Risk or reward?
Suns coach not a fan of playoff format for top seeds
Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams admits having some “goofy” ideas. Here’s one of his latest. Considering the one and two seeds will have less time to prepare for their first-round opponent determined by the play-in tournament, Williams suggests the eighth and seventh seeds start their opening series down 1-0 to the respective top two seeds.
Phoenix and Utah are 1-2 in the West going into Wednesday’s games as both teams have the same record at 47-18, but the Suns own the tiebreaker between the NBA’s top two teams.
“So if you make the seventh and eighth seed, you’re already down one game and that would be a benefit to the top seeds,” Williams said. Welcome to the wacky mind of Monty Williams.
It can be like that sometimes.
“That would never go through, but I think there should be an incentive for teams to work hard to be in the top seeds and still more to work for if you’re in the play-in tournament,” Williams continued.
Denver Nuggets coach Mike Malone recalls his five years as an assistant in Cleveland doing the playoff prep for Mike Brown during LeBron James’ first run there and having little time to gear up for the first-round opponent, too.
“A lot of times, you didn’t know who you were playing in the opening round until the last night of the (regular) season,” Malone recalls.
“So it’s nothing new that.”
As Malone kept talking about it, he let out chuckle at the thought of this being an issue.
“If you’re a No. 1 seed, s--t, you shouldn’t be worried about that anyways,” Malone said with a laugh.
The play-in is from May 18-21 with the playoffs beginning May 22.
The seventh seed will be determined first when seventh plays the eighth seed at home.
The 7-8 loser will then play host to the 9-10 winner for the eighth and final playoff spot in each conference. Going into Wednesday’s games, the seventh through 10th seeds in the West are as follows:
● Portland (36-29)
● Golden State (33-33, back)
● Memphis (32-32, 31⁄2 games back)
● San Antonio (31-33, 41⁄2 games back)
The NBA experimented with the play-in during last year’s bubble when Memphis needed to beat Portland twice to land the eighth seed.
“The league felt like in the bubble it made sense and I think there was obviously some support of continuing it,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said.
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The Trail Blazers won the first game to avoid a winner-take-all situation, lost in the first round to the eventual NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers, but the drama of teams needing to win to stay in the play-in hunt created an essential buzz as fans weren’t allowed in the bubble amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fans can attend games in most NBA arenas this season, at a limited capacity. So Williams sees the value of having the play-in to help generate fan interest.
“You need something to create intrigue and I get it from the league’s perspective,” Williams said
Phoenix very much fueled the intrigue last summer in going 8-0 in the seeding games, but fell short of the play-in to Memphis.
Both teams finished the shortened regular season 34-39, but the Grizzlies owned the tiebreaker.
Then Brooklyn could’ve knocked Portland out of it on the final day of the seeding games, but Caris Levert missed a jumper at the buzzer of a 134-133 defeat.
Helplessly watching, Phoenix began to fully understand Williams’ message of controlling your own destiny.
After trading for Chris Paul and signing free agent Jae Crowder in the offseason to join a young core led by Devin Booker that grew in the bubble, the Suns have already clinched a playoff berth to emphatically end an 11-year postseason drought and a topsix spot to avoid the play-in tournament.
When looking at the bigger picture, Williams isn’t too caught up in the playin scenarios.
“If you are a one or a two seed, that means you’re a good team,” he said. “You have to be grateful for that. To be in this position, speaking for us, as opposed to where we were last year in the bubble waiting on somebody to dictate our destiny, and now having a chance to somewhat control it.”
The Suns stand a good chance of earning the top seed, but will have to wait longer than anyone else to find out who they’ll play to start the postseason if they do land it.
“For me, when you put yourself in a position to be at the top of the league, there should be a benefit to that and you don’t really get that being a one or two seed because you’re trying to figure out who you’re going to play,” Williams said.