Count on an NBA return as soon as details hammered out
Possible playoff format has Raptors opening title defence against Grizzlies
So, by now you’ve heard the rumblings from both from the NBA itself and various outlets with a pipeline into the league: It’s almost certain the NBA’S grand plan to get going again will happen in a bubble community built within the expanse of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
Plenty more has come out since that news was confirmed on the weekend, but very little else is anything more than a guess at this point.
What we know for sure is there is a consensus among the league, the players and owners that a restart of the season, or at the very least playoffs, will happen.
The risks have been weighed against the reward and the consensus is that, whatever the risks, they’re worth taking.
Commissioner Adam Silver will do his utmost to make things as safe as possible for everyone taking part, but not even the all-powerful Silver can pretend to be 100 per cent certain how this ends up.
He and the league are prepared for the eventuality a player or staff member within their bubble tests positive for the COVID -19 virus. That individual would go into immediate quarantine. But there are no guarantees the issue just ends with one person. One positive test could lead to countless others. Again, no one knows for certain, but with testing and tracking, the league is hoping to confine any positive test to as few additional positives as possible.
The NBA isn’t the guinea pig here. Leagues in other parts of the world are already underway, and by the time the NBA is up and running again — late July seems to be the best guess, following a training camp period — there will be that many more, all of which will provide information and a guideline for how to best to go about this.
The far more interesting narrative for NBA fans is how the league chooses to restart a league that sits just 17 or 18 games shy of finishing its regular season.
Do they jump right into the playoffs with the 16 teams that sat in a playoff position when the season was suspended back on March 11? Or do they try to finish off the season and then go into the playoffs?
What about the teams already mathematically eliminated? Do they show up?
On Tuesday, Portland’s Damian Lillard told Yahoo Sports that he wouldn’t be a participant if his team had no real shot at a playoff spot. The answer to those questions and any others about the format that a resumed NBA season would take are unknown at his time.
ESPN’S Adrian Wojnarowski, who has been on top of this from the get-go, says Silver is very much in the discussion phase right now, hearing from owners and management and players alike as he tries to determine the safest, most fair approach possible.
Everything is on the line right now when it comes to the playoff format. The area getting the most discussion isn’t so much about when it begins or what format it takes, but whether the traditional conference brackets would be kept.
Already there have been leaks that the league, with every team in one location, would forgo the conference setup and go simply to a 16-team bracket, regardless of geographical location. It’s not as if travel would be an issue.
In this format, the Toronto Raptors would wind up seeded No. 3 behind the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers.
Toronto’s first-round opponent would the No. 14-seeded Memphis Grizzlies.
Win that round and they would move on to face the winner of the Denver-indianapolis matchup, and then most likely a matchup with the No. 2 seed Lakers in the semifinals, assuming they weren’t knocked off earlier. Waiting in the final would be one of the Bucks or Los Angeles Clippers and their lead dog Kawhi Leonard, assuming the tournament’s No. 1 and 4 seeds made it through unscathed.
It would certainly be a new look for the league. And based on a cursory look at social media, it has plenty of backing from fans.
But if you’re the Raptors and you fought for a No. 2 seed in the East, do you prefer that playoff route, or the traditional conference format that would see them open up against the Brooklyn Nets, followed by series against the winner of Boston/philadelphia before a likely rematch in the Eastern Conference final against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks?
Wojnarowski was reporting Tuesday that there seemed to be a leaning toward limiting the number of teams in Orlando to no more than the 16 playoff teams, which makes perfect sense if the ultimate goal remains the safety of the players.
The fewer in the bubble, the fewer who are exposed.
But none of this will be decided until after Friday’s NBA board of governors call at the earliest. That meeting will be preceded by a meeting of the league GMS on Thursday.
The expectation is that, by Monday, the full picture should be clearer.
But right now, how the league moves forward is anyone’s guess.
We just know that they’ll be moving forward with some attempt at some sort of conclusion to the 2019-20 season.