mbewane
Knicks: 93 til infinity
If it's the "best era ever", why try to fix it 
The NBA should adopt the NFL playoff system imo
- Thread starter Soldier
- Start date
IIVI
Superstar
Yup.
In comparison a 4th-6th NFL seed has won 8 out of the last 23 Super Bowls. Legit 1/3:
NFC #4 Seed
2012 - Giants
2022 - Rams
AFC #4 Seed
1981 - Raiders
1998 - Broncos
2001 - Ravens
2013 - Ravens
NFC #5 Seed
2008 - Giants
AFC #5 Seed
2021 - Buccaneers
AFC #6 Seed
2006 - Steelers
NFC #6 Seed
2011 - Packers
As you can see: two of the last 4 Super Bowl Winners (Rams and Bucs) were also lower seeds.
Whatever the NFL has figured out this century, it's working really well:
If you make it to the play-offs, you have a legit chance at being Super Bowl Champions.
I say part of it is the shape of the football making for some really extremely goofy ass bounces, especially when you factor the weather in a one-and-done elimination game style of format.
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Soldier
not redeemed with gold but with His Blood
Basketball is far more predictable, consistent and projectable than football. Logic is almost always respected in hoops. You never see dark horse or wildcard playoff type teams in the nba win the chip, meanwhile in the NFL, since the 2000-01 season, 1/3 of the superbowl champions were actually low seeded wildcard teams . Only the truly elite top seeded teams win the Larry O’Brien trophy. In the NFL dark horses can get hot at the right time, go on a run and win the SB. Paper tigers and Dark horses never win championships in the nba, the farthest they advance is the conference finals. (2004 timber wolves, 2009 nuggets, 2013 grizzlies, 2013 and 2014 pacers, 2016 raptors, 2018 rockets, 2021 Atlanta hawks, 2023 lakers etc)
16 teams make the playoffs in the nba. Only 4 teams out of 16 teams (the top 2 seeds in each conference) have a legitimate opportunity to win the nba championship trophy. 14 teams make the playoffs In the NFL. You can Arguably say that 9 or 10 teams out of the 14 playoff bound teams in the NFL have a more or less equal shot at the SB title.
The inherently natural differences between the two sports might explain this phenomenon. Unlike hoops , football is a event-driven sport. Football is controlled Chaos. Wins in football are heavily reliant on major scoring events that could happen in any moment of the game. Touchdowns and field goals. But you can't really anticipate, project and predict touchdowns and field goals with the same level of confidence and accuracy that you can project points, passes, rebounds and possessions in basketball. Basketball offensive statistics have far, far less unreliability/instability/variance/unpredictability/volatility than football offensive statistics. In gridiron football, you can try to predict that a team will score 8 touchdowns and 60 points because of their exceptionally high powered offense and then later on they play the game and they get shutdown and shut out. It happens all the time. In basketball, it's rare that you would see a team projected to score 100 points and they go out and score 145. You can expect far more regularity and consistency in basketball because hoops is a stable game of repetitive patterns producing predictable results and outcomes.
What I’m trying to say is that when you build a basketball team, it's easy to predict how well they will do -- barring injury. So if a team wins a championship, you have a more narrow range of results and outcomes that are likely for the following season, than you would in a sport like football.
So that explains why its much easier to become champions in basketball than in football. And why it’s also easier for nba champions to repeat than it is for superbowl champions. Because a great basketball team is more likely to remain a great basketball team in the foreseeable future. You often see “first to worst/worst to first” stories in football and baseball. You never see this in the NBA. The defending NBA champions never miss the playoffs and finish dead last in the standings. The defending World Series or Superbowl champion can miss the playoffs and become irrelevant next year, it’s because a great football/baseball team is far more susceptible to variance from season to season compared to a great basketball team.
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IIVI
Superstar
Great points. At the end of the day, NBA games are always played in similar controlled environments.
NFL games however you really do have smash mouth cold weather teams, finesse dome teams, etc. That means home field advantage matters a lot more to NFL teams so they're trying to solidify it through the season. One of the most important rules of warfare is to control to your engagements.
Teams are usually built for the stadium they play in or a similar environment - especially once they get to contender status. Teams like the Rams/Chargers, Saints, Colts, Dolphins, etc. need home field as much as possible in order to execute their game plans or have road play-off games against teams playing in similar conditions (dome/indoor team vs dome/indoor team).
That's why the second these finesse teams lose home field (devastatingly sometimes at the end of the season) they're basically in danger of a road exit against a team they match up good against at home.
Let's say you're used to playing indoors and are a finesse offense, well it's going to really suck going to the opposition's arena in rainy weather and fans yelling making it hard to communicate.
It's actually crazy how much fan impact has on a football game: you actually got teams blowing timeouts. That's critical during a winner takes all play-off game.
The God Poster
LWO representa
One could argue all that parity talk is false & NFL has just had a lot of bad/inconsistent teams.
I notice in other sports bad play is called out. NFL seems to get a pass
Bryan Danielson
Jmare007 x Bryan Danielson x JLova = King Ghidorah
Don’t think this will work
IIVI
Superstar
I actually think that's part of the draw to be honest.
It's commonly accepted that the team who's playing their best football late will win, all they need to do is "make the play-offs".
People also know who the "soft" teams and paper tigers are as well. For example, a lot of people weren't surprised the Chiefs beat the Ravens.
Additionally because of the one and done things like weather conditions (and sun placement) make for a big impact.
Plus the weird shape of the football makes it bounce in some really unpredictable ways (especially when it's cold and/or slippery) .
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Literally every complaint directed at other sports applies to the NFL:
A lot of shytty football and teams
Certain players/teams running shyt
Focus on stars
Too soft
No defense
Ref/rule issues
shyt you can even say the season too long and is devalued by the number of playoff teams now
People just addicted so its accepted
Soldier
not redeemed with gold but with His Blood
This. With the exception of MSG in NYC —NBA indoor arenas built in the modern era (1995 to now) are the same. Same type of crowds, same corporate sponsors, same ownerships, same courts, same number of seats, same vip/luxury sections, same weather conditions(indoor arenas) same Climate controlled interiors(air conditioning), etc
NBA is the sport where home court advantage is not a decisive and Important factor. No
team in the nba is built for the arenas they play. Winning away or at home is more or less the same thing because all nba teams play under the same controlled environments. Maybe home court advantage was a factor in the past with all the old arenas are who all had their own vibe and identity (Boston garden, the spectrum in Philly, the Alamodome in San Antonio, reunion arena, in Dallas, Great western forum in Inglewood, Chicago stadium in Chicago) NFL is the complete opposite because football is the only modern sport closest to warfare and just like you said, in the rules of war, if you force your enemy to play by your rules and force him to fight in uncomfortable and unfamiliar territory, you gain massive advantage on him because unlike your enemy, you master the environment perfectly. And teams know their stadium more than any other team because their unique style of play and team identity was built around the peculiarities of their own stadium and the weather of their city.
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Piff Perkins
Veteran
I agree but the NBA is so focused on squeezing out TV money that we'll never go back to 5 game series. Shorter series allows for more upsets and intrigue IMO so it would def make things more interesting. Keeping the play-in is fine too, I'm sure there's a way to make it better plus it increases intrigue. A hot play-in team going up against a seeded team in a best of 5 would be very interesting.