The National Basketball Association is looking to make some big changes to its schedule. Commissioner Adam Silver seems to be a fan of an in-season tournament that is similar to what European Soccer.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise as the NBA is struggling with ratings early in the 2019-2020 campaign and they could definitely use a buzz around the world.
According to ESPN, the league is considering major changes to playoff structure that could include a play-in round, an in-season tournament and re-seeding the teams before the conference finals.
“Discussions are progressing with hopes of bringing a vote to the April meeting of the league’s Board of Governors that would introduce some — if not all of these proposals — into the NBA’s 75th anniversary season of 2021-2022, league sources said. The NBA still has work to do coordinating with constituents on the myriad of implications involving the proposed changes.
The reseeding of teams in the semifinal round — based upon regular season record — could give the NBA a championship series that includes its best two teams. The WNBA has been seeding teams in the playoffs without regard to conference for several seasons.”
ESPN reported that the mid-season tournament would have all 30 teams compete in it and players and coaches would receive compensation for winning.
The play-in games will help determine the final two playoff spots in each conference. Currently, the top eight teams in each conference make the postseason, but under the proposal, the 7th and 8th seeds would play for one spot.
The loser of that game would play the winner of the matchup between the ninth and tenth seeds to determine the final playoff team. This will undoubtedly create more excitement late in the season, much like what happens in the MLB with their Wild Card game.
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The final proposal would be re-seeding which would allow the two best teams to face off against each other in the Finals regardless of conference. The WNBA has done this for years, but not too many people have noticed, because nobody watches.
According to ESPN, there has been “no real pushback” to the proposals from the 30 teams so far.
