Scramble for seeds key for Raptors
Return includes eight-game mini-season
After more than four months of inactivity, the NBA has charted a course to return that seems amphetamine-fuelled.
Pending approval by the players association, the league will resume its suspended season late next month in Florida, crown a champion in October and begin training camp for the 2020-21 season about a month later.
The ambitious plan was approved in a 29-1 vote by league governors on Thursday — reports citing sources say Portland was the lone holdout — and now goes to the players. It includes games beginning July 31 on the grounds of the Disney/ESPN campus outside Orlando, and a regular four-round post-season split into traditional conference alignments.
As for the impact of any positive COVID-19 test in Orlando or the process for repeated testing within a controlled “bubble,” it’s inconceivable that the league hasn’t got its own definitive protocols in place for the players to see. It would never have reached this point otherwise, but to make that process public before the players vote on it would be ridiculous.
“We are hopeful of finishing the season in a safe and responsible manner based on strict protocols now being finalized with public health officials and medical experts,” commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement.
Later, in a statement, the Raptors said: “A road map for our return to NBA basketball is welcome news for our team, our fans and our community. As we plan to safely and effectively resume the game we love, we do so as an organization that is unwavering in our commitment to carrying through on the conversations we’ve had in the past week about racism, inequality and justice.”
The key dates for the 22 returning teams:
Teams can begin training camps at their own sites on June 30, then head to the centralized Disney/ESPN location in the first week of July.
An eight-game mini-season begins July 31, followed by four rounds of playoffs that could run until the second week of October. Each team’s regularseason matchups will be selected from the remainder of its original schedule.
The draft lottery for nonplayoff teams will be held Aug. 25. The draft will be Oct. 15. Free agency begins Oct. 18. Training camps for the 202021 season will begin Nov. 10, and it’s hoped the season can start in early December.
Accelerated, indeed, but there is at least now a full plan in place after months of battling the realities of the pandemic that has yet to fully abate.
The Raptors’ opponents for eight regular-season games before beginning the playoffs for the sixth straight season are still to be announced. Whoever they face, the games will have an impact on not only their own seeding, but who will finish behind them in the Eastern Conference standings and be their first-round opponent.
The eight Eastern teams already in post-season slots — Milwaukee, Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, Indiana, Miami, Brooklyn and Orlando — will be joined by Washington for
“seeding games.” If the ninthplace team is within four games of eighth when the regular season ends, they will play a series to determine the final post-season slot — with the No. 8 team having to win once to advance, the No. 9 team twice.
The same holds true for the Western Conference, where Portland, New Orleans, Sacramento, San Antonio and Phoenix join the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, Denver, Utah, Oklahoma City, Houston, Dallas and Memphis.
The scramble for seeds will be most important to the Raptors. Had the playoffs simply picked up with the standings as of March 11, they would face Brooklyn in the first round. Now, if Toronto remains second in the East, the Nets, Magic and Wizards are all potential first-round foes.
The clearly defined path is welcome as they try to defend the NBA championship they won almost exactly a year ago. They have unique circumstances to deal with, however.
There remains a mandatory 14-day quarantine for anyone entering Canada. With about half the team scattered throughout the United States, it remains in question whether they will hold a mini-camp in Toronto before heading to Orlando, or gather somewhere in the U.S. before the official resumption of the season.
So, too, will the Raptors welcome definitive news on the draft and free-agent process. They have a first-round draft pick — to use or put in trade talks — for the first time since 2017, and can ramp up draft preparations with a firm date.
They also have a bevy of highprofile pending free agents to deal with. Fred VanVleet, Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol are all headed to the open market when the season ends.