It’s only natural for most people to not want to fix what they don’t believe is broken. It’s also fairly natural to suspect ulterior motives in any new plan or scheme. While those questions are worth asking, it seems clear to me that if the answer was not to change anything, ever, we’d still be living in caves with dinosaurs.
There is something to be said for novelties, even those with a profit motive of some sort, that succeed. I would argue that the NBA Play In system has succeeded. I understand
some people have a need for a certain sort of mental tidiness, or a desire to make accomplishments more meaningful. The NBA’s play in games would seem to go against both things. Is a number seven seed in or out? Why does the 10th ranked team get a shot at a playoff series?
For the mental tidiness people, well, it’s a bit untidy not knowing exactly who the bottom ranked playoff teams will be, but there’s an upside to be gained in giving the teams that were not in the Play In more rest after the regular season. The system itself is also pretty easy to understand, and once you get how it works, it ceases to be untidy, just uncertain. If you are the sort that wants to get rid of all uncertainty in life, well, good luck with that.
There’s also hope for teams that say lose a crucial player for part of the season to be found in the Play In. They might still get into the playoffs, and create a better match up for the top teams, as opposed to ritual execution found in the typical 1v8 match up.
That goes for the sense of accomplishment argument people, too. Don’t want to keep playing games after the regular season, and before the Real Playoffs begin? Win more games.
There’s something else the Play In offers while we wait for the more successful teams to being their playoffs: fun. These games are the NBA’s way of partaking in the chaotic fun of the NCAA Tournament. It’s one and done for a couple of teams. Their season ends with a loss. We saw some amazing games in that regard, played with real intensity and fire. The Hornets vs Heat game was a true battle, and a ton of fun to watch. It went to overtimes, and we saw all kinds of things, including potentially dirty play, surprisingly not from Miami. Also, more shockingly, LaMelo Ball coming through in the clutch. Who would have predicted that?
In the end, that’s why most of us are watching basketball, right? To see great competition in a game we love? To see a spectacle?
The Play In, for all it’s gimmickry has worked, if the goal is fun. It’s easy to sneer, because it’s not how things were, but it’s easier to love.
That said, I’d much rather the Rockets be in the playoffs, not the Play In. Too much uncertainty in the Play In.
On another note, I’d say the play in may not have entirely (or sadly, largely) accomplished one of its goals, to curtail tanking, but it has brought fun to the league. Playing for stakes of some sort brings more fire, more interest, to competitions, generally. That’s why tanking is so bad, to me. Sure, it’s rational, but if we’re watching sports for their pure rationality, we might be missing the point. Or one might be better served watching competitive chess. Further, tanking, however you choose to define it, destroys intensity, destroys the idea of stakes in a contest. A tanking team isn’t so much playing basketball, as it is playing lottery ball odds, which might loom over a season, but are not part of the competition in any immediate sense.
Because winning, keeping a season alive, is possible in the play in, teams go all out. The stakes are real. Tanking is the opposite, it destroys in game stakes, and competition, and that’s why it must be ended, somehow, some way. We can expend a lot of words on what the best way to do that is, and maybe there isn’t a best way, as any system has trade offs built in. The NBA is going to do something in the off season. I’m sure we’ll discuss it when it happens. Anything, though, that is in favor of good basketball, in favor of striving to win, instead of working to lose, has to be better for the game of basketball, and the NBA.
Meanwhile, GO ROCKETS. A genuine playoff team.
