Post by Hawks GM (Connor) on Nov 28, 2022 17:29:53 GMT -5
First, just to reiterate how the play-in will work:
All four teams seeded 7-10 will play each other during the week following the regular season finale, with the two teams with the highest scores advancing to the normal 16 team postseason. The team with the most points will get the 7th seed, the team with the second most will get the 8th seed, and the other two will be eliminated and added to the draft lottery order.
It's difficult to replicate the home court advantage the 7th & 8th seeds get in real life, so we had discussed adding some sort of handicap or advantage to those teams. After looking back at totals for the past five years of standings, this is what I have come up with.
Proposal:
Simply, this option will give points to teams who outperform the other play-in teams during the regular season.
All four teams seeded 7-10 will play each other during the week following the regular season finale, with the two teams with the highest scores advancing to the normal 16 team postseason. The team with the most points will get the 7th seed, the team with the second most will get the 8th seed, and the other two will be eliminated and added to the draft lottery order.
It's difficult to replicate the home court advantage the 7th & 8th seeds get in real life, so we had discussed adding some sort of handicap or advantage to those teams. After looking back at totals for the past five years of standings, this is what I have come up with.
Proposal:
Simply, this option will give points to teams who outperform the other play-in teams during the regular season.
- Each of the four teams' regular season point totals are averaged with the other three
-- Example: BOS/BKN/IND/PHI average last season would have been 12,726.3
- Each team then subtracts the average from their team total
-- Example: BOS (1129.3), BKN (632.8), IND (-823.8), PHI (938.3)
- That number is then divided by the number of games played in the regular season (19)
-- Example: BOS (59.4), BKN (33.3), IND (-43.3), PHI (-49.4)
Any positive numbers then become the handicap for each team in the play-in round. Teams with negative numbers would just start with zero.
This is a very small sample size, though, so I would like to point out that these are very close to the all time averages. Over the last five seasons, between each conference, the average "handicap" for each seed was... 7th Seed (70.2), 8th Seed (15.5), 9th Seed (-41.6), 10th Seed (-44.0)
This is likely a fairer alternative to a flat handicap of 25, 50, etc. as teams are given an advantage based on how well they performed in the regular season.
Overall, it may amount to no changes in playoff seeding and perhaps teams will be more incentivized to lose their play-in game rather than try and make the playoffs. If that's the case, I think that's fine? It's just a fun addition to have more teams involved towards the end of the season and keep more people invested / interested later in the regular season. If handicaps are awarded based on regular season success, then nobody is being unfairly disadvantaged & any lower seeds getting in the playoffs will truly be upsets.
Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, suggestions below.
Any positive numbers then become the handicap for each team in the play-in round. Teams with negative numbers would just start with zero.
This is a very small sample size, though, so I would like to point out that these are very close to the all time averages. Over the last five seasons, between each conference, the average "handicap" for each seed was... 7th Seed (70.2), 8th Seed (15.5), 9th Seed (-41.6), 10th Seed (-44.0)
This is likely a fairer alternative to a flat handicap of 25, 50, etc. as teams are given an advantage based on how well they performed in the regular season.
Overall, it may amount to no changes in playoff seeding and perhaps teams will be more incentivized to lose their play-in game rather than try and make the playoffs. If that's the case, I think that's fine? It's just a fun addition to have more teams involved towards the end of the season and keep more people invested / interested later in the regular season. If handicaps are awarded based on regular season success, then nobody is being unfairly disadvantaged & any lower seeds getting in the playoffs will truly be upsets.
Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, suggestions below.