Downward Spiral

Is it just me, or does the tight race for first place in the woeful Atlantic Division seem to pose the risk of launching a downward spiral of tanking at the end of the season? After all, if 32 wins will earn you lottery pick in what's supposed to be an excellent draft, who really wants 35 wins and a hopeless playoff run? I could imagine three or four teams quietly throwing games in an effort to avoid becoming division champion. Meanwhile, as things stand right now, in the Eastern Conference the fifth seed gives you a considerably more favorable playoff matchup than does the third seed. On some level, I have to believe that the incredible awfulness of the Atlantic is a kind of karmic revenge on the NBA for thinking it had solved its seeding problems by decreeing during the offseason that winning a division would no longer guarantee a top-three slot.

Comments

All good for the Knicks if team start throwing games since their pick goes to the Bulls (in a switch of picks) because of the Curry trade.

Posted by jacob segal | January 1, 2007 8:47 PM

Don't look now, but the Knicks might actually be the best team of the Division. They are most certainly the most exciting team of the division, given their recent triple-OT win over Detroit (a fascinating and exciting game in which Chauncey basically blew the game for Detroit) and their win over Utah on a tip-in with 0.1 left on the clock. Belive it or not, the Garden has actually been rocking on occasion lately.

Posted by Al | January 2, 2007 1:38 AM

Belive it or not, the Garden has actually been rocking on occasion lately.

Sometimes when actual basketball, rather than Friday Night Fights, is occurring...

Posted by Pooh | January 2, 2007 3:41 AM

"After all, if 32 wins will earn you lottery pick in what's supposed to be an excellent draft, who really wants 35 wins and a hopeless playoff run?"

The owners of a team that gets to sell very lucrative tickets for a minimum of two playoff games. That's who.

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Interestingly, were the playoffs to begin today, it would be the defending champs who would get screwed out of a playoff spot to accommodate the Titanic division winner.

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"On some level, I have to believe that the incredible awfulness of the Atlantic is a kind of karmic revenge on the NBA for thinking it had solved its seeding problems by decreeing during the offseason that winning a division would no longer guarantee a top-three slot."

Meh. If you're gonna have divisions, you've gotta have some reward for winning a division. I'd say the current setup is reasonably correct. Unlike the situation with last year's rules, which would have created problems on an almost annual basis, the current rules will create problems only rarely.

Posted by Petey | January 2, 2007 6:03 AM

The whole point of having a lottery in the first place was to stop teams from dumping games to get the #1 pick. It would be a bit of an unintended consequence for teams to dump games to get into the lottery....

Posted by Thlayli | January 2, 2007 8:08 AM

Is the Atlantic the worst division in American major professional sports history? I seem to recall that there was an all-expansion division in the NHL once, but I don't know that the NHL counts as major.

I tend to think, however, that the Raptors are the best team in the division, and actually a pretty good team by Eastern standards. They appear to be as bad as everyone else, but I think that this is a result of the schedule.

1. They are 8-4 at home, but 5-14 on the road -- in other words, they've lost more road games than they've had home games. And the Raptors should have a pretty significant home-court advantage since everyone has to go through customs to get there.

2. They are 8-7 against the East, but have played the fewest games against their own conference of any team in the East.

3. Not schedule-related, but their best player, and probably the best player in the division, Chris Bosh, has missed 12 games with a knee injury but is expected back soon.

I think that the Raps will finish around .500 and not have the worst record of any Eastern playoff team.

Posted by Mac | January 2, 2007 10:16 AM

Is the Atlantic the worst division in American major professional sports history?

In 1957, all of the teams in the NBA's Western division had losing records. Meanwhile, all of the teams in the Eastern were .500 or better.

Posted by Thlayli | January 2, 2007 3:50 PM