Would you be happy with the Toronto Heat?

[thead]

Miami represents everything wrong about professional sports. Ring chasing athletes that aren't good enough to do it on their own. Bosh, Lebron and Wade should all be the man on their own teams. It would stop this bullshit where 16 teams play for something and 14 don't. It would make the games far more entertaining to watch. If the Raptors blew it up and signed 3 elite all stars I would just officially switch to being a phoenix fan

[Axel]

Miami represents everything wrong about professional sports. Ring chasing athletes that aren't good enough to do it on their own. Bosh, Lebron and Wade should all be the man on their own teams. It would stop this bullshit where 16 teams play for something and 14 don't. It would make the games far more entertaining to watch. If the Raptors blew it up and signed 3 elite all stars I would just officially switch to being a phoenix fan

So if the Raps were to sign Kevin Love and Kevin Durant to UFA deals, and re-sign DD or JV to a big contract, you wouldn't be happy with the team and would go cheer for Phoenix?

[thead]

Kevin Love OR Kevin Durant...but not both

[thead]

I'm not saying my opinion is correct. I'm just saying I'm emotionally invested in the process, and I would not enjoy being a fan of a team that bought it rather than earning it

[Letter N]

Kevin Love OR Kevin Durant...but not both

Kobe or Shaq not both
Robinson or Duncan not both
Jordan or Pippen not both
Bird or McHale not both
Kareem or Magic not both
Wilt or Elgin but not both
Russell or Cousy not both

[OldSkoolCool]

Miami represents everything wrong about professional sports. Ring chasing athletes that aren't good enough to do it on their own. Bosh, Lebron and Wade should all be the man on their own teams. It would stop this bullshit where 16 teams play for something and 14 don't. It would make the games far more entertaining to watch. If the Raptors blew it up and signed 3 elite all stars I would just officially switch to being a phoenix fan

This is interesting...what if 24 teams made the playoffs? The bottom 6 all will have an equal chance of picking #1.

12 team conference brackets (top 4 get byes into second round)

Promotes more of the teams to build for the playoffs and less trying to tank.

More playoff series = more revenue and more playoff basketball

There will still be disparity between the tops and bottoms, but the fact that most teams making the playoffs will leave less incentive for star players to congregate to be on a playoff team because they will be in the playoffs regardless. Also if you are a budding star on the bottom of the bracket you know you are gonna get a 7-10 pick to help you out, incentive to stay.


Or:

Expand the league to 32 teams and do a full 32 team bracket with round 1 being a mini 3 game series, or a 1 game series that could provide some wicked upsets and make things more interesting. Ranking is based on conference standings.

[Letter N]

This is interesting...what if 24 teams made the playoffs? The bottom 6 all will have an equal chance of picking #1.

12 team conference brackets (top 4 get byes into second round)

Promotes more of the teams to build for the playoffs and less trying to tank.

More playoff series = more revenue and more playoff basketball

There will still be disparity between the tops and bottoms, but the fact that most teams making the playoffs will leave less incentive for star players to congregate to be on a playoff team because they will be in the playoffs regardless. Also if you are a budding star on the bottom of the bracket you know you are gonna get a 7-10 pick to help you out, incentive to stay.

I love that, make the 1st round best of 3 and it'd be amazing and wouldn't leave the good teams sitting at home too long to get rusty.

[Raptorsnz]

This is interesting...what if 24 teams made the playoffs? The bottom 6 all will have an equal chance of picking #1.

12 team conference brackets (top 4 get byes into second round)

Promotes more of the teams to build for the playoffs and less trying to tank.

More playoff series = more revenue and more playoff basketball

There will still be disparity between the tops and bottoms, but the fact that most teams making the playoffs will leave less incentive for star players to congregate to be on a playoff team because they will be in the playoffs regardless. Also if you are a budding star on the bottom of the bracket you know you are gonna get a 7-10 pick to help you out, incentive to stay.


Or:

Expand the league to 32 teams and do a full 32 team bracket with round 1 being a mini 3 game series, or a 1 game series that could provide some wicked upsets and make things more interesting. Ranking is based on conference standings.

What's the point of the regular season then really? Just for pure seeding? That's no good incentive. Pop would play his bench the whole season, get the #1 pick then probably steamroll to the championships with a fresh Parker and Duncan.

Plus, at the moment the match ups in the East would be Nets-Boston, Wizards-Pistons, Bobcats-Cavs and Hawks-Knicks. Does anyone really wanna watch any of those series?

[Axel]

What's the point of the regular season then really? Just for pure seeding? That's no good incentive. Pop would play his bench the whole season, get the #1 pick then probably steamroll to the championships with a fresh Parker and Duncan.

Plus, at the moment the match ups in the East would be Nets-Boston, Wizards-Pistons, Bobcats-Cavs and Hawks-Knicks. Does anyone really wanna watch any of those series?

How would Pop get the #1 pick and make the playoffs? That doesn't make sense even in the imaginary scenario.

[Letter N]

What's the point of the regular season then really? Just for pure seeding? That's no good incentive. Pop would play his bench the whole season, get the #1 pick then probably steamroll to the championships with a fresh Parker and Duncan.

Plus, at the moment the match ups in the East would be Nets-Boston, Wizards-Pistons, Bobcats-Cavs and Hawks-Knicks. Does anyone really wanna watch any of those series?

1) What's stopping the Spurs from resting their guys and getting the 8th seed now? It's not that different. In fact I'm sure a team like the Spurs would love to have that extra week off for finishing top 4.

2) The fans of those teams. Plus lots of random fans once it gets to a series deciding game. Just look at the baseball tie-breaker/wild card games in the past few years, they're exciting even if the teams aren't ones you normally watch simply because so much is on the line.

[octothorp]

I'm not sure I could abide by the instant bandwagoning that would come by a series of massive free-agent signings. I wouldn't exactly hate it, but it would dampen my enthusiasm and make me resent the portion of the fan-base that join in simply because of superstar hype. I've got no problem with more gradual bandwagoning that comes with year-after-year improvements and acquisitions.

I'd get over it and I'd still be a fan, but being a Raptors fan would be less special than being part of a home-grown organic winner.

That said, management's approach should be to win championships, and let the fan feelings take care of themselves.

[OldSkoolCool]

What's the point of the regular season then really? Just for pure seeding? That's no good incentive. Pop would play his bench the whole season, get the #1 pick then probably steamroll to the championships with a fresh Parker and Duncan.

Plus, at the moment the match ups in the East would be Nets-Boston, Wizards-Pistons, Bobcats-Cavs and Hawks-Knicks. Does anyone really wanna watch any of those series?

Basically everything Letter N said:

1) What's stopping the Spurs from resting their guys and getting the 8th seed now? It's not that different. In fact I'm sure a team like the Spurs would love to have that extra week off for finishing top 4.

2) The fans of those teams. Plus lots of random fans once it gets to a series deciding game. Just look at the baseball tie-breaker/wild card games in the past few years, they're exciting even if the teams aren't ones you normally watch simply because so much is on the line.

The bye I think should be enough incentive to finish top 4, also look at the Miami-Indiana this season, they have (until recently) battled to try and get home advantage over each other all season, even though they knew they would be in the playoffs.

Also players like to win and will naturally compete to put out a good product anyways, I don't expect any teams to just float

[yabadabayolo]

Barring injuries Gordon was on the path to being way better than DD will ever be. But unfortunately he does have a lot of injuries

Dooodeeeee why are u such a derozan hater, damnnnn. We are always getting into arguments about.

[BobLoblaw]

Gordon did look like he was going to be special for a while. I don't remember DeRozan vs. Gordon discussions actually, but I do remember Gordon vs. Harden discussions and those seemed legit at that time. He could make plays, shoot, he looked like he'd be a good defender. I remember some people saying that he'll be Mitch Richmond 2.0 and it didn't sound far fetched.

But injuries, character and he didn't develop much. He's not good enough off the ball, and his defense regressed instead of improving.

[yabadabayolo]

Gordon did look like he was going to be special for a while. I don't remember DeRozan vs. Gordon discussions actually, but I do remember Gordon vs. Harden discussions and those seemed legit at that time. He could make plays, shoot, he looked like he'd be a good defender. I remember some people saying that he'll be Mitch Richmond 2.0 and it didn't sound far fetched.

But injuries, character and he didn't develop much. He's not good enough off the ball, and his defense regressed instead of improving.

Everybody said gordan was better than derozan so it didnt need to be discussed