This ridiculous group stage system is complicated me past perception, and zapping my enjoyment of the NBA Cup. Fortunately, I’ve ideas to repair it.
The NBA Cup is getting on my nerves.
I’m completely in favor of the idea in principle — I spent an excellent many phrases defending it initially of final season and totally loved Joe Mazzulla declaring conflict on Andre Drummond and deliberately fouling him to run up a 27-point victory to advance to the quarterfinals.
However I’m type of over this entire group stage idea, which works higher in soccer when scores are 3-1 as a substitute of 138-129. I’m type of over “the Celtics have to beat the Bulls by 16 and the Magic need to lose to the Pacers or beat them by lower than 7 and/or the Knicks have to commerce for Joel Embiid and the planets have to align in good parallax and all of us need to sing ‘Wealthy Woman’ by Daryl Corridor and John Oates in four-part concord” for the Celtics to advance.
I’m type of over 124 phrase Tim Bontemps tweets explaining the eventualities. I’m type of over the Celtics’ broadcast workforce brazenly admitting they don’t know precisely what the Celtics have to win, and I type of don’t blame them for it. No one can count on them to know that, as a result of the Celtics are presently profitable by 9, they want the Magic to win, the Bucks have to beat the Pistons by 5 or extra OR the Pistons have to beat the Bucks by six or extra. Like, come on.
The maths checks out, however I’m flagging this for the sanity police to check out. The truth that the Celtics have some sliding scale of outcomes for a Bucks-Pistons recreation is totally asinine, and I don’t perceive why it may possibly’t simply be a knockout event.
Image this: each workforce is positioned in a 30-team, single elimination bracket, with the 2 NBA Finals groups from the earlier yr receiving byes. One recreation, midseason insanity, since I’ve had it as much as right here with this group stage absurdity. It can’t be that tough to place some TBDs on the common season schedule and fly groups out for the video games, proper?
This may occasionally sound like bitter grapes, with the Celtics on the mercy of a totally absurd three-way barnyard explosion of outcomes that makes Steven Hawking’s principle of parallel universes appear comparatively easy. However I legitimately assume it will enhance the product that’s nonetheless new sufficient to considerably change.
To those that would say a totally single-elimination bracket would infringe on the sanctity of the playoffs, I’d say that’s pointless fearmongering. No one within the English Premier League thinks the FA Cup holds a candle to the precise Premier League title, and it will make the event a billion instances extra thrilling and a billion-and-one instances extra vital.
This group stage feels prefer it was designed to make the event really feel prefer it issues much less, and I’m of the opinion that the NBA ought to lean into the idea fairly than handicapping it by complicated everybody. If the league needs followers to care in regards to the NBA Cup, a totally single-elimination event is a technique to go, regardless of how logistically advanced. But when they need followers to have the selection to care or to not care like they’re some kind of bizarre NBA-cup-based model of Hamlet, then positive, let’s maintain it like this. I favor the previous.
