[beoberha]

I don’t think this is a particularly well written article, but I sort of agree with the sentiment. Basketball just isn’t THAT complex and the talent pool is homogenous enough that most teams can find these archetypes and build rosters that get you to the playoffs.

That said, trends are cyclical. Look at the role of the running back in the NFL. There will always be outlier players like Shaq who will buck the trends and exploit matchups.

[relaxing]

“The NBA talent pool is homogenous” is the new worst hn take I’ve seen.

If “most teams can build rosters that get to the playoffs” is true it’s only because the NBA playoffs are so big. I’d assume it’s false based on any interpretation of “can build” you pick.

Realistically only a handful of teams compete for a championship in any given span of years.

[epolanski]

> most teams can find these archetypes and build rosters that get you to the playoffs

Not really, it's still 16/30 (I don't like playoff formats btw, so American).

[mopenstein]

My country of Smugistan solved playoff problem years ago. Very simple: every Smugball team makes playoffs. If Americans and Europeans weren't so far behind Smugistanian education system, they would have figured it out too.

[epolanski]

It's not about being smug:

1) playoff format rends 6 months of games not very important, the biggest difference is in your seeding. That's..all?

2) another way it makes the previous 6/7 months pointless is that your entire season is based on a single set of games. You can be the best team in the league by far, but then if one player gets injured or you're out of form or unlucky it's over

I just don't like leagues with a playoff system, you either have a league or you have a round robin, both seem directed toward squeezing tv rights, not awarding the best team of a season.

[ghaff]

Most sports pretty much have a playoff system to a greater or lesser degree.

That said, basketball has pretty much always been one of the major US sports that can rely on a fairly small number of really good players and the rest don't matter nearly as much. Stars (pitchers, QBs, receivers, etc.) matter elsewhere but probably not individually as much as they do in basketball.

[bdangubic]

the most popular sport on the planet - soccer - doesn't have playoffs anywhere except USA

[rectang]

There are multiple independently organized tournaments, e.g. FA Cup, Coppa Italia, Champions League, Europa League, World Cup, etc.

But it’s true that the lack of a tournament which determines the league champion makes regular season games much more meaningful and exciting!

[walthamstow]

That's not true I'm afraid:

The German Bundesliga has a playoff to see which of the 16th team in tier 1 or the 3rd team in tier 2 goes into tier 1 next year

The English Championship (tier 2) has a tournament of four teams (placed 3rd-6th) to determine who goes up into the Premier League. The final of this is known as the richest game in football, worth £120m+ to the winner.

It could also be argued that the new UEFA Champions League format is a US-style playoff system. Maybe the old format too now I think of it.

[ghaff]

I mean there's the World Cup though that's a bit different. The US (or US + Canada) is big enough that having large leagues of top-level teams makes some sense to have playoffs.

[TMWNN]

>My country of Smugistan solved playoff problem years ago. Very simple: every Smugball team makes playoffs.

Not that I disagree with the intent/target of your sarcasm, but there are US leagues where every team makes the playoffs. The Pac-12 did this with its conference tournament for most of its history, for example. One can argue that such is the logical conclusion of separately rewarding the winner of the regular season and tournament.

[happycube]

Ah, just like the Participation Trophy Bowl games in early December.