NBA reforms

NBA is in full swing. It's pretty much the only sport in town since the Super Bowl and until baseball starts up. We are past the three-quarters point, though we are barely past the all-star break. The All-star break is only a half way point for the two teams that make it to the NBA finals in June. For the rest of the league, the season is more like three-quarters done by the break, especially with the season starting earlier this year. There has been many interesting storylines in the league including an All-star game which was more competitive and better played than usual. Not sure how and why the new format helped the competitive spirit, but it seemed to have done the trick. I think it's more because of the guys putting in better defensive effort after all the criticism last year and also probably after personal requests from the Commish himself and the league office. It was a better watch than usual for sure.

The major story coming out of the break was about the league being open to playoff reforms including seeding the teams 1-16 across both the conferences. The other big idea is to introduce some sort of single elimination play-in games to lock up the last few playoff seeds. I have heard multiple versions of this with the more official version seems to suggest a play-in among seeds 7-10 in each conference for the final 2 spots. I actually like Bill Simmons' suggestion to have a play-in tournament for all of the bottom 8 teams in both conferences for that last spot. I think this will be the only approach that will curtail tanking, which is the other issue that the league wants to reform. A 7-thru-10 play-in will have zero impact on tanking. Not that a play-in tournament is the only way to fix tanking, but it will definitely be a fun way to fix it and a partial 7-10 play-in won't get it done.

Also, a full-fledged play-in tourney across 16 teams and over a week will be more fun and generate enough hype and attention. A 4-team play-in to me is neither here not there. It will be like the NCAA play-in games on Tues/Wed that nobody watches. I think a 16 team tourney will put butts on the seats. I know I will watch the Suns for sure and maybe most of the other games. The only concern with that is, it devalues the regular season. But the NBA regular season has very little integrity even now with all the tanking, back-to-back etc., I don't think a play-in tourney for all teams will make a huge difference to the regular season. It will however make the post-season more fun and can also help reduce the length of the regular season to 74 games or something like that. The league can eliminate back-to-backs and protect the players' health better with a shorter season. A week long play-in tournament can probably make up some of the lost revenue for the owners.

In short, a play-in tournament of some sort can add more excitement, reduce tanking, and reduce the length of the regular season. I think it's coming one way or the other. Commissioner Adam Silver is a revolutionary and will give this a shot soon. On the court, the major story is the race between the Rockets and the Warriors. They are pretty close and the Rockets are actually slightly ahead. This will obviously affect home court, but more importantly, the chatter about the Rockets being a true contender and a real challenger to the Warriors is picking steam. There was a lot of talk pre All-star game about how bad the Warriors looked. They have now won 4 straight since the break while the Rockets have won 14 straight. This will be an interesting race all the way to the Western Conference finals.

I can look at the Rockets in two ways. I can say the Rockets deserve all the respect since they have won a lot of these games to be at the top of the standings ahead of even the mighty Warriors. Rockets deserve respect and recognition for this. But, I can also say that a super-hot Rockets team has barely caught up with s supposedly struggling Warriors. So, who is the better team if they are both at 100%, which they will both be come playoff time as long as there are no injuries? The answer obviously are the Warriors since their upside seems to be much higher. Regardless of how people feel about the Rockets, they are finding it hard to pick them to win it all just because of the lack of playoff success of both James Harden and Chris Paul. So, the Rockets have to earn this one. Not many will pick them until they actually beat the Warriors and prove it. It should be one heck of a last 20+ games and the playoffs in the NBA.

Eagles and Goats

I know I am pretty late with this Super Bowl wrap-up, especially in this day and age of live tweets and instant highlights, especially in these days of breaking news, especially in these days of big news every hour in the NBA and other leagues. Life just got busy and I figured it's better late than ever. First off, congrats to the Eagles for convincingly defeating the GOAT QB and the GOAT coach. They showed us that only NFC East teams can beat the Pats in the big game. The thing that stood out from the very first snap of this game is, how the Eagles offense and Nick Foles were fearless! They didn't give a rat's you know what about the enormity of the Super Bowl or the greatness on the other sideline. That kind of attitude had to have percolated down from the coaching staff. And then the QB and the players had to make sure they were not overwhelmed by the situation. Kudos to the entire organization for pulling this off in style.

The crazy trick pass play to Foles in the end zone on 4th and goal was a microcosm of how the Philly approached, coached, and executed in this Super Bowl. Eagles went for it on fourth down again in their own side of the field and converted in the fourth quarter for another pivotal play after they fell behind for the first time in the game. Another gutsy decision when the momentum appeared to be shifting, but Todd Peterson and the Eagles wrested it back with a vengeance. That drive ended in a Zack Ertz TD and bled the clock to a point where Pats ran out of time. By the way, if NFL ever needed proof that it’s catch/no-catch rule is completely messed up, the fact that even Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth were totally clueless on that Ertz TD catch was it. How can that catch even be in doubt after Ertz took like 28 steps with the ball is beyond me. I don’t blame the announcers, but the NFL for letting it get to this point.

We could say the Eagles were aggressive. Or, we could also say this is the only way you can beat the Pats and the Goats. They don't die easy and they never take the foot off the gas. Unless you match that aggression both strategically and execution wise, it's going to be very hard to beat them. And the fact that the Eagles were the underdogs playing with their backup QB made it easy for them to be super aggressive and play like they had nothing to lose because they really didn't. Going in, I thought like many others that the Eagles defense will provide some resistance to the Pats offense and that will be the difference in the game. I actually thought the Eagles had a decent shot. But the Eagles D provided even less resistance than the Pats D, which was horrible. It was Eagles offense that dominated the game. Luckily, the Eagles defense made one play at the end of the game that saved the day for them. Without that strip-sack-fumble on Brady, did any of us have any doubt the Goat was going to drive down and score? 

My only hope for the Eagles when Brady got the ball with more than 2 minutes left on the clock and down by just 5 was that he would leave some time on the clock for the Eagles to win it on offense. Eagles defense didn't do anything to bother Brady the entire second half. However, that fumble clinched it, though I would say the play of the game still was the 4^th and goal trick play. Pats offense deserve a lot of credit for neutralizing a pretty decent Eagles defense, but on the flip side, Pats defense gave themselves no shot against the Eagles with the way they played. Neither did Foles who played a great game and won a deserving trip to Disney World with his MVP hardware. Fans always love it if offense and scoring dominates the game and this Super Bowl was a treat to watch.

The offensive efficiency and some of the offensive numbers in this Super Bowl were ridiculous from the start. My jaw dropped sometime during the game when I saw the stat that there were 9 different players who had plays of 20 yards or more in the game. That’s insane! I also literally jumped out of my comfortable seat to celebrate that crazy trick play by the Eagles for a TD. The ball was just moving up and down the field and the game went rather effortlessly from featuring the most yards in the Super Bowl to most yards in any NFL post-season game to most yards ever in a NFL game in history  as the quarters rolled on. Tom Brady was flawless with 505 yards and lost. The Patriots never punted in this game and still lost! The game went against all expectations and all kinds of conventional wisdom, but was a lot of fun. It was even more fun for guys like me who never mind the Hoodie and Brady losing. 

What makes the Pats defensive futility even more interesting is the one controversy that erupted in this game. Hoodie and the Pats benched Malcolm Butler and didn't even put him in to play defense all game. This guy is no Deion Sanders and hard to say if he would have won it for the Pats, but he did play 98% of their defensive snaps all season! How bad can he be if he is good enough to play 98% of your defensive snaps? He may not be great, but that stat at least proves he is better than his backups who played in the Super Bowl. Even if he is not better, he probably has more familiarity, feel, and chemistry with his defensive buddies on the field. Just on that account, I have to say he would have made a difference. I am convinced this benching decision by Hoodie and the coaching staff was costly. Hoodie will never tell us what Butler did, but in a game that was this close and where Eagles offense was unstoppable, a play here or there by Butler might have made a big difference.

Pats fans and apologists like The Ringer's Bill Simmons are saying Butler is not great and he would not have made a difference because the defensive front 7 didn't put any pressure on Foles. To that I say thats exactly why Butler might have made a difference. When your defense is worthless and doing nothing, why weaken it further by benching a player who played 98% of your plays? Hoodie better have a good reason for it. Unless Butler knocked on Hoodie's hotel room door at 2 AM on Super Bowl Sunday with a stripper in one arm and a bag of cocaine on another, you figure out a way to put Butler in that game. Especially in the second half when it was obvious they had no answer to Foles and the offense. Hope we hear the really story some day. I also wonder if Brady is upset with the Hoodie for costing him the 6th ring with this benching. Overall, great Super Bowl to cap a solid NFL season. Can't wait for next season, though NBA will keep us busy the next 5 months.