What should the NBA do with the rest of the season? 70 games, 82 games, start playoffs, cancel season?

[dohboy_24]

Not to mention it would just give borderline playoffs teams the top picks and the actual bad teams who could use a top pick would end up at pick #13,14

Current = Reverse order by record. Highest lottery chances to teams with the worst records.

Proposed = Projected outcome of tournament.

If this were the outcome, compared to a 1-4 draft order (which I don't think has ever happened by the way), Portland, New Orleans and San Antonio would benefit the most, but none of the other teams would drop more than 3 spots from their current position.

Under the proposed tournament, the final draft position for each of the teams does not drop more than 3 spots.

Given the current lottery odds, the probability a team like Atlanta will get the #6 pick is 25.7% and the probability they'll get the #1 or #2 pick is 12.5% and 12.2% respectively. Compared to the probability they will stay at the #4 spot (11.5%), it is twice as likely for Atlanta to end up with a pick that 2 spots below their record than for them to stay still or improve.

http://www.tankathon.com/pick_odds

Otherwise, they could drop as many as 3 spots lower than their record should they lose their tournament game with a win against Washington ensuring the Wizards could not leapfrog them to get one of the top 4 picks.

Under the proposed tournament, they, and all other teams, need to win 2 games to guarantee one of the top 4 picks. Even at 50/50 odds for each game, that gives every team a 25% chance to get one of the top 4 picks regardless of seeding.

As a player, GM/owner, the NBA or whomever else, you can position such a tournament as an even playing field that gives all of the teams who missed the playoffs the same 25% chance to earn one of the top 4 picks.

Along with the extra TV, advertising revenue, etc. from the 14 game tournament, especially if it were to permanently replace the current draft lottery system, fans, players, owners, and the NBA all stand to gain from such a change.

[12footrim]

I think they should go straight to the playoffs. A guy like Giannis was having a historic regular season, and personally I think if they play even 5 more games that could potentially tank the specialness of some of these guys seasons. I'd rather keep the seasons intact as they were and just have the playoffs as it's own separate thing.

I think that's the fairest way as well. Just role with the 8 teams from each league that were already in when the regular season had to be stopped and play it like it was going to be played. That insulates them best from all this astrek crap as well IMO. You start changing the format and you open yourself up to more of that talk and weird upsets.

[TheSheriff]

Go straight to the playoffs. I don’t see the point and playing out 4 to 6 games, and there is no way to cram in the full 82 and full playoffs.

The 8th seed in each conference has a decent lead, so I don’t mind them getting in, even though the grizzlies likely would have been caught by someone in an 82 game season.

[Benedict_Boozer]

I think a few warmup games would be good for the teams, so I would try to squeeze in some regular season games to ramp it up for the playoffs. I'd switch the first round to a 5 game series, leave everything else as is.

[starbosa10]

Not to mention it would just give borderline playoffs teams the top picks and the actual bad teams who could use a top pick would end up at pick #13,14

Current = Reverse order by record. Highest lottery chances to teams with the worst records.

Proposed = Projected outcome of tournament.

If this were the outcome, compared to a 1-4 draft order (which I don't think has ever happened by the way), Portland, New Orleans and San Antonio would benefit the most, but none of the other teams would drop more than 3 spots from their current position.

Under the proposed tournament, the final draft position for each of the teams does not drop more than 3 spots.

Given the current lottery odds, the probability a team like Atlanta will get the #6 pick is 25.7% and the probability they'll get the #1 or #2 pick is 12.5% and 12.2% respectively. Compared to the probability they will stay at the #4 spot (11.5%), it is twice as likely for Atlanta to end up with a pick that 2 spots below their record than for them to stay still or improve.

http://www.tankathon.com/pick_odds

Otherwise, they could drop as many as 3 spots lower than their record should they lose their tournament game with a win against Washington ensuring the Wizards could not leapfrog them to get one of the top 4 picks.

Under the proposed tournament, they, and all other teams, need to win 2 games to guarantee one of the top 4 picks. Even at 50/50 odds for each game, that gives every team a 25% chance to get one of the top 4 picks regardless of seeding.

As a player, GM/owner, the NBA or whomever else, you can position such a tournament as an even playing field that gives all of the teams who missed the playoffs the same 25% chance to earn one of the top 4 picks.

Along with the extra TV, advertising revenue, etc. from the 14 game tournament, especially if it were to permanently replace the current draft lottery system, fans, players, owners, and the NBA all stand to gain from such a change.

So like I said 3 borderline playoff teams get rewarded with top picks. Most of the games won't be 50/50 odds so the same 25% chance premise falls apart. That's assuming all the teams are equally skilled which they are not. Outside of GS, all the the teams at the bottom are there because they're bad teams. Also as someone previously mentioned there is no incentive for players to come back for 6 weeks of training camp, isolate in Orlando, and risk injury to try to get their team a higher pick

[dohboy_24]

So like I said 3 borderline playoff teams get rewarded with top picks. Most of the games won't be 50/50 odds so the same 25% chance premise falls apart. That's assuming all the teams are equally skilled which they are not. Outside of GS, all the the teams at the bottom are there because they're bad teams.

https://www.sportsbookreviewsonline.com/scoresoddsarchives/nba/nbaoddsarchives.htm

If you look at the vegas odds for all games between the 14 teams that aren't in the playoffs right now, most of them are 60/40 split at most and the average is closer to 55/45 or 50/50 so even the Vegas odds makers have thought these teams are a pick 'em throughout the season thus far.

Even the past and current NBA Finals Odds for these 14 teams are similar aside from the Western conference teams (Portland, New Orleans, Sacramento, San Antonio) who all have a chance to earn a single playoff spot.

https://www.sportsoddshistory.com/nba-main/?y=2019-2020&sa=nba&a=finals&o=r
https://www.sportsoddshistory.com/nba-odds/live-nba-finals-odds/

It's not like all of those teams are going to unseat Memphis or Orlando... only 1, maybe 2, of them will at maximum and it's really just shuffling chairs on the deck of the Titanic - all of them have horrible records.

Put any of these teams up against Milwaukee, Toronto, Boston, Miami, Indiana, Philadelphia, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Denver, Utah, OKC, Houston, Dallas and they lose 8 times out of 10.

Regular season is done. No need to drag the season on longer.

All of these teams have lost more than 50% of their games, have not done enough at this point to earn a playoff spot, and shouldn't be given a chance to unseat those teams with better records.

It's bad enough Brooklyn, Orlando, and Memphis are getting into the playoffs without winning at least 50% of their games.

Even if the NBA were to extend the regular season for the proposed 22 teams (16 playoff + Portland, New Orleans, Sacramento, San Antonio, Phoenix, Washington) and one of those teams earns a spot in the playoffs ahead of Brooklyn, Orlando, or Memphis, we're still going to have 3 teams in the playoffs this year with sub-500 records.

The top tier teams are just that much better than the bottom tier.

Without the bottom 8 teams to play against to earn some W's throughout the rest of the regular season, the 6 bubble playoff teams + Brooklyn, Orlando, Memphis are going to be playing against more competitive teams during whatever remaining games of the season the NBA decides to play.

As a result, which team gets the #7, #8 pick in the east or the #8 pick in the west is going to come down to who can win the games against other sub-500 teams.

Those are going to be the make or break games that will decide which of these 9 teams (Portland, New Orleans, Sacramento, San Antonio, Phoenix, Washington, Brooklyn, Orlando, or Memphis) are going to secure those 3 playoff spots.

All the effort to earn a playoff spot and a first round exit when you play one of those top tier teams in the playoffs.

I'm sorry if you're a fan of Portland, New Orleans, Sacramento, San Antonio, Phoenix, Washington, Brooklyn, Orlando, or Memphis, but your chances of anything more than a first round exit in the playoffs are slim to none.

Also as someone previously mentioned there is no incentive for players to come back for 6 weeks of training camp, isolate in Orlando, and risk injury to try to get their team a higher pick

The incentive is their paycheck and additional incentives could be given for team and individual performance during the tournament to reward players for their participation, but a borderline playoff team could benefit more with the #1-#4 pick in trade or the player they acquire than being a first round exit from the playoffs.

Whether it's the players, GM/owner, fans, or anyone else involved, if you're Portland, New Orleans, Sacramento, San Antonio, Phoenix, Washington, Brooklyn, Orlando, or Memphis, you'd be better off, next season and long-term, being part of a playoffs/tournament to decide who gets one of the top 4 picks in the draft than playing a bunch of extra games to decide a maximum of 2-3 playoff spots that will likely only change the situation for 1-2 teams.

With the players risking injuries to play these games, especially those already in the playoffs not at risk to lose their playoff spot, why should they risk their health, their chances to win a title, etc. for these 9 teams to have an opportunity to change 3 of the 16 playoff spots?