer as appealing to the better teams in the league than making sure all of their weapons are in good shape to contend for the championship come playoff time.
It feels like it’s become clear to everyone that to everyone, the only thing that matters is the chip.
Now, where does that leave the average regular season game? I mean, it is still 82 games vs the 20-ish that a finals contender would play if they went all the way. The sad thing is it just means the average regular season game doesn’t mean as much. Keep in mind, nothing about the post-season and its setup has, fundamentally, changed in all these many years. It just feels like the the perception of the playoffs for a while now and especially since the result of the 2016 finals is simply “that’s where the money reside”.
What this has done to the regular season is clear in the NBA’s increasingly defensive and offensive policing of its ever changing resting policy, load-management has become an insufferable meme and fans of the better off teams are content to mock fans of other teams celebrating an upset win in the latter’s favor because we’re conditioned to believe that these games just don’t matter.
I don’t know if you can tell but this isn’t good for the league
I’m not here to talk about the ratings, like i said, it’s not F*x News. However, we all love basketball but if there is a feeling from the teams to the fans that the regular season games aren’t worth all that much, it hurts the product of the NBA. The long, 82-game is a reason why the NBA has an financial advantage over other some other sports like the NFL in some ways.
If the best teams in the league are simply bothered with making the playoffs, securing home court advantage and maybe scoring a favorable match-up then large parts of the season become an exercise in cautious game management and post-season preparation that doesn’t exactly make for an interesting watch on the court and if the other teams in the league are more interested in blowing it up and rebuilding for a real chance at a championship It means a lot of not-so-great basketball teams playing not-so-great ball.
Might be a tad over-dramatic but these realities can affect the quality of NBA games which hurts the league’s pocket.
And, of course, where the bag’s involved, the suits are involved. Cue Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner and guy who moonlights as Slenderman in licensed theme parks and haunted houses to fund his Uber-Keto diet.
He’s basically the guy you can attribute most of the league’s actions to. From leading the league through a global pandemic, to its player resting policies and of course to decisions on things such as the play-in tourney.
Now, Adam Silver has tried a couple things over the years to better the quality of the product on NBA screens. He had been floating the idea of a play-in years back, his interfernce with Sam Hinkie whole operation at the Philadelphia 76ers (which a whole other topic) and he has considered a winner-takes-all type tourney to make teams play for their lottery odds, of all things. Because of this, the play-in game is right up his alley.
Initially implemented last year in the peculiar circumstances, this year was passed through the board of governors. They loved it, and it went through.
Let’s talk about what that means for the regular season.
Russell Westbrook is my favorite player in the NBA and prior to this season was traded to the Washington Wizards.
All did not start great in Washington as the team was losing games, there was a complete lack of cohesion and Russell is said to have been playing on a torn quad(?!). I had to watch this and I can tell you, it wasn’t easy
Thus the wizards were far adrift of their pre-season expectations and the playoffs did not look likely at all, even though the team has shown it has ability to take down capable teams just this season.
In any other season, their season is probably over about half way through and all the mandem are mentally in Cancún, waiting on the next lottery pick. But in this crazy NBA season, as long as they’re still within touching distance of the 10th seed there’s still a lot to play for.
And so it happens, the team gets some well needed chemistry, makes some little moves at the deadline, starts getting healthy, Brad Beal remains Brad Beal and Russell Westbrook starts playing some of the best basketball in the league to be quite honest. They become the form team and now sit one 1 and a half game back from the 8th seed no one is looking forward to facing them in a one and done.
The Chicago Bulls, instead of waiting on the ping pong balls to tell them if they get Cade Cunningham or not, decided, mid-way through the season, to trade for star center Nikola Vucevic to pair with their emerging superstar Zach Lavine to push for a spot in the playoffs. (whether or not that worked very well.)
The Golden State Warriors have let Steph Curry (if you don’t know him, he’s kinda good at shooting the ball) cook this season, where in other seasons they may have considered putting him on ice for a lot of the season until his co-star, Klay Thompson, returns next year considering how much the team was struggling and especially after he got injured and they also lost their rookie center to a meniscus tear. Instead we’ve been allowed to witness some of the most unbelievable offensive explosions on a nightly basis. It has been exhilarating to watch and, you know what’s even more important?…
These games all matter very much.
Down the stretch of these games, Beal, Westbrook, Steph, they know they’re effectively playing for their right to keep playing so they are leaving it all on the floor knowing that one lost regular season game could mar their season. The quality of the basketball on the floor is great and it makes for a great viewing. I mean I didn’t think that, this close to the end of the season, a team 10th in the standings would be taking the Milwaukee Bucks all the way to the very final possession.
For the playoffs the teams in the top of the conferences who have clinched their spot in the playoffs aren’t even aware of who they’ll be playing in the first round. DeRozan, Dame and Steph are some of the names that might be involved in the play-in west. Beal, Butler and Tatum in the east. The Golden State Warriors could possibly have a chance to topple the reigning champions for their spot in the playoffs.
I am tuning in to everything and it’s fair to say that the monotony of the regular season might have met its match. Giving more teams much more to play for is just the kind of injection of excitement that the NBA regul;ar season needs and, to be honest, it is inherently born out of an existence of consequence.
But, it’s not perfect. Simply put, player protection should be the most important thing to the league. Don’t listen to what that oldhead told you. The main reasons why more and more athletes are able to play deep into their careers is advancements in medical science and a better understanding of ideal conditioning habits, that involves not over-working the players. So even though their protests tend to come off the wrong way due to where they are in the standings, Luka Doncic and Mark Cuban are onto something.
But the truth is it is not a bad thing that the play-in tournament makes the average regular season game more important, the issue is the compressed 72-game season that comes before all that which is probably just too much on the players in the circumstance. And though there seems to be a road map to shorter seasons with other activities that will be set up by the league to fill the financial gaps, there cannot be a compromise on the quality of the average regular season game. The health of the league depends on it.
For the Lakers, they may not have it all their own way right now but let’s not forget, there’s a difference between those who want the chip and those who have it. Nonetheless, every single one of their remaining games is gonna be worth watching for the rest of the season even for the most casual of fans and that is part of what it’s all about.
As for LeBron, chances are that every one who’s reading this already knows how they feel about LeBron. Doesn’t matter if he averages 60, ends world hunger, or puts up a bagel in every game for the rest of the season, your opinion on him probably wouldn’t change.
I will say this much, I’m not willing to rule out that he’s playing some sort of 6D chess with his statements right here. I don’t mean to don my tin foil hat in front of all of yous, but i’m telling y’all beware of that man. He always seems to know what he’s doing. Love him or hate him, betting on LeBron is still a pretty damn good bet.
Or maybe I’m way off, lol.
Anyway, watch some Wizards games.
I’m telling you, Daniel Gafford can really play.
I’m off to go watch Lakers v Blazers.
