Sources: Expect the NBA back playing by mid/late June with 10 reg season games before POs

My post wasn't about the NBA season. I was talking about people with the attitude that "I am not afraid of the virus. So I can go out and party with those who are not afraid. You people who are afraid can just stay home and never come out." That kind of thinking is as irresponsible as those reckless drivers on the street.

 

That's the questions I asked earlier. For the teams that have no hope to get into the playoffs, are they just there to go through a mini training camp and play a few meaningless games and be stuck for 2.5 months?

How about let the top 12 teams enter the playoffs automatically, and the rest of the teams play a one-game elimination tourney to decide the last four playoffs teams?

 

I actually like the idea of there being tiers and teams playing other teams within their selected group to advance...something new and quite interesting

Could they get something like this to work when teams are allowed to play in their own arenas and not in some neutral court in a bubble environment, or will we see the same complaints about travel like we do with a 1-16 format?

 

Just in time for Nene to be 100% healthy...

 

The potential changes sound exciting! As a fan... let's do it. If it's safe.

But... aside from that. There's no getting around it. No matter who wins or how they win, if you're reformatting the playoffs and whatnot... nobody will ever give this year's champion real credit.

 

people thinking they have the right to prevent others from leaving their homes are more dangerous than the recklessest of the drivers...these are the irresponsible ones....

 

I disagree. A champion is still a champion. the asterisk talk or whatever is nothing more than a talking point to give the public something to discuss. The usuals are the ones whose team they support didn't end up winning it. outside of that a banner and trophy is still crowned forever. If the collective opinion to those in the league and those that mattered closely, was that nobody will ever get credit, they wouldn't even bother going through all this to finish the season. Even austin rivers said this title could be the most difficult considering all the factors.

As such, Rivers believes the key is which teams are using the extended time off since the season’s March 12 suspension to their advantage.

“The team that’s going to win, if this does come back, is going to be the team that had the most collective guys taking this time off seriously,” Rivers says. … Even if they do give us a little bit of a regular season, it’d be like five, six, seven games at max. It won’t be a lot. It’d be something where within a couple weeks, it’ll be done.”

“You only have that time to sharpen your tools, get your team chemistry, and then you’re right into the playoffs,” Rivers adds. “Factor in the no crowds, and it’s just going to be different.”

Based on those circumstances, Rivers believes this year’s champion could be among the most memorable of all-time.

People have been saying, whoever wins, it’s going to have a blip [asterisk] next to it. I personally believe it’s the complete opposite. Whoever wins, this is so much harder. … Whoever wins this year really had to go get it and earn it, and had guys who took time off seriously and still stayed in shape, and was able to get back the chemistry, true chemistry. So many things. In my eyes, whoever wins this, it’s going to be the hardest championship ever won.

“I’ve never played in a game without fans,” Rivers said. “There’s no more home-court advantage. A lot of things are going to change. Even little things. Free-throw percentages are going to go up. Shooting percentages are going to go up. There’s no more noise and distractions. It’s basically like a scrimmage. There’s a lot of guys who can play in practice, but when the lights are on, it’s just different. Now, there’s no fanbase, there’s no hoopla. It’s just going to be a different game in general.”


every team is in the same boat right now. in a traditional 7 game series (assuming this is what will happen as silver has already made this his preference), without the home court factor of crowds you're eliminating a lot of what impacts a game on both sides. and being a even playing field on both sides.

 

That's a false choice. If we as a society had enough fortitude to bend the curve enough so that good testing, tracing, and isolation protocols are sufficient to keep things in check, we can do many (but not all) of the things we were doing before the pandemic, including watching basketball. That said, not setting up such a response is a choice. I've said it before, but most of have known someone who did 1929-1945 and we can't even do a 2-3 months.

By the way, I notice in this thread that all the theoreticals are for players on other teams getting ill, but almost never Rockets. Why is that, I wonder?

(That's a rhetorical question.)

 

Which is a completely different circumstance compared to a standard championship. But if yall think Austin Rivers is preaching the gospel, okay...

 

What are you talking about? I haven't heard anywhere in the US that people without COVID-19 symptoms or had contact with people who have are being prevented from leaving their homes.

 

Believe me, I know what's waiting outside when I go. I've already worked 37 days across three states in response to this pandemic with wildfires and hurricanes coming.

So fu*k you. Because of people like you, we're going to sicken and kill more people and burn out a whole generation of first responders, emergency managers, health care workers, and public health professionals.

For everyone else, I think part of the problem is our world is now filled with quick and easy answers found at the stroke of a few keys so when confronted with uncertainty and ambiguity, we don't deal with those things very well. It doesn't help that virtually all of political language is designed to increase the illusion of certainty in support of one cause or another. (Plus, our culture emphasizes selfishness.)

Uncertainty can't be debilitating but neither can you pretend it's not there or hope it goes away. You do a lot of thinking and a lot of planning--primary plans, alternate plans, contingency plans, emergency plans. Through planning, you figure out what you know, what you need to know, and what may be unknown for awhile. Then, you build your strategy and start taking deliberate actions with risk exposure in mind and adjust as needed and new info comes about. Some of those actions will be designed to get answers to the outstanding questions.

For this pandemic, we know what most of the basic actions are because pandemics aren't new. It's just that this one is on a vaster scale than anything in our experience and requires everyone to do their part. The last bit is where we are failing right now. Oh, and yeah, we still don't have a national strategy so most of the talk revolves around tactics, just like in this thread.

Personally, keep your distance, wash your hands, wear a mask, do your best to avoid crowds. Nationally, we need widespread testing, contact tracing, and isolation when necessary. That's all pretty simple stuff that makes a huge difference. If we all bought into it right now and kept it up into August, we'd stand a good chance of watching football sometime this fall. Plus, you know, save a few lives and buy more time to gain a little more certainty.

 

Jeez, you are terrible.

 

i mean if you're going to exaggerate it like that. it's just an example from someone that's actually part of the process. rather than the outside perception who pretty much don't really matter when it comes down to it. If the rockets win it, I sure will be celebrating with them as if it was any other year. If they don't, so be it.

 

There is no reason to have regular season games at this point they are already over a month behind if they do the regular playoff format. They should just let the 16 teams that were in the playoffs when things end play the playoffs and go with that. If they try and add regular season games they are going to affect next season because players are going to breakdown from no off season.

 

huh? next season isn't starting until late december. There's plenty of off season time from oct, nov, and most of december, that's tacked on to the last few months. A few games is ideal to me to get real time game speed, rather than just practcing against each other over and over.

 

i do not own an nba franchise. personally, i am not worried about nba players. but the players themselves will decide what risk they want to take. if they don't want to play then they can stay home like you.

 

It's not a false choice, it's the practical choice at this moment. I'm wearing a mask, I'm distancing, I'm washing my hands. Yet, I don't have the power to compel hundreds of millions of others to do the same in lockstep. Even the NBA doesn't have close to that level of power. So we all have to make choices within the confines of what we can control. Do I wish the federal response was better? Of course. But the only thing I can realistically do about that comes on November 3.

This is about making the best of the current situation, and unless hospitals are being overrun, I don't think taking the choice out of people's hands and taking away their jobs for years is the best way to go about it. If that's the choice they make, it should 100% be respected, but it's their choice to make.

P.S. Of course Rockets players could be at risk, just as any of us are. It's up to us as a society to determine what levels of risk we're comfortable with.

 

So, basically, (1) you don't know about all those other health issues (nobody does) but also don't care, but (2) you advise them to make an informed choice anyway (see 1) and then (3) some trumpy-pandemic macho cosplay ("stay home ya cowards!")

*****, will read again, next time I am vacationing in Belarus.