What’s not to like about the NBA’s new play-in plan?

Anyway, we won’t have to deal with it any more this season and hopefully next season things are back to normal and that this is the final middle of the night file that I’ll have to send.

-

I’ve come entirely around to thinking this play-in thing is not only good for this aberration of a shortened NBA season but I wouldn’t have a problem with them keeping it even when they get back to 82 games next season.

That’s a big move, I’m not generally a fan of somewhat radical change to something that’s worked for years and years but there is no denying the pluses that it’s brought.

Perhaps the biggest is that there are far, far fewer games at this point of the regular season that mean absolutely nothing and allow teams to rest multiple players or simply not be overly concerned about competing or winning or losing.

With so many teams chasing at least a longshot chance at the playoffs, lots more games matter a lot and that keeps interest up around the league. There is nothing at all wrong with that.

And that’s not just for the teams in, say, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th. In a weird way, it’s lessened the number of playoff teams because only six in each conference are guaranteed a spot, which adds to the number of important games.

In past years, at this point in a season, a team in sixth or seventh or even eighth might not take every game entirely seriously and get key players some rest. After all, they’d already be in the playoffs and that would be enough to let them perhaps coast to the finish line.

Now, a team in seventh or sixth or maybe even eighth have every incentive to play hard with basically full rosters right until the end because the incentive to avoid one-and-done play-in games is real.

And teams in 11^th and 12^th, who normally might have actively been looking to lose now have every reason to win because the chance to make the playoffs may not seem like a huge thing to some of you but it puts money in the players’ pockets – do not discount that as a factor – and gives management a chance to see how their teams handle de facto pressure with a chance to play at least one, maybe two and perhaps at least six “big” games hanging in the balance.

We asked Nick about it before last night’s game and he was a bit ambivalent but ended up on my side.

“I think it’s kept a lot of teams going and fighting,” he said. “I think it’s interesting to talk about who’s going to be in it, both the top and the bottom, the 7-8 and the 10-11.

“I think both of that keeps a lot of teams interested and fighting in the middle. But let’s see how it plays out once the thing plays out. I think that’ll give us our real indication of what we think of it.”

For me? I do not see anything wrong with any of it, to tell you the truth. More teams in contention, more games that matter? What in the world can be wrong with that?

So keep it forever, I say; players who whine about it now and franchises that say they don’t like it now will come around, I am sure.

And I know there are fans of teams that are on the periphery now who are excited about chase far more than they’d be excited about figuring out lottery odds.

-

We seem to have hit a beginning-of-the-week slump in the loading up of Ye Olde Mailbag and you can rectify that situation by clicking on askdoug@thestar.ca today and coming up with a question.

Anything goes and you’ll have the answers graciously provided here sometime Sunday morning.

It’ll be fun to be part of it, it always is.

-

This thing that the New York Rangers did yesterday might be one of the best – and boldest – things a North American pro sports franchise has done in quite some time.

I think you all know my interest in and knowledge of the pucks isn’t the deepest in the world but even a dope like me knows who this Tom Wilson guy and I know that only because of the many nefarious plays and recidivist attacks he’s been involved in.

The funny thing is that what the Rangers did, while admirable and somewhat unprecedented, is probably going to wind up costing the organization a substantial fine, a fine that will certainly be exponentially larger than the one Wilson got.

-

Still with the pucks, I don’t know exactly what year it was but I ended up covering an Ottawa Senators-Philadelphia Flyer elimination game one year – it might have been 2001 as part of Raptors-Sixers doubleheader – and when I woke up on the morning of May 5, having filed by Sens knock off Flyers item (it was brilliant hockey writing, it really was) I saw this headline.

Still chuckle after all these years.

Stinko De Flyo.

Who doesn’t love it?

-

-