The NBA Announces The Season Will Be Suspended For At LEAST 30 Days
Alright so we're starting to get some additional clarity about the future of the NBA season. As we know a bunch of teams are basically on a self quarantine for at least two weeks and now we have word that at a MINIMUM we won't be seeing NBA basketball for at least 30 days. No word as far as I can find if the plan is to just pick up with the remaining 15 or so games of the regular season or just come back and start with the playoffs based on what the seeding currently is.
My gut reaction to that would be you can't just start the playoffs with the current seeding. Things are too close with each conference and seeding could drastically change someone's title chances/deep playoff run. Basically the entire Western conference outside the Lakers in the 1 spot and the Mavs being no lower than 7th is a lock, but everything else? We're talking about seeds 2-6 all being within 2.5 games of each other and in some cases closer than that. In the East it's a similar situation with the 2-6 seeds as well. There are still a ton of H2H matchups on the schedule that could impact positioning, the whole thing is a giant shit show and I'm not sure what the answer is. Pushing it back but then keeping the regular seasons would be a logistic nightmare I imagine, you have to deal with future events/concerts that are already booked for certain arenas and all that shit.
A 30 day break brings us to around mid April, but chances are it ends up being longer with the way things are shaping up. Maybe not as deep into the year like Cuban suggests, but if it creeps into July what does that mean for the Draft, free agency, Summer League etc?
That's why the more you think about it maybe the only option is to just come back for the playoffs and keep the seeding as is. You can only imagine the frustration of the first team to lose in an early round against an opponent they may have not had to face if the rest of the regular season was played out. What a disaster for one of the most anticipated playoffs in recent years with things being so wide open. Playoff positioning is everything for a lot of the league's contenders. You'd probably have an Astros situation on your hands where everyone wants to put an asterisk next to the eventual champ which the league probably doesn't want.
All I know is this. I miss the NBA already and I need these 30 days to fly by as fast as possible.