The NBA could look very, very different in a couple years. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe, the league is “engaged in serious discussions with the National Basketball Players Association and broadcast partners on sweeping, dramatic changes to the league calendar.”
Proposals would lower regular season to a minimum of 78 games. Discussions are progressing with hope of bringing a vote to an April meeting of Board of Governors that would introduce some, if not all, of these proposals into the NBA’s 75th anniversary season of 2021-2022. https://t.co/TLwQ8yYMUk
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 23, 2019
Those changes reportedly include an in-season cup tournament, reseeding of the conference finalists, and a postseason play-in tournament. Also on the table is a shortening of the regular season from 82 games to 78.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver first floated the idea of a European soccer-style midseason tournament earlier in 2019. He proposed a tournament that would begin in late January and culminate with a final four during All-Star weekend. According to Woj, that idea quickly died due to concerns from the NBPA and team executives about players having a shorter All-Star break and potentially having to participate in both the tournament and All-Star weekend events.
There were also concerns about roster turnover close to the trade deadline affecting the proposed tournament, as well as competing with the NFL playoffs in January.
However, the league and players are now finding common ground on a post-Thanksgiving tournament that would run until mid-December, according to Woj.
The postseason play-in tournament would consist of two four-team tournaments, one for each conference, that feature the seventh-10th seeds. The seventh seed would host the eighth, with the winner claiming the seventh spot in the playoffs. The loser would then face the winner of the ninth vs 10th seed for the final playoff spot.
The other change discussed by Woj and Lowe was a reseeding of the conference finals based on regular season record. It could set the stage for teams from the same conference potentially facing each other in the Finals, similar to how the WNBA has recently formatted their playoffs.
While it would still take a while for these proposed changes to be voted on, much less take effect, Woj and Lowe reported that “serious traction is emerging for dramatic change for the future of the NBA.”
