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Joined 11 months ago
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Cake day: October 20th, 2023

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  • Wouldn’t this solve the load management issue?

    In a vacuum, maybe. But, this still does virtually nothing to incentivize players for the regular season. Still more likely to shoot for 60 wins for the 1 seed overall rather than some cockamamie accomplishment. Basically another

    Call it something like “Regular Season Champion” to make it shiny, or simply “NBA Top Seed”. Start retroactively adding it to past players’ résumé on different websites and media shows. It also gives credit for beloved top seed teams that didn’t win it all (which are often the less glamorous, honest working teams) like the Suns with Steve Nash, Jazz with Rudy Gobert, and early 2000’s Kings that many people argue were robbed.

    Consolation prizes, especially ones added retrospectively, would be extremely cheap. Furthermore, the benefit would be marginal, if anything. What would the Bucks get out of saying they had the 1 seed this year? A lookup would see them losing to the 8 seed in 5. We had the 1 overall seed in 2022 and (infamously) lost in the second round. If that season didn’t break the franchise win record, we’d have no reason to celebrate.

    I know it isn’t the championship, it doesn’t have to be equal to a real one. But I think it should still count for something more than it currently does. Even if the NBA doesn’t officially recognize it, shouldn’t we as a community care more about this - just so being a top seed doesn’t get lost in history so easily?

    Unless you get something like the NFL playoffs where the top seed gets a first-round bye, probably won’t ever count for anything. Or if they took the EPL thing they’re trying to pull off to the extreme and suddenly did something crazy and unprecedented like abolishing the playoffs and giving the title to the team with the best end of season record. The top seed exists to qualify you for the playoffs and that’s about it. If the Celtics finished with the 1 seed overall this year, but then lost in the conference finals, you’re not having a reunion for that team in 20 years. It was nice…and then the next season happened.