by Lamrock on Sun May 31, 2020 8:31 pm
I'm really surprised they're about to go through with this. If it does indeed happen I'll be happy, but it seems more sensible to just cut their losses and start next season on time. The season would be wrapping up now anyway, but this weird playoff tournament thing is going to give next season a bit of an asterisk as well. I'm not complaining though.
I'd prefer to see teams play to 70 or 72 games so that everybody plays the same number of games, and so they get a few games to warm up before the postseason. I don't hate the group stage idea though. I like the classic 16-team playoff format too, but I think it's because it's all I know. With dwindling ratings, it seems like Adam Silver has been pretty anxious about shaking things up anyway, with the talks of in-season tournaments and the like, and this gives him an opportunity to try some stuff out. If we're to expand it to 20 or so teams (which wouldn't matter, the Pelicans and Blazers both suck this year, that's why they're behind Memphis of all teams), I'm intrigued by the idea of giving the top four teams first round byes, then they play the winners of the four groups (seeds 5, 12, 13, 20; seeds 6, 11, 14, 19; seeds 7, 10, 15, 18; seeds 8, 9, 16, 17) and from there it's an 8 team playoffs...
I enjoy nerding out about this stuff, and if this does happen, I can't wait to see what they decide to do.