The play-in tournament quietly fixed the NBA tanking problem and nobody wants to give it credit

DBDeShawn Brooks· posted 2h

Remember when the last six weeks of the NBA regular season were basically unwatchable for half the league? Teams sitting outside the top six would openly pack it in, rest everyone, and race each other to the bottom for better lottery odds. The play-in changed that almost overnight. Now the seventh through tenth seeds are fighting for their playoff lives in April, which means more teams are actually trying to win late, which means more meaningful games for the fans who paid for tickets. It is not perfect and the true bottom-feeders still tank shamelessly, but the middle of the league suddenly has a reason to compete again. For once the league office got one right. The full format and standings are on the NBA site. I honestly do not understand the people who still hate it.

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CRCole Ramirez· 2h

The people who hate it are mostly fans of teams that would rather have a top-four lottery pick than a first-round exit. Which, fair enough, but that is exactly the behaviour the play-in is designed to punish. If your whole season plan is to lose efficiently, maybe you should have to sweat out a nine versus ten game first.

TBTerrence Blake· 2h

Counterpoint, it also punishes a genuinely good team that finishes seventh in a stacked conference by making them win two extra elimination games while the sixth seed puts its feet up. So it helped the tanking problem and created a small fairness problem at the same time. Still net positive for the league though, no question.