The NBA: Where Amazingly Boring and Stretched Out Playoffs Happens
David Gao | Apr 26, 2010 | Comments 5
The pride of UC Irvine, Scott Brooks, was named the National Basketball Association’s Head Coach of the Year last week. Because of a strong admiration and sense of loyalty toward UCI alums (and a minor affinity toward Serge Ibaka), the NBA playoffs represent at least some sort of interest this year for The Payoff Pitch.
Rooting for Brooks and the Thunder aside, the NBA Playoff opening rounds are roughly on par with the Claim Jumper three–point shooting contest at UCI basketball games in terms of excitement level.
The fact that more than half the teams in the league make the playoffs (16 out of 30) is the first downfall. In the weaker conference, teams with .500 records (this year, Chicago) or even losing records can still make the playoffs. Combined with the fact that there are not many upsets in the NBA, it makes the opening rounds even more cumbersome.
Compare this to the National Football League or Major League Baseball, where 12 out of 32 and a mere 8 out of 30 teams make the playoffs respectively. The exclusivity of these playoffs may cause some elite athletes to miss out on the postseason spotlight, but the elite nature of the accomplishment provides an important gravity.
The problem with cutting down the number of teams that make the playoffs is that every year would be a repetitive re-enactment of the same players who have formed the most successful nuclei. The San Antonio Spurs have been in the playoffs for 13 straight years ever since they landed Tim Duncan, including four championships. Since Kobe Bryant’s draft rights were traded from Charlotte to Los Angeles for Vlade Divac, the Lakers have made the playoffs 13 out of the last 14 seasons, including four titles as well. Led by Lebron James, the Cleveland Cavaliers went from a perennial bottom dweller to a playoff mainstay.
Unlike baseball, where a team can catch fire at the right time and an outstanding pitching effort can win a game for either side, or football, which prides itself on its parity from year to year, basketball largely relies on a starting five, and three, maybe four bench players. Baseball requires a full effort from an entire 25-man squad, and in football, the perfect storm of a healthy team and a team that is not too young or too old is needed.
What makes things worse is the stupidity of the NBA transaction system. When contending teams trade for help in the middle of the season, the players they trade away are oftentimes more valued for their expiring contracts than their talent. Many other times, the players leaving the playoff team is waived, and then simply sign back with the team that traded them. Does this make sense to anyone? An example is Cleveland trading away valuable center Zydrunas Ilgauskas as a part of a package that brought star Antawn Jamison to the Cavaliers. There is no doubt Ilgauskas could have helped the Wizards out, but instead they waived him, and after a mere 30-day waiting period, Ilgauskas signed back with the Cavaliers. Thus, Cleveland ended up with both Jamison and Ilgauskas for the playoff stretch.
Players validate their actions because they want to play for a playoff contender. This leads to the rich getting richer, and a mockery of trades. Players become mere numbers and salary terms on a piece of paper. The usual suspect playoff teams more easily bolster their chances, with teams like the Wizards left to hope for a draft miracle.
Getting back to the subject at hand about the lamentably forgettable nature of the NBA playoffs, there is no easy solution. At the very least, the opening rounds should be five games instead of seven. Baseball implements this common sense tactic in their division series round, whereas the NBA decides to cash in on playoff revenues by adding extra games. The net result is a potential 105 playoff games if every series goes seven games, more than the 82 games that consist of a team’s regular season. Games start in mid-April and stretch all the way to mid-June. The entire month of May is playoff basketball! For the sake of humanity, trim the event. Shorten the series, and make the event more sanctified.
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David,
You are a journalist. You cannot throw around words like EVERY YEAR or NEVER. Plus, you are wrong on all accounts. The 30-day rule was instituted in 2005 after Gary Payton returned to Boston in the Antoine Walker trade–a first-time occurance. Stackhouse did not go to New Jersey because the league blocked the trade. This season Brian Cardinal was dealt from Minny to the Knicks and returned to the T-Wolves after being waived, so don’t claim that “No one resigns with a cellar dweller.”
You act like this is an aside–but it takes up 1/3 of a fairly brief article. You can with a straight face say that Ilgauskas would’ve been MORE valuable to Washington on the court. He would’ve hindered the development of Blache and McGee and was not in their future plans because he was an impending free agent.
You have a loose definition of star. Two-time All-Star? Sixth Man? Jamison is bonafied starter, has versatility around the basket and is certainly a quality third wheel on a good team. But star? I suppose the Spurs have five “stars” by your logic. Duncan, Ginobili, Jefferson, Parker and McDyess (All-Star in ’99, third-team All-NBA in ’01, All-Rookie team in ’96).
As for the lack of upsets in the NBA. A 6-seed took a 3-seed to game seven in the East. And every West series went six games with two upsets (No. 7 San Antonio over No. 2 Dallas and No. 5 Utah over No. 4 Denver). What exactly are you defining as an upset?
Finally, because you made such a feeble argument about the NFL and MLB playoffs and their excitement level, I left that alone earlier. However, last season’s boring NBA first round featured what was widely considered one of the best playoff series ever (No. 7 Chicago versus No. 2 Boston). This season’s far more boring first round had a Western Conference with EIGHT 50-win teams. The Thunder and Lakers played three games that came down to the final minute and two that were decided in the last possession. Even the Cleveland-Chicago series had two of the five games decided by a combined four points.
And did you watch the ’09/10 NFL Wild Card Round? You must be romanticizing over the Cardinals-Packers game because the other three games were abysmal.
Anteater4Life, thanks for reading. I am glad you’re an anteater for life. Zot Zot.
Anyway, I’m sorry you did not like my article, but I would like to point out a few things. My sentence about .500 teams making the playoffs is slightly taken out of context by itself. The key component to that assertion is the next sentence: “Combined with the fact that there are not many upsets in the NBA, it makes the opening rounds even more cumbersome” In both baseball and football, the rounds are shorter and upsets are much more frequent. I go into the reasoning behind this later. You point out the .500 teams who have won championships in the NFL and MLB, but how about the last one who won in the NBA? You have to go all the way back to 1994-1995 for the Houston Rockets who were 47-35 that year and won as a sixth seed.
As for the Ilgauskas critique, I did state that the trade was more valued for contract reasons. I regret if it seems that I thought Washington did not benefit at all. I was trying to emphasize that the Wizards could have kept Zydrunas, and benefited even more. Or at least not simply allow him to re-sign with Cleveland.
I never called Jamison a “superstar,” merely a “star.” I believe this is a fair assessment, as he has been an all-star twice and also received an NBA Sixth Man award.
As for my assertion that this trade scenario has happened many other times, it does happen every year. It may only be a “handful” for you, but every year the players that re-sign with their old team after a trade re-sign with playoff contenders. No one re-signs back to a cellar dwellar. When the Mavs/Nets were working out a trade for Jason Kidd, Jerry Stackhouse infamously got in trouble for blatantly telling the press that he was simply going to return to Dallas after 30 days, and thus was not even worried about the trade. That he was just involved to “make the numbers work.”
However, you are entitled to your opinion of the NBA trade scenario. It was a bit of an aside to my main argument. Thanks again for reading and offering your thoughts on how I could have better organized my article.
This is one fo the laziest and most uninspired article I’ve read by your staff, and that’s saying a lot. Perhaps you were ironically attempting to replicate your feelings about the NBA playoffs, but I doubt it.
Among the most flawed logic in your story… “In the weaker conference, teams with .500 records (this year, Chicago) or even losing records can still make the playoffs.” The World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals finished with an 82-80 in 2006. And two Super Bowl participants in since 2005 have finished the regular season 9-7 (Pittsburgh in ’05, Arizona in ’08).
In regards to the NBA’s transaction system: you refer to the Ilguaskas trade as if it A) did not benefit Washington and B) happens all the time. First, Ilguaskas was extremely valuable to the Wizards because it allowed them to escape the bulk of what was owed Jamison–who you shamefully call a “superstar.” Second, this trade scenario has happened a handful of times in the last decade and rarely to much consequence, which is hardly “Many other times.” But I’m sure, as editor, you regularly teach your staff to avoid hyberbole.
You can make the argument that there are upsets in the round of 16. Because there are. But frankly I dont want the epic 6 or 7 game series in the first round. I enjoy watching basketball as much as the next person. Their are upsets in every sport. But the upset is cheapened qutie a bit when the underdog only advances to the quarter finals. If they manage another upset. Boom they are finaly in the Conference semis! so it takes 2 major upsets for an underdog to just advance to the conference semis. a total of 3 upsets to advance to the finals. A playoff upset in sports should be an amazing experience. Ill never forget the seahawks beating the saints. or the red sox beating the yankees. the last memorable nba playoff upset i can remember was golden state beating dallas. And wouldnt you know it, they got knocked out the next round. I agree completely with the idea of changing the playoff format like the NFL. give the 2 top conference seeds a bye, and have 2 quarter final series for each conference. gives the playoffs a better atmosphere, which is what the playoffs are about.
AGREED!!!!! BORRRRRRRRRRRRING!!!!!!!