This is not, no.
Who wanted this? Who asked for this? Who cranes to care about NBA games during football’s implacable hold on November and December? Who wants more math? Who asked for fake playoffs?
The NBA has a regular season problem, it’s as old as Ed O’Neill and just as averse to change.
Long ago the people who fill the seats discovered that the NBA regular season has no meaning. True to form, the NBA’s team executives recognized as much decades after the fans and began resting seat-filling stars. Now the problem has a problem, and a midseason tournament ain’t the wrench to fix it.
Modern, three-point chasing NBA players aren’t meant to compete in top gear for 82 games plus a two-month playoff, working 40 minutes a night. The added gravity inherent in volume three-point shooting broadens the burden exponentially, because now even the bad defenders have to at least run.
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