Basketball seems to be on it’s way back everyone!
The NBA is considering an authentic 22 team playoff format that would take place in Orlando, Florida (Disney World) likely beginning July 31st. The official vote for approval of the “Return to play plan” is expected to take place this upcoming Thursday.
Although a majority of NBA GM’s voted for a 16 team playoff format excluding conference seeding for league seeding, the league is likely to dive into the “Playoffs-plus” plan that would include 22 teams (12 Western, 10 Eastern) making it to the dance. Here’s how that would look like:
THE BRACKET:
Whether there is a play-in tournament or not, the NBA is likely to have a 16 team playoff bracket regardless of conferences though, it’s possible that an agreement could be reached that could make everyone go back to the regular conference-playoff format, with 8 teams per each conference. However, the play-in tournament that your about to see would still be taking place.
The 16 teams would matchup like this under the current seeding:
(1) Bucks vs (16) Magic
(2) Lakers vs (15) Nets
(3) Raptors vs (14 Grizzlies
(4) Clippers vs (13 Mavericks
(5) Celtics vs (12) 76ers
(6) Nuggets vs (11) Pacers
(7) Jazz vs (10) Rockets
(8) Heat vs (9) Thunder
Best-of 7 series.
PLAY-IN ROUND:
Now here is where things get complicated, with more teams on the bubble in the West then the Eastern conference, two play-in rounds would be conducted to decide the final two playoff spots in the Western Conference, with 6 teams battling for two spots.
WEST PLAY-IN ROUND 1:
9 Blazers vs 12 Spurs
10 Pelicans vs 11 Kings
WEST PLAY-IN ROUND 2:
Mavericks vs lowest remaining seed from play-in round 1.
Grizzlies vs highest remaining seed from play-in round 1.
The reason for the “reseeding” part is to give the best advantage to the Mavericks to who are the highest seed in this play-in round, 7th in the West 13th overall. As for the Grizzlies, they too will need to win a game to officially punch their ticket into the 16 team dance.
As for the East, only one play-in round would take place and this one is pretty straightforward:
EAST PLAY-IN ROUND:
7 Nets vs 10 Hornets
8 Magic vs 9 Wizards
The winner of those two games would be headed to the playoffs.
RESEEDING FOR 16 TEAM PLAYOFF:
After the play-in round, the remaining 4 teams would be seeded from highest to lowest according to winning percentage, and be placed into spots 13-16 in the bracket.
The NBA will also be scheduling 5-6 “regular season games”, before the play-in tournament takes place in August, with the possibility of the current seeding being jostled as a result of those games.
THE FINAL BRACKET:
Well, we will officially know which route the NBA will take on Thursday, but this is the most likely one as of right now and has been for the last couple of weeks.
Under this format, the original NBA bracket would look like this prior to the regular season games potentially tweaking the overall seeding and play-in round as well.
(1) Bucks vs (16) Play-in round seed #4
(2) Lakers vs (15) play-in round seed #3
(3) Raptors vs (14 play-in round seed #2
(4) Clippers vs (13 play-in round seed #1
(5) Celtics vs (12) 76ers
(6) Nuggets vs (11) Pacers
(7) Jazz vs (10) Rockets
(8) Heat vs (9) Thunder
LOTTERY:
The NBA will supposedly conduct the lottery after the play-in round has concluded, so the 8 non-resuming teams(Bulls, Knicks , Pistons, Hawks, Cavaliers, Suns, Timberwolves, and Warriors) along with the 6 play-in round losers can stay engaged and have something to look forward too in the NBA draft come the end of September.
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