The wait is officially over. Basketball is back.
As a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic, the National Basketball Association halted all operations, stopping the season in its tracks. We were nearing the playoffs and it was a real shame that some of the league's best teams, like the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, and more, would not be able to fight it out to see which team would win the NBA Championship. Well, after months of discussions, it looks like basketball is coming back soon.
According to the all-knowing Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the NBA is inviting a total of 22 teams to Orlando to finish out the season. 13 teams from the Western Conference and 9 teams from the Eastern Conference will resume with each squad playing a minimum of 8 regular-season games. A play-in will determine the eighth seed in the playoffs.
The proposed dates for the end of the NBA season, as well as the playoffs, are from July 31 to October 12.
That would normally be the time that NBA free agency begins but, as you all know, this isn't exactly a normal year.
Although things are still pretty terrible out there, at least we'll have basketball back to keep us entertained.
Nets’ Dinwiddie Suggests March Madness-Like NBA Playoff Format
Brooklyn Nets point guard Spencer Dinwiddie poses an interesting league-wide tournament if NBA season resumes following coronavirus outbreak.
The NBA season, as well as every other sports schedule, has been put on pause until further notice as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. As it stands, NBA action will be suspended until at least April 12th, 30 days after commissioner Adam Silver made the original announcement, but there's a growing belief that the game will be sidelined for much longer than that.
If and when the games resume, the league will surely have to present a revised schedule so that the playoffs don't drag out deep into the summer. One idea, posed by Brooklyn Nets point guard Spencer Dinwiddie, is to hold a league-wide March Madness-like tournament.
Under Dinwiddie's format, every team in the league would essentially be awarded a spot in the playoffs. The top four seeds, the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Clippers, would all receive first-round byes.
Meanwhile, the bottom for teams, the Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors, would be matched up in a pair of best-of-three series' with the winners moving on into the first round bracket. The 24-team first round would utilize a best-of-five format, and then the typical seven-game series would resume once the field is narrowed down to the final 16.
Who knows if the NBA will actually consider such a radical change to their playoff format but it's certainly an intriguing option to discuss.
NBA "Seriously Reconsidering" The Idea Of Playoff Reseeding: Report
NBA might scrap their plans to implement playoff reseeding.
The NBA has a number of items on the docket for the Board of Governors meeting in April, but the idea of reseeding the final four playoff teams may be off the table. According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe, the NBA is "seriously reconsidering" the proposed plan reseeding the conference finalists as part of their larger proposal to reshape the league's calendar.
According to the report, one of the major concerns from teams was the potential for a ridiculous travel schedule.
"For example, a Milwaukee-Indiana conference final would presumably benefit the winner of that series over a team that emerged from a cross-country Los Angeles-Miami series. The NBA's coastal teams have been largely against this reseeding idea, sources said. The league's research has shown that the proposal of reseeding teams based on regular season records could lead to travel increases of 60% and could result in one in one out of every four series being played across three time zones, sources said."
Although it looks like the reseeding proposal may be off the table, the league is still hoping to implement an in-season tournament and post-season play-in for the seventh and eighth playoff seeds. The league is hoping that those changes could be in place for the NBA's 75th season in 2021-2022, but in order for that to occur, two-thirds of the NBA teams and NBPA must agree to the changes at the April meeting.
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