The NBA needs to get all teams to 70 games for the regular season to count with TV contracts. Crappy teams aren't going to want to want to come back with all the hassle of a bubble without a chance of playing for something. But the regular season records need to matter. Thus, here is a type of playin tournament the NBA could do; Have the Lakers and Spurs play one game to restart the season. This gets all teams to at least 64 games played. Playin round 1; Bottom 4 teams (27 Hawks, 28 Wolves, 29 Cavs, 30 Warriors) play single elimination game Playin 2: Two winners play 25 Knicks and 26 Pistons single elimination Playin 3: Two winners play 23 Hornets and 24 Bulls single elimination Playin 4: Two winners play 17 Blazers & 18 Pelicans in single elimination. 19 Kings play 22 Wizards. 20 Spurs play 21 Suns. Playin 5: 4 winning teams from prior round play 3 game series vs 13 Mavs, 14 Grizz, 15 Nets 16 Magic. The top 12 teams all make playoffs. They play 6 "regular season" games among themselves that can adjust seeding. The teams that were in the playin tourney play a few additional games among themselves or with top 12 teams to get all teams to 70 games. A format like this allows all 30 teams to come back to play for something, the NBA can get all teams to the 70 games needed for TV revenue, the top 12 teams are rewarded with automatic playoff berths. If a team like the warriors wins 4 straight single game elimination matches and a 3 games series I am fine with them being allowed into the playoffs. The covid pandemic is a one of a kind situation so it needs one of a kind playoff format.
I like it, but it ends up being a lot of crappy teams playing to begin with. I'm not sure the NBA wants to say "GET READY FOR THE RETURN OF THE NBA! NOW WATCH THE WOLVES VERSUS THE CAVS!"
Adam Silver really does have an impossible task. I can't help but think he's going to end up just going straight to playoffs, like the NHL.
The NBA could start with regular season games with some headlining teams that are needed just to get teams to 70 games. Honestly I believe any game restarting the season will get huge ratings just because its sports and everyone is stuck at home. Hell Korean baseball was getting good ratings in the USA. An NBA elimination game that determines those teams staying in the tournament or going fishing is much more exciting than Cavs vs Wolves in a meaningless regular season game where none of the starters travel to the bubble, the teams struggles to field a full lineup. Any game the warrior play or larger markets will get big ratings, we've never seen one game eliminations in the NBA before. The Knicks would have their first meaningful game in 7 years. If the NBA wants the highest stakes games from the get go they should start with an 8 or 16 team playoff immediately upon return. I'm assuming they want some games to iron out the bubble prior to the playoffs and they want all the TV revenue of getting 30 teams playing. Having 6 games or 7 games for each team would only take a few weeks, then the main 16 team playoffs would start.
The other problem with any single-elimination idea is that at least one team will go through an entire training camp, putting any number of people at risk, at great expense... for ONE game.
They would have to play at least 5 other games to get to 70, but they would be meaningless. Yes its a downside. Maybe they should play games to get to 70 prior to play in games... but then your talking about some team potentially playing 6 extra games than necessary. The NBA won't be able to structure this in a way that meets all teams, fan bases, players, owners desires without some major drawbacks. They will have to decide the most critical criteria to hit and structure the return accordingly.
Mark Cuban's idea is much better than this and is still the best idea I have seen. It gives teams who are in the hunt a reason to play, it fulfills TV deal obligations and it would be really really exciting. The teams that are completely out of it, which Cuban points out aren't many, would finish off the season just like they usually would, developing their young players, tanking and looking forward to the future. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...ts-play-tournament-final-2-seeds-nba-playoffs
