NBA Info - February 2026

[Betrayer]

2 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Teams at or below .500 says nothing about the talent in the league.  Fairly standard to have around 50% of your teams at or below .500 for any league where every game produces one win and one loss.  

Sure, but the point is that on any given night nobody cares about half or more of the games because one team is going to get wrecked and everyone knows it. There's an occasional upset, but so many games are trash because only about half the league has the talent to compete. Yet, they're going to expand, thin it out more, and then wonder why nobody cares to watch most of the games or why teams are tanking when that's their only way to break the cycle.

A system where teams just outside the playoffs get the highest lottery picks only makes it worse. That's what a tournament would do.

Maybe just going back to straight seeding is better and easier than all of this. Sure, those bottom 4 teams will tank hard for who's getting that top pick, but at least you won't have potential play-in teams tanking in the hopes that they have a chance to jump up and land the next Cooper Flagg.

[Motor City Sonics]

This is incredible.  

3 or 4 years ago I had totally given up that this team would ever be able to do anything and I really didn't care if they moved to Cincinnati, Virginia Beach or Seattle or wherever.  

 

And this has been done without acquiring a superstar outside of Cade in the draft (and drafts are crapshoots).  

Just a bunch of perfect small moves with a coach that knows how to cook with the ingredients he's given. 

This is fun again

After a decade of Sports Suckitude that may have even outdone the 70s,  All four of our teams are legit title contenders right now.  

They've gotten through one of Duren's suspended games unscathed (Paul Reed, how are ya),  If they can manage to go 5-2 or 6-1 without Beef Stew, wow, that's saying something.  

Langdon for Exec of The  Year.   JB for Coach Of The Year.  

 

 

 

Edited 16 hours ago by Motor City Sonics

[buddha]

exec of the year for what?

[gehringer_2]

what's funny to me about the Pistons is that at least by any conventional basketball wisdom, the team is highly flawed and "anybody can see" their weaknesses and the kind of player move they need to make to be better. That's not the typical reaction to the team with the best record in the league, which usually gets the 'look at how all these pieces fit together so perfectly' type treatment. 

On one hand, it's probably true that it's gotten to where the NBA regular season just doesn't pressure a team enough and that conventional wisdom will rear its ugly head quickly in the playoffs.  But OTOH, if they do some winning in the playoffs, we may have to look at the possibility that they represent something of a paradigm shift in how to win in the NBA.

Edited 14 hours ago by gehringer_2

[Deleterious]

 

[buddha]

sam presti should win executive of the year every year.

the only alternative is to give it to the guy who helped build the spurs but i'm sure adam silver would be too embarassed to accept.

[Motown Bombers]

12 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

what's funny to me about the Pistons is that at least by any conventional basketball wisdom, the team is highly flawed and "anybody can see" their weaknesses and the kind of player move they need to make to be better. That's not the typical reaction to the team with the best record in the league, which usually gets the 'look at how all these pieces fit together so perfectly' type treatment. 

On one hand, it's probably true that it's gotten to where the NBA regular season just doesn't pressure a team enough and that conventional wisdom will rear its ugly head quickly in the playoffs.  But OTOH, if they do some winning in the playoffs, we may have to look at the possibility that they represent something of a paradigm shift in how to win in the NBA.

I think you just described the Going to Work Pistons. 

[1984Echoes]

15 hours ago, Betrayer said:

....

A system where teams just outside the playoffs get the highest lottery picks only makes it worse. That's what a tournament would do.

Maybe just going back to straight seeding is better and easier than all of this. Sure, those bottom 4 teams will tank hard for who's getting that top pick, but at least you won't have potential play-in teams tanking in the hopes that they have a chance to jump up and land the next Cooper Flagg.

I hate lotteries so much that:

1) I either want to kill the lottery altogether. I hate them so much (wait, did I already mention that?)

OR:

2) Do the tournament. I find that an interesting/ compelling idea...

OR:

3) Wow, especially based on what Betrayer posted here: Why not seed the top-6 straight up based on record, and the remaining 8 teams do a seeding tournament? I think that kills two problem-birds with one stone. Fixes the "just miss" tankers from doing stupid tank things, and puts the worst 6 teams back on a "your record says what you are" basis that does NOT penalize a team for being truly ****ty and needing a non-bastardized (read: lottery) draft pick that reflects their record.

Just my 2 cents, but I think that's the optimum outcome.

[1984Echoes]

14 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

... This is fun again

...

Yes.

THIS.

Absolutely!

Nothing else needs to be said.

The Pistons are fun again.

I'm actually watching their games again.

[Deleterious]

2 hours ago, buddha said:

sam presti should win executive of the year every year.

the only alternative is to give it to the guy who helped build the spurs but i'm sure adam silver would be too embarassed to accept.

Brad Stevens in Boston needs a mention.  This summer they were facing a $300 million tax bill, just tax, no salary included.  He made moves to not only reduce that tax bill, but he completely eliminated it.  They are now about $800K under the luxury tax.  All while remaining a contender in the east.  Without his best player stepping on the court.  Pretty impressive.  

[Deleterious]

Straight seeding for the draft is like the fire department pulling up to your burning home and spraying gasoline all over it.

[1984Echoes]

At least that would only be 6 teams and not 14.

Did I mention how much I hate the lottery?

[Deleterious]

You don’t have 6 teams tanking right now. So at least you admit your idea would produce more tanking teams.

The Pelicans don’t even have a draft pick this summer. They are not tanking; they are just bad.

The Kings have sat some people, I think. But they also are just bad. So I would rate them as mixed.

Utah is 100% tanking.

Dallas is not tanking. Naji, Max, and Cooper all get run out there every night. Kyrie is supposed to come back after the ASG. If they were tanking, he wouldn’t touch the floor this year.

Memphis, with the Ja stuff, decided to blow it up and go young by moving JJJ. But they are not sitting healthy guys.

The Clippers, like the Pelicans, don’t even have a pick this summer. They are not tanking.

The Blazers, Warriors, and Suns are not even close to tanking.

In the East, Washington, the Pacers, and the Nets are all tanking.

Milwaukee is not. They just picked up Thomas off the waiver wire. Although one could argue that helps tank.

Chicago, Charlotte, and Atlanta are not tanking.

So you have 3 in the East tanking and 2 in the West tanking. That is a total of 5 teams.

But here is the thing. Straight seeding by record will make more than 6 teams tank. Teams like Memphis, Dallas, Milwaukee, and Chicago won’t go in the tank hard now because they still have decent odds at the #1 pick where they are.

Picks 1–3 have a 14% shot at the #1 pick. Pick 6 has a 9% shot. Pick 7 has a 7.5% shot. Pick 8 has a 6% shot.

But it’s more than just the #1 pick. A team that finishes with the 5th worst record has a 50% chance of picking in the top 4 with the lottery. The 6th worst is like 40%. The 7th worst is around 30%. Even the 10th worst record still has a 14% chance of picking top 4.

Remove the lottery and you suddenly have 7–10 teams that will tank hard and early every season. And they would probably start before Christmas.