The NBA playoffs have begun and they have already proven that they need to be changed. The play-in tournament is the best thing to happen to the league since they made the idiotic decision to have every series be best-of 7.
I'm dead serious about this too. Best of 7 series suck in the early part of the playoffs. Except for maybe Boston/Brooklyn and Minnesota/Memphis, what series has any intrigue to it at all? Phoenix looks like they'll roll through the west, Golden State is molly whopping Denver every time they step on the court, Miami is probably upset they have to leave South Beach just to finish off their series, and Milwaukee is going to play with Chicago like a kid plays with their food.
The play-in tournament had a lot of excitement, and a winner-take-all kind of vibe like March Madness. Personally, I never thought I would be interested in the playoffs, even at the first announcement of the play-in. Watching it this year though, my mindset has completely changed. The scientific formula to the playoffs was dropped in favor of potential for chaos. Every player had to put a total effort in unless they wanted to be sent home for a long offseason with no glory. Brooklyn could've spent an entire season full of drama and confusion thanks to Kyrie Irving and James Harden and been relegated to nothing more than a footnote of the season. Instead, we now have them matched up against Boston in what should be an incredible series.
I'm ok with that series being 7 games, because it looks like every game is going to be an absolute fist fight. Memphis and Minnesota are in the same boat, but that matchup has more to do with Anthony Edwards and Ja Morant being wicked entertaining to watch. But that's only two series. The other series going on should only be best-of 3s at most, if not winner-take-all like the play-in. I don't need to watch 4 games of The Warriors destroying the Nuggets because it's evident which team is better; frankly, I don't care about which team is better.
I just want to be entertained.
Shorter series give underdogs a better chance at pulling off an upset. It's why the NFL playoffs and March Madness are so popular. One game for all the marbles. Push your chips in the middle of the table and go all-in or go home. The drama and storylines these kinds of series create would be a much better product for the NBA, especially to attract the average viewer. Give me shorter series, give me more entertainment, give me a more enjoyable product.
Just kidding, we all know asking for that is pointless because every commissioner of major sports leagues are glorified whores for TV money, and apparently the only way to get that is to water down their product and give us more when less would be better.
Oh, while I'm here talking about things that will never happen but would be a huge improvement, they still need to expand the size of the court.
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