One thing the NBA got wrong is the point differential being a tie breaker. Stupid that starters are in the last minute of a 20 point game, we have multiple challenges and time outs. Minnesota announcers said their coach had a suggestion of quarters won being a tie breaker.... that would be better.
It's 'fake' because this is just a drummed up way for the league to try and get a few extra eyeballs during football season. If it holds over a few decades and becomes a part of the fabric of the league, then it might be looked on differently but just feels really gimmicky right now.
I agree. But that play in game seems like a success and isn't going anywhere. That felt VERY gimmicky at first.
One of the biggest things I like about the Cup is it gets "playoff atmosphere" experience for young players. Especially if the team can make it past the group stage. There's not much opportunities for these types of games, it can often take 5 years or more for young players on rebuilding teams to get a single game of that experience.
Our next cup game against Houston will be exciting, if Blazers can win we would have a legit chance to win our group. The other 4 teams in our group play tonight. We want Minnesota to win out because we have the tiebreaker over them. So if Houston wins tonight, and Minny wins, then we beat Houston next Friday we could have a commanding lead in our group. We'd be only 2-0 team with two teams at 1-1 we own tiebreakers over.
Were obviously not going to make the playoffs or playin this year, nor win the final of this cup. But just playing our last cup games where they have more meaning to advance, plus potentially an extra game in the next cup round will be great experience for our youth, if we can win 1 more. Those games will have something on the line for Sharpe/Clingan/Camara to get some "playoff" type of experience, which previously never happens in normal regular season games.
2 of the 3 things that ideally would happen for us I posted 12 hours ago did happen. Houston beating the Clippers and the Wolves beating the Kings tonight. If the Blazers can somehow pull out a win at Houston next Friday we'll have a huge lead in the cup! Would be awesome to make the next cup round and then eventually get a top5 pick both in the same season.
Early standings for this are really interesting if you look at the East. ORL, DET, NY, ATL Could be this early that we see the tournament as somewhat meaningless when there’s such a small sample size compared to the entire season. Portland being 1-0 is in there too… Imagine an in season tournament between teams that don’t even make the playoffs. ORL and NY can make the top 10 in the East, but still.
The Lakers won last year, and based on their season that should be all the evidence we need that it’s a joke
The NBA playoffs is a grind for months and months where teams that are clearly superior always advance. A single elimination quick tournament is a crap shoot where any team can win. We're still going to see better teams win more often, but we'll see tons of bad teams advance too. That's what makes it exciting and great, it's basically a match madness style NBA tournament that can have Cinderella teams and huge upsets you'd never see in the playoffs. 5-10 years from now it'll start having some history and become way more significant. If I were running the NBA I'd consider giving the cup winner an automatic playoff birth and the runner up a playin spot. We'll see how this ultimately shakes out, they can only do so many changes at a time.
now we’re talking. Teams that suffer mid to late season injuries to stars shouldn’t be penalized. Reward early season winners too. the playins are already a borderline joke, mine as well mix them up
