What happens if/when the season resumes?

[DaVoiceMaster]

I have a number of questions if/when the season resumes:

1. It mentions training camp in June and season play in July so what does that mean for the offseason and the start of next season?

2. Will all teams play or will they go directly to a playoff format?

3. What happens if a player does not feel safe and does not wish to play?

4. If the games are held in Orlando, will all games be televised on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, etc.?

5. How can the league afford to play with no fans in the stadium?

There are so many other questions. Feel free to throw them out here and toss in some responses, as well.

[Village Idiot]

1. It would probably mean a delayed start to the 2020-21 regular season. Personally I think that might be advantageous anyways since so much focus is on football during the fall and early winter anyways. Permanently starting the regular season on December 1 would make sense to me.

2. I can't see any reason to play any more regular season games to be honest. In the East, Washington is 5.5 games behind Orlando for the 8th seed and in the West we are 3.5 games behind Memphis for 8th. I've heard 70 games mentioned as the number of regular season games that might happen but since we've played 66 games already any games played will only impact some potential minor changes in playoff seeding or draft standings. The only reason I can see is to even out the fact that some teams have played three more games than others.

If we end up playing I imagine Nurkic and Collins will be back. It would be fun to see our entire squad (sans Hood) for at least a couple of games

3. Ingles is a good example of this. He's said pretty clearly he isn't playing.

[JasonStern]

If they shorten the season to 70 games, then what's the point? That's 4 games. Blazers would need to win all 4 and have Memphis lose all 5 to make the playoffs. Wizards can't catch Orlando in the east. Might as well just skip straight to the playoffs.

[zzaj]

The thing I get curious about is in season bonuses, similar to what Harkless had a few years ago. Do player contracts have this type of lockout accounted for? Can a player reasonably sue the NBA for monies they never had an opportunity to earn? What is the players association role in all of that?

If we leave percentage of salary out of it:

Say you sign a contract with an employer for 10K, but part of the contract is that if you get the work done in less than 5 days you get a bonus of 1M. 4 days into the job your employer decides that you can't come into work indefinitely...you're out a lot of money, and at least some aspect of the agreement was a good faith opportunity to reach that bonus--otherwise you may have not signed the contract.

Anyway, it's untested waters for sports and folks in lots of different industries. My industry, which is Music will likely not have any work for at least another year. Probably more like nothing until 2021.

[Norm2953]

The league is thinking about a 1 game play in game for the teams 7-15 . That might help a team like the
GSW who I wonder if they got Klay and Steph back but one would think a team like the Jazz might be
really dangerous since Gobert and Mitchell have already recovered from the virus.

I personally would cancel the season for there is a real chance a lesser team can win a championship
if the star players had to self quarantine, causing their team to lose.

[HoopsFanAZ]

Deleted.

[DaVoiceMaster]

I can't see why any organization would want to do all of the preparation for one game. Maybe all teams play 10 games or something, then go into the playoff. Maybe seeding is based on those 10 teams?

[HoopsFanAZ]

Deleted.

[dunlop212]

If PDX had a playin game with a healthy Nurk and Collins, who wouldn't want to watch that?

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Selfishly I don't want to jump right back into the playoffs because I want some more Blazer games, especially to see Nurkic and Collins healthy and give us a shot at the playoffs still.

I can see playoff teams also wanting a few games to get back up to speed. Its like we have had a mini summer (so maybe we don't need a full off-season?) but players also haven't had access to the same training resources they would over summer, so they are going to be rusty. Actually jumping back into fully competitive late-season push might be a cause for injury so it may make sense to have a mini-preseason, just a couple meaningless half-speed exhibition games.

But I realize timing is an issue with all that, heck we might not even be able to do a full playoff format. No matter what I think whoever wins this year will always have an asterisk next to their name, so it might be a good chance to experiment with some things. I have always wanted to see a best of 16 playoff format and with a neutral location it makes a little more sense since travel is one of the big concerns about that, but I'm really not expecting that.

Anyways clearly summer is getting pushed back, so the offseason will really be more in the fall. We probably don't need a full offseason, but people have long advocated moving the season back and this is another opportunity to give that a shot.

Who knows tho, if this second wave happens (early signs are looking good so fingers crossed) we might all go back to square one.

[d-train]

There is only 2 options that make sense to me. Either they go right to playoffs or they resume the regular season and finish the whole thing. I believe a 3rd option of finishing a modified regular season is a complete changing of the rules in the middle of the game. My choice is finishing the regular season, but going right to playoffs is certainly acceptable given that all but 1 playoff team (8th seed in the west) is already determined. It sucks for Blazers because we are in that contest for the 8th seed and currently out of it. Even if we resume the regular season, Blazers will lose a favorable home court advantage.

If a player doesn't want to play, they should be able to give back their paycheck for missed games and their team should have option of canceling their remaining contract and replacing player with disabled player exception. You can allow players to insert a benefit into their contract without giving teams a benefit as well. Giving players the option to opt out of games because of fear of China virus is a benefit.

[d-train]

Supposedly, this is being discussed:

"a "playoffs plus" option that includes a play-in tournament for the final seed(s)"

This would be good for Blazers.

[Village Idiot]

I see the NHL is leaning towards a 24 team playoff format. That would make a lot of sense for the NBA as well. If the top 8 teams were to get a first round bye that would be:

East:

1. Milwaukee
2. Toronto
3. Boston
4. Miami
-------------------------------------
P1: 5. Indiana vs. 12 New York
P2: 6. Philadelphia vs. 11. Chicago
P3: 7. Brooklyn vs 10 Charlotte
P4: 8. Orlando vs. 9 Washington

West:

1. Lakers
2. Clippers
3. Nuggets
4. Utah

-------------------------------
P5: 5 OKC vs 12 San Antonio
P6: 6 Houston vs. 11 Sacramento
P7: 7 Dallas vs. 10 New Orleans
P8: 8 Memphis vs 9 Portland

That would be a great for generating interest. That way you get both New York teams, Chicago, Washington and Zion in the playoffs.

One cool twist they could add would be to let the #1 seed choose which first round winner they want to play and so on. That could make for a lot of fun speculation and generate hype.

[dunlop212]

Nobody put an asterisk on Miami's 2012 title.

[Village Idiot]

Confirmation from Jason Quick that Nurkic and Collins are ready to play

Perhaps no team is hoping for the resumption of the 2019-20 NBA season more than the Trail Blazers.

If the season resumes — and there are indications that is becoming more of a possibility — the Blazers expect two major additions to their roster: a healthy Jusuf Nurkic at center and a healthy Zach Collins at power forward.

“A big help,” guard CJ McCollum understated.

And here’s the kicker: Perhaps no scenario is better for the big-man duo to return than this — after the entire league has been separated from the game for more than two months.

“The blessing in disguise is when we come back, there’s going to be a time frame when everybody is rusty,” Collins told The Athletic this month. “For me, I have to let myself know that it’s going to take a minute for me to get my rhythm back, but that’s going to be the same thing for everyone. There’s going to be a process where...

[DeBlazerRiddem]

The "top 20 teams" suggestion for the first round is interesting. Portland could end up punching well above our weight if everyone else is also rusty but we have Collins and Nurkic back.

[kuclas]

I see the NHL is leaning towards a 24 team playoff format. That would make a lot of sense for the NBA as well. If the top 8 teams were to get a first round bye that would be:

East:

1. Milwaukee
2. Toronto
3. Boston
4. Miami
-------------------------------------
P1: 5. Indiana vs. 12 New York
P2: 6. Philadelphia vs. 11. Chicago
P3: 7. Brooklyn vs 10 Charlotte
P4: 8. Orlando vs. 9 Washington

West:

1. Lakers
2. Clippers
3. Nuggets
4. Utah

-------------------------------
P5: 5 OKC vs 12 San Antonio
P6: 6 Houston vs. 11 Sacramento
P7: 7 Dallas vs. 10 New Orleans
P8: 8 Memphis vs 9 Portland

That would be a great for generating interest. That way you get both New York teams, Chicago, Washington and Zion in the playoffs.

One cool twist they could add would be to let the #1 seed choose which first round winner they want to play and so on. That could make for a lot of fun speculation and generate hype.

I think the teams playing in would be at huge advantage over the teams with byes especially neutral territory. They would have more competitive games under their belts. More legs under them. Can u imagine Houston playing with 4/5 games under their belt in a best out of 5 first round. Than facing Denver in the next round. Denver could be down 3-0 by the time they get their legs under them.

[Norm2953]

I've been thinking all along Utah has a big edge in a league restart for Mitchell and Gobert have already
tested positive and recovered. All the other teams run the risk of their star players going down if they
test positive.

[Village Idiot]

I've been thinking all along Utah has a big edge in a league restart for Mitchell and Gobert have already
tested positive and recovered. All the other teams run the risk of their star players going down if they
test positive.

but they have lost Bogdanovic to injury and Ingles has stated he won't play.

[dunlop212]

I don't think that there will be a format that does not have Zion Williamson playing meaningful games. So teams like Portland that are above the "Zion line" are in.