pull down to refresh

The NBA Standings heading into the final day of the season are absolutely wild. I have seen some pretty chaotic final days of the season in a number of sports before but I am not sure I have seen anything like this where so much of the playoff seeding is unsettled heading into the final game of the year. Here are the current eastern and western conference standings.
https://m.stacker.news/26463

https://m.stacker.news/26464

Three teams tied for 1st in the West. Three teams tied for 5th in the East. Aside from a few teams who have their seeding locked in almost every playoff team has something on the line heading into the final game of the season. Every team will play their final regular season game on Sunday. This has to be a dream scenario for the NBA.

I haven't looked at all the tiebreaker scenarios and who is playing who to determine exactly how many of the 20 playoff seeds could change hands but it's quite a few. So, looking at the current seedings, how many positions do you think will change after the games Sunday?

0 (most hilarious outcome = most likely)28.6%
1-4 (a few but not too many)28.6%
5-9 ( some chaos)35.7%
10 or more (standings explosion) 7.1%
14 votes \ poll ended

I'm expecting 4 or 5, so I picked the more fun option in the poll.

reply

That seems about right. It looks like chaos but I don't know how many spots will actually move. I am not sure who has all the tiebreakers and all the if x beats y then it doesn't matter if z loses as well scenarios.

reply

Yeah, this isn't as common in the NBA and they don't seem as good at communicating it as the NFL is.

I'm going to pick one of the teams playing early, so that I don't have to worry about how they'd respond to someone else's result.

Post coming as soon as our house guests are out the door.

reply

It's interesting they didn't start them all at the same time but I think with a 2.5 hour time difference the early games will just be ending as the late games start so I don't think you will see it affect the starting lineup but definitely they might start pulling guys after the 1st quarter if the game no longer matters.

reply
100 sats \ 1 reply \ @nym 13 Apr 2024

I always enjoy reading these.

reply

Thanks for saying so.

reply

I hate the NBA playoff format for the fact teams that have a losing record still make the playoffs! They should be eliminated from onset!

reply

MLB is the only one of the Big Four where it can't happen (though it's been a while since it happened in the NHL and it's rare in the NFL).

reply

This poll is going to be like a hung parliament. No result at all. But it's quite interesting.

reply

This is the most evenly distributed poll I have done.

reply

This has reignited the interest in Polls. Thanks @grayruby

reply

If you want in on the NBA survivor pool, get your picks in here #504678.

We're starting with Sunday's games.

reply

I like if it goes to zero..I know, It's highly improbable but not impossible

reply

Let’s go Bucks!

reply