My bad, this might be more talked about in NHL draft circles.
The Gold Plan rewards teams by counting a team’s wins after they have been eliminated from the playoffs. The draft order is set by rewarding teams with the most wins after their playoff elimination. However, I think we would end up seeing bad/mediocre teams tank even earlier in the season to be eliminated from the playoffs sooner, giving them more attempts at getting wins post-elimination.
Let this be known that the Pistons swept the LAL 4-0 this season! 
I would be curious how the covid year 72 games from Dec 22/20 to May 22/21 then playoffs ending July 20th. Then a 82 game schedule from Oct to April 14th not including playoffs. Players take load management but 154 regular season games in 16 months not including playoffs is a lot on the body.
The NBA want to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to star player’s load management. We’ve had multiple star players out with injuries in the playoff.
IIRC: Trae had a legit Achilles soreness and sat out one game. The NBA fined the Hawks for it only because SM pictures was posted when Trae was out celebrating his wife birthday or whatever it is. It was obvious at that time that Trae was not 100% on the court that week.
I could see late-season losses being worth less, but actually giving them negative point value seems too harsh. Some teams aren’t even tanking; they’re just bad.
Right but you discover how bad teams are well before March, that’s the whole point
The Celtics show some heart and get a home W without Tatum. Huge game for Derrick White.
I don’t really know but I could be open to that being a meaningful difference. when you’re measuring thousands of tiny impacts, that could add up. in a similar but different way, long distance hikers pull the red plastic casing off their Swiss army knives to save less than an ounce of backpack weight…
I think it actually is?
If we take these numbers at face value, what’s changed since 2015?
Pace is up about 3 possessions per game. If the players are running baseline to baseline (they aren’t, but bear with me) thats 282 feet, so not really covering that gap in distance.
One thing that DID change is that three point volume PER TEAM went up by 15 attempts from 22 to 37. This definitely implies lots more space, lots more close-outs, etc.
So 1/3 a mile per game (if you played a whole season and 2 playoff series you at about 30 additional miles in a season) of basically all 0-60 mph max effort scrambles?
That seems stressful? Like, this isn’t 30 miles of steady state treadmill jogging. For obvious reasons, straight line speed in hoops isn’t THAT relevant, it’s acceleration/deceleration/fast lateral movement that is, and that seems like most of what this is.
(I agree that the scale of the graph implies a larger jump than it is, but I think it’s worth seeing how small the fluctuations were, then boom).
Like, I don’t even know what the counter-argument even is? Guys aren’t tearing achilles because of soft constitutions and gen-Z coddling or whatever, the work load is very obviously unique in history I don’t even know how it’s possible to argue otherwise. Like the “back in my day” discourse doesn’t really work when we’re talking about soft tissue damage
Not to mention, they also play a ton of games in AAU/EYBL basketball in addition to HS/prep basketball growing up. It adds up over time.
I’m a big advocate of not specializing in one sport until maybe Junior/Senior year in HS.
https://x.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1922992560588365860?s=46
Would bet this similar idea is true for basketball
These 5280 jerseys are nice.
I am sure it is true in basketball for sure. That being said, the youth travel/AAU situation now is wild and kids are playing a ton of games at a high level. In football there is more training year round and some 7on7 in the off-season, but there is no travel football really and they aren’t cramming more games per week thankfully.
I hate them and the court
I’m going to sound like an old man who wants the kids to get off his lawn, but I wish teams would leave the alternates in the regular season.
Yeah I think when they say they’re not playing more they’re talking about at at the professional level and not necessarily about their whole lives
Also, wrong football.
Oh yeah that too. Calling them footballers is the tell there
This is a fun game!
Big Lu with a much needed three
I don’t understand the pertinence of HS grassroots leagues when we’re talking about 28 yr olds getting hurt.
That may or may not be a separate concern, I have no idea what injury rates look like historically at that level.