Games in late summer?
League will have to figureouthowrest of season will look
Question: If you were to hazard a guess, what’s the likelihood that the Nuggets play all 82 regular-season games? Do you think the NBA would opt to move right into the playoffs after an abbreviated return?
Jeff, Aurora
Singer: I don’t think the NBA will be playing all 82 regular-season games. What I could see happening: the league plays a week or two of regular-season games once it resumes to help get guys back into shape. That leads into the postseason, where I could see the league playing a best-of-five first-round series and trying to shave off the amount of time in between each round. One thing that owners and commissioner Adam Silver keep saying, though, is that games could stretch into July and potentially August. The NBA does have time on its side, though free agency, Summer League, and possibly the Olympics could be affected.
Which Nuggets player is the most likely to have hoarded toilet paper during the past week? Matt, East Colfax
My money’s on Mason Plumlee. Not only did he share a list of best practices on Twitter yesterday, but talking to him Monday, before the league took the extraordinary step to suspend games, Plumlee sounded like he was taking the hygiene memos from the league seriously. Those emphasized avoiding shaking people’s hands in the arena and using ample sanitizer. I asked Plumlee if he’d adopted “elbow bumps” instead of fist bumps. He said he’d turned to “air bumps” instead.
One player I’m confident has not stocked up on toilet paper is Jerami Grant. Again on Monday, I asked him how much he’d changed his routine as a result of the coronavirus concern.
“I haven’t changed much,” Grant said. “You can’t let anything really affect how you’re living. If you do, you’ll always be doing other stuff. It’s definitely something serious, but you gotta live, you know?”
With the playoffs fast approaching, it’s time for the sports media to play their favorite game, “if the playoffs started tomorrow…” If the playoffs started tomorrow, 3 teams, Memphis, Brooklyn and Orlando would be in with losing records.With a new CBA fast approaching is there any thought to either giving the top teams first-round byes so they don’t have to play these losers?
Gregory Weiss, Denver
I doubt owners would be willing to shrink the playoff tournament, even just to eliminate teams with losing records, since that means less games, less rounds and less ticket sales. Eliminating conference affiliation is a practical option, but that still wouldn’t guarantee all teams have winning records.
I do think significant changes could come as a result of this hiatus, however. It’s going to give the league time to explore moving the season back, which was a debate question at the recent Sloan Analytics Conference.