Variance doesn't explain everything, certainly. But it's a major factor that you have limited control over. The post I took issue with said the playoffs are "not a crapshoot". Well, what's a crapshoot? If you argue that "crapshoot" means totally random thing you have no control over I'd suggest you aren't using the word "random" correctly and what you've said is mostly meaningless. Your terms are wrong and you've basically made the equivalent of a one word strawman argument. If what you mean by "crapshoot" is that it is subject to small sample variance, then there is only one correct answer: Hell yes it's a crapshoot. That is what most people mean, so the contention that it is not is simply not true. We have data showing that. Now, lots of factors come into play in the playoffs. Certainly talent disparities are a major part of that, but on the major league level those disparities are generally not that large. Not enough to remove the tyranny of variance for sure. There are intangibles that come into play as well. So can you close those gaps? Yup, for both talent and intangibles IMO. You can even target players you think might specifically be valuable weapons against other particular teams. But those changes are incremental because of how narrow the gap is and how powerful the variance can be. So, yeah, incrementally make this sucker better. Playoffs are still a crapshoot though, so brace yourself,