Piece By: Maxwell Runde
The 2019-2020 NBA season was an unusual one for sure. Everything was normal and operating smoothly up until the infamous day that will stand out in American sports history forever, March 11th, 2020.
Rudy Gobert sparked the widespread cancellation and suspension of North American sports due to Covid-19, thus cutting the NBA season drastically short and leaving people unsure of what the remainder of the season would look like. Finally, after a long shutdown, the NBA decided to reopen in a bubble with twenty teams being invited to finish a minimal ten final regular season games to determine playoff seeding. However, apart of the new format was the introduction of a play-in tournament between teams ranked #7 through #10. This was a new, intriguing idea that seemed to be the only solution for that season.
When league officials and the players association planned out the 2020-2021 NBA season, it appeared the season would be much more normal, with minor changes to the start date and a reduction of ten games on team’s schedules. However, another aspect included for this season’s format was keeping the play-in tournament round, which saw immense feedback, both for and against it. Specifically, the one player who has more control over the NBA’s popularity, the man who when he speaks, everybody listens, and the legend whose utter dominance has lasted for almost two full decades now…
LeBron James has had some contradicting opinions on the subject. In the previous year when the bubble’s arrangements had been announced, LeBron said, “You got Portland. You got Memphis… New Orleans… so if there is five or ten games left… why not those guys battle it out?” His support for creating an interesting way for teams to fight for their spot in the playoffs, despite the shortened season, quickly changed when his team entered the chat. After sitting out 20+ plus games and his Lakers struggling to stay afloat during that time, LeBron returned to action on April 30th and saw yet another disappointing result as they fell to the significantly inferior Sacramento Kings.
Consequently, the Lakers had fallen deep into the standings and are now in danger of crashing all the way into this play-in tournament, which did not excite LeBron, so much so that he even said, “Whoever came up with that s*** needs to be fired.” So, in light of LeBron’s flip-flop hypocrisy, I wanted to address the pros and cons of this format for this season and my thoughts on the NBA’s inclusion of it.
The Pros
The majority of the positives for this concept come from the business side of the NBA and their hopes to keep fan interest throughout the entirety of the NBA season, and not just the playoffs. In recent years, the NBA has suggested numerous outlets for them to create a more competitive and important regular season. A popular rumor that swirled around the league for a while was introducing a mid-season tournament between teams.
However, this bold solution never really made any progress, but this proposition led to the bubble’s inclusion of the play-in tourney which saw enough success for the league to continue it onto this season. Increasing the regular season’s importance is a big issue for front office officials, as too many teams fall into the category of either being so good that they can rest players for the playoffs or they are so bad that they want to tank for better lottery odds. So, as a way to reduce this division, as well as integrating a forum for the end of the season to matter more, and even to stint the amount of rest star players receive, the league thought this plan would accomplish these goals and increase fan interest throughout the entirety of the regular season.
A second argument for the play-in tournament that has some solid counterarguments is that round will provide all teams a fighting chance of not just reaching the playoffs, but maybe even making deep runs in it. Team’s success in the regular season can frequently be hindered by numerous factors such as injury, suspension, or rough starts to the season. In an attempt to accommodate for these “unfair” situations (not really unfair since everyone experiences injuries and such), the NBA believes a play-in style can provide leeway for these teams to prove their worthiness and skill in a sudden-death format that adds tremendous pressure and significance to games. However, this claim can easily be argued in opposition, so check the cons below to see how.
A great example for this third point would be the Phoenix Suns undefeated record while in the bubble. Despite them still missing the playoffs, this team showed how teams can get really hot at the end of the regular season and just barely make it into the play-in round. Once there, the team’s streak could continue and push them into the playoffs where they can face a conference powerhouse that generally dominates the first round. So, the NBA thinks by having this round, a hot team that typically would stand no chance against their conference leaders could overcome their odds and create a much more competitive, fair matchup. Therefore, the first round of the playoffs, which some consider to be irrelevant due to the negligible amount of big upsets, can become much more exciting for fans.
The Cons
Whereas the negative connotations associated with the play-in tournament reside mostly within the fairness of it for all teams. Just as the tournament provides all teams a fair chance of making the playoffs regardless of the outside variables, it also discredits the higher seed’s work to put themselves in their positions. Furthermore, this round would allow worser teams that have a significantly poorer resume to advance past the team the rightfully deserved the #7 or #8 seed. For example, as it sits today, the Celtics are 4 games up on the Washington Wizards, but, despite this distinct discrepancy, the Wizards, assuming they beat the #9 seed and that the Celtics lose to the #8 seed, are given an opportunity to dismay the Celtics’ entire season of work and boot them from the playoffs entirely.
A continuation on the previous point is that this expansion can allow for really bad teams to make the tourney. As it sits right now, three teams below .500 would make the play-in round, with at least one being guaranteed a spot. This playoff expansion really downplays the importance of the regular season yet again by accepting two-thirds of the league into the postseason. In doing so, the actual impressiveness of making the postseason gets diminished because of the reduced difficulty of making it since the majority of teams will do so.
Lastly, a big question that sticks out for me is whether or not the minor ten game reduction warrants a play-in tournament. Last season, the tourney was launched to accommodate for the big cut on the season, whereas this year is nearly a full schedule and could even become the new norm for NBA seasons as more and more people are arguing to cut regular season games. Before, it seemed almost necessary to have the tourney because it was the only conceivable option to make this horror-show year resemble a normal season. Teams needed the chance to end their seasons strong and push themselves into the playoffs, but, for this season, it seems to me that there has been plenty of enough time to make that run and overcome whatever issues your team faced early on.
My Thoughts:
I think the play-in style is a very interesting one that could really work well in accomplishing the NBA’s intentions of maintaining fan’s interest, but I think there should be some modifications to curb the unfair nature it carries. The first and foremost alteration that needs to be made is a limit on how many games back the #9 and #10 seeds can be to still qualify for the tourney.
It would be absolutely ridiculous to see a team 5+ games back and have them upset the clear better squad in the single elimination setup they currently use (unless you’re a #7 or #8 seed). Additionally, as much as this suggestion would not happen due to it expanding the season’s length when the NBA is pushing to minimize it, each matchup should be at least a best of three.
I am a firm believer and advocate for the MLB’s wild card single elimination; however, in the NBA, it just doesn’t sit well with me knowing a team can simply not have the ball fall that night and have their entire season just wasted. I understand this is no different than a baseball team not being able to get on base, but that would be a credit towards the opposing pitching staff, while sometimes in basketball, shots and rims are just not in your favor.
Overall, I currently dislike the format, but I think if the season is shortened and possibly the league is expanded at some point, then a play-in tourney with some of my suggestions could add the electricity and fan interest that the wild card round has provided baseball.
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