Half the league making the playoffs is a joke for any sport. NBA, NHL, and now MLB have too many teams in the postseason. No doubt about it.

Nobody's watching
Nobody cares

Larger pools of playoff teams only reduces the value of regular season meaning. It sucks across all sports.

Just get to the point where every team makes the playoffs. Then you realize that is what the regular season is. No need to play 80 games so 75% of the teams can keep playing.

But you play 82 games to determine who is worthy. Anything more than four teams per conference is a waste. Raise the value of the regular season or just eliminate it. When you let any decent team in, why make them play 82 mostly meaningless games?

But they actually aren't. Which is the point. There is currently a 4 game difference between the 2 and 8 seeds in the East. With Philly currently 8th. Philly is hardly an 8th seed. Their unworthiness isn't due to the merits of 82 games not mattering as much as it is due to Embiid being injured. They shouldn't miss the playoffs because of that.

Teams have always missed the playoffs due to injuries. That is just part of the luck involved in all sports.

I hate the direction of the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NCAAF towards more playoff teams. Each diminishes the value of regular season play.

I will outline extreme examples to make my point. If you made the team with the best regular season record the winner of the league, then the regular has supreme value. If you let every team into the playoffs, then it has almost no value. Thus there is a natural tension between creating regular season value while still making the playoffs the arbiter of the league champion.

I know most like more playoff teams. But recognize how that reduces interest in the long regular season. My argument has already lost.

But if this were the case then the NCAA tournament wouldn't hold much value either. The primary reason that it holds value for MANY is because people know that the regular season champion is not a determining factor in who ultimately wins the championship. And knowing this has not hurt its value 1 bit either

It’s why the champion is considered a random outcome.

The dreadful NBA play in will draw lower ratings than the out of town out of season football draft. Book it!

I would contend most do not pay attention to regular season NCAA basketball because of the tourney structure.

But there are only 12 spots which are guaranteed. Which guarantees that 8-12 teams will have to compete at the end of the season just to make it in. And last season one of the play in teams made the Finals. Which only enhanced to concept.

Anything more than four teams per conference is a waste.

it's basically the safety net to full on tanking. it reminds me of the end of a soccer season where the relegation zone teams become fantastic matches to watch. the ones trying to stay up in their league play like it's the world cup final.

But there are only 12 spots which are guaranteed. Which guarantees that 8-12 teams will have to compete at the end of the season just to make it in. And last season one of the play in teams made the Finals. Which only enhanced to concept.

In terms of the final outcome, yeah, only 2x has a seed lower than 3 won it all: 69 Celtics were a 4 seed, 95 Rockets a 6 seed (getting Drexler mid-season that year helped out with their run to the title).

However, some of the best/most memorable/compelling? NBA playoff moments have been delivered by lower seeds: 8th seed We Believe Warriors taking down top seeded Dallas and last year with the Heat making a run out of the play-in (and almost being eliminated by the Bulls right off) to lose in the Finals to Denver.

Wouldn't be surprised to see a play-in team make another run at the Finals this year: potentially Sixers/Heat in the East and Lakers/Warriors out West (not sure the Pelicans can get done in the playoffs, dangerous team tho, New Orleans).

If mediocre is in the playoffs, then the season needs to be shortened. One or the other, you can't have both without, in the long run, hurting the sport.

Mediocre (and often bad) teams always makes it to the NFL Playoffs and it has never hurt that sport.

On the rare occasion a mediocre NFL team wins a bad division and makes the playoffs, they don't play in the Super Bowl.

Ltg again.

Based on regular season winning percentage, the 2008 Arizona Cardinals (9-7), 1979 Los Angeles Rams (9-7) and 2011 New York Giants (9-7) were the worst teams to make the Super Bowl.