NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 22: Markelle Fultz walks on stage with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being drafted first overall by the Philadelphia 76ers during the first round of the 2017 NBA Draft at Barclays Center on June 22, 2017 in New York City. (Image: Getty)
As professional sports leagues around the world have slowly started to resume their seasons or announced their plans for their seasons, one league that has been very much so up in the air has been the NBA. Soon, it appears that fans finally know how the NBA will start its season back up.
On Thursday, the NBA’s board of governors is expected to approve a 22-team proposal to resume the season in Orlando, specifically at Disney World. The plan will include 13 teams from the Western Conference, the eight playoff teams plus the Portland Trail Blazers, New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns, as well as nine Eastern Conference teams, the eight playoff teams plus the Washington Wizards.
The reasoning for including the six teams that are currently not in the playoffs in both conferences is that the league plans to play eight regular season games so those teams have a fair shot of making the playoffs. All of those teams are within six games of the eighth and final playoff spot in their respective conferences. If the ninth seed in the Eastern or Western Conferences are within four games of the eighth seed at the conclusion of the eight regular season games, there would be a mini play-in tournament between the eight and nine seeds where if the ninth seed would have to win two games against the eighth seed, while the eighth seed would only have to win one game. This is a way of rewarding the eighth seed for being in the playoff picture at that time.
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Since the NBA is bringing back extra teams, this means we can see players like Damien Lillard and Zion Williamson battle for a spot in the playoffs which would be good for the league’s ratings as a means to make up for lost revenue.
There are still some issues that need to be ironed out in regards to how the bubble city would work between the league and the National Basketball Players Association, but it is expected that a training camp will take place for all teams in Orlando in the middle of July.
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