Association’s forward thinking
NBA ponders 2021 schedule, playoff changes
The NBA is considering significant changes to its schedule and playoff format for its 75th anniversary season in 2021-22 and perhaps beyond.
These potential changes include fewer games, an in-season tournament, a play-in event for the final two playoff spots and reseeding the four teams that advance to the conference finals.
The NBA has tossed around similar ideas for years, especially since Adam Silver took over as commissioner almost six years ago.
With TV viewership down (though attendance is up a tick), social media as an alternative to watching games and intense focus on non-game action such as free agency and trades, the NBA is interested in ideas that could rejuvenate a regular season that can be perceived as tedious and a necessary evil to get to the playoffs.
The league is looking at competitive incentives to entice more teams and fans during the regular season and would like to vote on these proposals at the April board of governors meeting or shortly after. It requires two-thirds approval from the 30 owners to pass.
As the league gathers feedback and listens to stakeholders, such as players and the National Basketball Players Association, TV partners (ESPN/ABC and Turner Sports), and reporters and fans, these ideas might evolve by April.
To be sure, some purists/traditionalists balk at some of these proposals. Let’s take a look at each idea and what it means for the league.
78-game regular season
Reducing the schedule by four games doesn’t address load management or significant minutes played for players, and the NBA is aware of that. This isn’t even expected to reduce the number of back-to-backs for teams. This just allows for the in-season tournament.
However, for teams that don’t make the in-season tournament quarterfinals, it equals extra time off in December and no games for about a week at the All-Star break.
This is one issue that bothers purists
who like the historical context of an 82game season and hold the record book sacred. Let’s rule out LeBron James, who would still lose out on games in this scenario that would have an impact on his points as he chases Kareem AbdulJabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
Take the next great scorer who plays 18 seasons. Eighteen times four is 72, almost a full season of games and points lost over the course of that career.
In-season tournament
Silver, who embraces change, broached this topic in 2014, referencing
in-season tournaments in soccer leagues.
With so much focus on winning the NBA championship, teams that had strong seasons but didn’t win a title viewed themselves or were viewed as unsuccessful. That’s deflating.
“As one of our general managers said at the meeting, there’s very few things that you can win in the NBA,” Silver said in 2014.
This gives teams a chance to win something else meaningful.
The tournament would look like this: teams play a round-robin schedule against teams in their division and the top team from each division and the two next best teams advance to the quarterfinals, possibly in December. Silver once mentioned Las Vegas as a possible site.
There are expected to be financial incentives for players, coaches and teams, and early feedback suggests the league might also look for other incentives that engage fans of teams. Howard Beck of Bleacher Report proposed giving better draft odds to the winner.
Play-in games for the playoffs
This is borrowing a page from the NCAA tournament with a wrinkle involving seeds 7-10 in each conference: seventh place would play eighth place with the winner receiving the seventh seed; the winner of 9-10 would need to beat the loser of 7-8 to get into the playoffs as the No. 8 seed. In essence, the ninth- or 10th-place team would need to win two play-in games to make the playoffs and seven and eight need to win once.
This idea has the potential to draw more teams into the playoff race, such as the 11th-, 12th- and 13th-place teams. Last season, the Kings and the Lakers – as the ninth- and 10th-place teams – would’ve had a chance to make the playoffs and the Timberwolves (11th place) might have been motivated to win games at the end of the season.
Reseeding the final four
This is straightforward. The league would reseed the final four teams regardless of conference, meaning a team from the East could play a team from the West in the “conference finals” and two teams from the same conference could play in the Finals.
Critics of the playoff system have urged the NBA to seed the playoffs 1-16 regardless of conference. That idea hasn’t gained enough traction among owners – why would teams in one conference want to give up a playoff appearance, which is a revenue driver – so this seems like a compromise to get the two best teams in the Finals.
Last season, the Bucks would’ve played the Trail Blazers and the Raptors would’ve played the Warriors in the final four. It could’ve been a Bucks-Raptors Final.