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The NBA is increasingly likely to have a play-in tournament for the final seeds of the Eastern and Western Conference playoffs. The concept is designed to incentivize more teams to pursue a playoff berth and to also create more lucrative revenue streams.

A four-team tournament between the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth seeds for the final two playoff spots in each conference is considered the most likely scenario.

The tournament would begin with No. 7 hosting No. 8, and the winner locking into the No. 7 spot. Meanwhile, No. 9 would face No. 10, with the winner advancing to play the loser of the 7-versus-8 matchup for the No. 8 seed.

The No. 7 and No. 8 seed would therefore have two opportunities to win a game to advance to the playoffs.

The discussions about the play-in tournament have so far not included a standings trigger.

Via Adrian Wojnarowski, Zach Lowe/ESPN

I would think they would want the two best, so why not 7-10, 8-9, or 7-9, 8-10? That way you can get the two best instead of maybe 8 and 10

alphatron10 wrote:I would think they would want the two best, so why not 7-10, 8-9, or 7-9, 8-10? That way you can get the two best instead of maybe 8 and 10

Overall season record has to be worth something.

Play in tournament is fine if it's only 4 teams. That's only 4 days. They are very tight on time this year, as they have been told by the TV execs to have the Finals done before the Olympics start in mid July.

Just do the 1-16 seeding, like the NCAA and that way the best teams can play each other in the Finals.

More "playoff" games for more money.

Adam Silver is ruining the NBA

Batsy wrote:Just do the 1-16 seeding, like the NCAA and that way the best teams can play each other in the Finals.

For the umpteenth time, travel would be an issue.

So they're gonna exhaust the teams as much as possible before round 1 so it's a worse series.. great

I don't like this idea. Whoever gets in will lose in the first round anyway.

How does this improve NBA as a product other than a quick money grab?

No intrigue involved whatsoever as these teams are just playing for the right to lose in first round to #1 or #2 seed.

Basketball is a sport with least chances of upset in those #1 vs #8 or #2 vs #7 matchups in a 7-game series so what is the point? People will know what is up and won't really care either way.

So #7 seed loses in this play-in tournament, then what? They get to go into lottery? As a fan of #7 seed team, if the draft looks like a 2003 draft with a LeBron James, wouldn't I want my team to lose the tournament for a chance at a high pick given that they stacked the odds against worse teams?

Just get rid of east vs west non sense, best 16 records egardless of location get into the playoffs.

This is a gimmick for additional high rating games and it further devalues the regular season. Now winning the 8th or 7th regular season spot doesn't get you a playoff berth, it gets you to play-in that makes your 82 game season come down to 1 or 2 games and has you continuing to burn energy while your future playoff opponent (should you win the play-in) will come into the series with a nice rest edge. And everyone knows the play-in is virtually irrelevant to the championship, since no 7th or 8th seed team has ever won the title.

There are some leagues in the world that have a system where the top 4 teams from the regular season get into the quarterfinals directly while teams from 5th to 12th position play additional round and the winners play the top four teams. NBA wants to make money out of these games, we can assume that this is going to happen for a reason that teams from outside of the top 8 don't start to tank too early.

Chi Dynasty12 wrote:So they're gonna exhaust the teams as much as possible before round 1 so it's a worse series.. great

The 7th or 8th seed will have played one or 2 extra games. Thats nothing for a team most likely to exit the first round

rand wrote:This is a gimmick for additional high rating games and it further devalues the regular season. Now winning the 8th or 7th regular season spot doesn't get you a playoff berth, it gets you to play-in that makes your 82 game season come down to 1 or 2 games and has you continuing to burn energy while your future playoff opponent (should you win the play-in) will come into the series with a nice rest edge. And everyone knows the play-in is virtually irrelevant to the championship, since no 7th or 8th seed team has ever won the title.

Or it increases the value of the regular season as most teams its good for them financially to make the playoffs. With more teams in the mix youll have less teams throwing in the towel early. Now the 9th, 10th and maybe 11th have reason to improve their standings

I just don't see the point. Seems like a waste of time. Imagine spending the whole season busting your behind for the 7th seed, then get injured in a play-in game and lose your spot. I don't think they thought this through. Playoff seeding is, and always should be EARNED in the the regular season.

Nites wrote:I just don't see the point. Seems like a waste of time. Imagine spending the whole season busting your behind for the 7th seed, then get injured in a play-in game and lose your spot. I don't think they thought this through. Playoff seeding is, always should be EARNED in the the regular season.

The 8th can be a bit random or competitive. But the 7th seed takes some work and can be close to a 4 or 4 seed some years in the west. It will just make the reg season even less meaningful if there's no point fighting for it.

As I understand it, the positives are to help alleviate the tanking and make more money. The negatives are the 7th or 8th team who fought so hard during the season for their spot, one could be eliminated. Also, the teams would've played one or two extra games before the real playoffs start so they could be more tired or injured. Tanking teams and their fans are gonna tank no matter what. I doubt giving one a chance to get into the playoffs will make it any better.

Not that they are asking me.... but I think if they have a play-in, it should just be for the 8th seed. It's bad enough we have 8th seeds with losing records. We don't need to be rewarding some 10th seed that only won 35 games all year.