NBA In Talks To Alter Seeding, Schedule And Playoff Play In Games

[pwaldo]

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2019/11/...f-play-in.html

Serious discussions between the NBA, National Basketball Players Association and broadcast partners could see an altered league with changes to the league’s schedule, reseeding of four conference finalists, a postseason play-in and a 30-team in-season tournament, ESPN’s Zach Lowe and Adrian Wojnarowski report.

As the discussions progress, the hope is to bring a vote to the annual April meeting of the NBA’s Board of Governors which could include most, if not all, of the proposals, per ESPN’s report. The goal would be for these changes to take effect for the 2021/22 season, the NBA’s 75th anniversary.

For starters, the proposal would include a reduction in the schedule from 82 games to a minimum of 78 games, Lowe and Wojnarowski report. There would exist a remote possibility of teams possibly playing a maximum of 83 games given various tournament and play-in scenarios, sources told ESPN.

In regards to the in-season tournament, the league is looking at 30-team participation that begins with a divisional group stage of already scheduled regular-season contests. Coming out of the tournament would be six divisional winners based on the best home and away records in the group stage, according the report. Teams with the next best two records advance to a single-elimination knockout round under the current proposal.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been a major proponent of the in-season tournament, modeling it after European soccer. Silver explained to the New York Times’ Marc Stein in late May that he was examining various scenarios to alter the league.

[Tennelson55]

Not sure if this will get passed through the NBA players committee, but the owners do control a lot of things... I do like the in season tournaments to keep the league diverse/interesting. Not sure what will happen but I am hoping that this changes.

There was also a new rule/stipulation with the term "load management."Players on "load management" will now have the designation of healthy, but resting. I'm glad the league is shoring this up, but I'm not sure how contracts will be reworked/adjusted for this new rule. I can see owners or coaches disagreeing with what the player says and then the team gives them the "load management" medical term, but then the player feels they have an injury - a la Kawhi when he was feuding with the Spurs.

https://clutchpoints.com/nba-news-le...rest-new-memo/

[pwaldo]

As soon as a major star gets hurt in a midseason tournament you will suddenly see Silver no longer "like" the idea of it. The season is too long and the players and teams don't take it seriously so they don't need to be adding more stuff. Maybe if they made the season shorter for the tournament but they will NEVER do that. Too much money would be lost.

[cardbuyer66]

As soon as a major star gets hurt in a midseason tournament you will suddenly see Silver no longer "like" the idea of it. The season is too long and the players and teams don't take it seriously so they don't need to be adding more stuff. Maybe if they made the season shorter for the tournament but they will NEVER do that. Too much money would be lost.

If they lose money, no chance they do it. I agree that this tournament would need to have some season value (standings value, not monetary) for the players.

On of the radio host was suggesting that possibly each regular season win could give a point, similar to the NHL. He suggested that then they could have a mid season tournament which was worth more points in the standings, which for example would have made the 76ers beating Milwaukee on Christmas a lot more impactful on the standings then it currently is, where it's just one game and doesn't impact Milwaukee much, if at all.

I like the idea of it impacting the standings and making some regular season games very important, I do not like the idea if it becomes like the all star game, and meaningless