In Toronto, Doug Smith writes certain parts of the NBA's recent schedule proposal make "great sense." Smith: "I’d be all for having the seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th place teams play a mini-tournament for the final two playoff spots in each conference." It would "keep late-season interest alive in teams who might chase the ninth and 10th spots instead of trying to lose to get a better lottery seed." But as for the in-season tournament, there may not be a "way to incentivize it enough to make teams or players care" (TORONTO STAR, 11/26). CBSSPORTS.com's Jack Maloney marked the league's plan as a "sell." He wrote, "If there are any big problems plaguing the NBA right now, they revolve around the season being too long, which makes many fans feel like regular-season games are meaningless and leads to too many injuries. None of these ideas solve those issues" (CBSSPORTS.com, 11/25).
SKILLS LIKE THIS: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Ben Cohen noted Mavericks G Luka Doncic is "only a month into his second NBA season, but it’s already clear" that he is a "phenomenon engineered to be the greatest player of the league’s youngest generation." Few players have "ever been so brilliant at 20." Cohen: "The future of the league is here" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/23).
