The New Structure
The NBA announced the restructure and format for the 2020-21 season this season, which included a Play-In Tournament in determining which clubs would occupy the seventh and eighth playoff seeds in each conference. The NBA’s 75th regular season began on Tuesday, December 22nd, with each team playing 72 games.
Each team endured three games (for a total of 42 games) against intraconference opponents, with each pairing consisting of either two home games and one road game or one home game and two road games. The league administration assigned which two opponents would be played twice at home and which two opponents would be played twice on the road within each team’s division at random via the best online games generator. All five teams from one intraconference division played all five teams from another intraconference division twice at home. The five remaining teams from the intraconference division played all five teams from the other intraconference division twice on the road.
For the 2020-21 season, the NBA Board of Governors overwhelmingly accepted a proposal to create a one-year playoff Play-In Tournament. The Play-In Tournament, held after the regular season but before the first round of the playoffs, featured the teams with the seventh through tenth best winning percentages in each conference. The teams with the seventh and eighth most significant winning percentages in each conference had two chances to earn a playoff berth by winning one game. The clubs with the ninth and tenth most significant winning percentages in each conference had to win two games in a row to qualify for the playoffs.
In the Play-In Game (the “Seven-Eight Game”), the team with the seventh-highest winning percentage in each conference hosted the team with the eighth-highest winning percentage in its conference. Each conference’s winner of the Seven-Eight Game received the conference’s eighth seed in the playoffs. In a Play-In Game (the “Nine-Ten Game”), the team with the ninth-highest winning percentage in each conference hosted the team with the tenth-highest winning percentage in its conference. In a Play-In Game, the loser of the Seven-Eight Game faced the winner of the Nine-Ten Game, with the winner receiving the eighth seed in their conference’s playoffs.
Pros
Because many of the likely postseason participants have already been determined by then, and most of the games have a pre-season feel to them, it’s understandable that the NBA would try to inject extra excitement into its regular-season games particularly after the All-Star break. In this new arrangement, every team serious about making the playoffs has a shot, however small.
Single-elimination tournaments are extremely popular. The popularity of March Madness and NBA Game Sevens and the filled high-school gymnasiums during state tournaments are proof of this. The NBA has added two games to this format: a nine versus ten game and a winner of 9-10 versus a loser of 7-8. Even if the clubs participating do not pique national interest and have a slim chance of upsetting a heavily favoured team in a seven-game series, the league hopes that the other elimination games will attract viewers.
Cons
The principles competing in the play-in round will be contending for the 7th and 8th seeds in their respective conferences, which have typically resulted in a short playoff run. There is ample evidence to suggest that the first-round series between the 1st seed and the 8th seed and the 2nd seed and the 7th seed are primarily tune-up games for the higher-seeded club. The top two seeds have won 68 of the 72 first-round series against seeds 7 and 8 since the best-of-seven format was introduced in 2003. In many situations, the rounds were not competitive, with five games or less being played.
In a single-elimination game, the players and fans of a team that finishes with the 7th-best record in its conference will dislike the format if they are ousted by a club that ends with the 9th or 10th-best record. With ten games left in the regular season, teams that are now ten games under.500 still have a chance to qualify for the play-in tournament.
Despite recent advancements, the Covid-19 virus is still a problem, and its impact on the 2020-21 NBA season is still significant. Without getting the virus, players and coaches have been forced to miss games. When you add in the usual slew of player injuries and a jam-packed schedule of games, especially after the All-Star break, rosters are strained to their breaking point. When you include in the clear requirement to finish sixth or higher in the conference standings, as well as the possibility of a play-in slot as the 10th-place finisher, most clubs’ options for resting players are severely limited.
Despite the packed schedule, teams in the higher half of their conference standings seeking to avoid slipping below sixth place and teams in the bottom half of their conference standings trying to reach 10th place for a play-in slot can no longer rest players. Under this model, teams will not be able to load manage their way to a desired position in the standings, and the importance of the games will approach that of the playoffs. Some clubs will be dealing with this for weeks before the playoffs begin.
I liked the idea, and it played out reasonably well. The last few weeks of the regular season can tend to drag on, but this gave it a new lease of life. I can understand the timing of the decision wasn’t the best, but for me, it worked.
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