The Warriors were in China last week as part of the NBA Global Games initiative, but with the preseason schedule shortened by about two weeks this year, the team "lamented how that complicated travel, practices times and promotional events even more," according to Mark Medina of the San Jose MERCURY NEWS. The Warriors' victory over the T'Wolves yesterday in Shanghai "marked the league’s 24th preseason game" in China since "first venturing" to the country in '04. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver conceded that there were "challenges" the Warriors and T'Wolves "faced during a week-long trip." Silver said, "It’s asking a lot of the players and teams. We recognize that. They try to get a lot done in a preseason. ... It’s a balance in terms of expanding the league and finding new fans and also ensuring that our players are in game shape once the season starts." Silver added, “We’re learning new things with the preseason schedule.” He also pointed out that the Warriors and T'Wolves have "more than a week to prepare for the regular season, as has been the custom for previous NBA teams that played exhibitions in China." Medina writes the NBA chose the two teams for "obvious reasons." The Warriors have won two NBA championships in the past three years and "boast a star-studded lineup that have business ties in China." Silver said the T'Wolves are a “young and upcoming team” (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 10/9).
SHORT REST: USA TODAY's Sam Amick wrote the NBA's exhibitions in China have been a "rousing success in almost every fashion." But this "kind of blessing-and-a-curse trip comes at a cost when it comes to the actual basketball," especially when the shortened preseason is factored in. The league’s effort to "create more recovery time for players sparked the reduction to four preseason games, meaning preparation time was already at a premium even before both teams made the 7,000-mile trek that has clearly taken its toll." This is an "interesting quandary for the league going forward, as they’re tasked with finding the right balance between global growth and the prioritization of the player experience." The Warriors and T'Wolves are "openly wondering if the inevitable ripple effect is a slow start to their respective regular seasons" (USATODAY.com, 10/7).
BASED ON RECORD: THE ATHLETIC's Jason Lloyd reported more than one-fourth of NBA GMs "voted they’d like to see the league eliminate conference seedings and reseed playoff teams 1-16 based solely on record." It would be a "dramatic upheaval of the current system and could cause logistical travel nightmares, since a team theoretically could have to fly coast-to-coast multiple times for every round of the playoffs." Cavaliers G Dwyane Wade "believes 1-to-16 seeding is inevitable." Wade: "It would be great for the game to have the best 16 teams in the playoffs" (THEATHLETIC.com, 10/6).
