Exploring how an NBA Playoffs play-in tournament would be formatted, who would be included, and three teams that would benefit from the format.
While there have been some encouraging talks, reportedly, about the possibility of resuming the 2019-20 NBA season, in some capacity, there’s still a high likelihood that it won’t return as it left off.
Even if the season does resume, the last few games of the regular season likely won’t be played. Instead, we could see something like an NBA Playoffs play-in tournament to give teams that were in the running for the last playoff spots in each conference and opportunity to earn a berth.
It’s difficult to pinpoint how that might exactly look, but it’s certainly something that we can plausibly map out. Looking at the Western Conference, there were essentially six teams vying for the final playoff spot (counting the Phoenix Suns, who were six games back). The other five teams – Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans, Portland Trail Blazers, San Antonio Spurs, and Sacramento Kings – were four games within each other in the standings.
In the Eastern Conference, it gets a bit more difficult. When the NBA’s hiatus was implemented, the ninth seed was 5.5 games back of the eighth seed. Does that mean a play-in tournament is not needed? To make it fair, will the NBA force a play-in tournament for the bottom two seeds in the East (separated by half a game)?
Just for the sake of argument, let’s just assume that they would mirror the Western Conference. Just to make every team on equal grounds. That means we could pencil in six teams in the play-in tournament.
Based on the standings as-is, in the Western Conference, the six-team tournament would be outlined as follows:
- The top two seeds would get a first-round bye.
- There would be reseeding after the first round.
- There will be one playoff spot up for grabs.
The seeding would be as follows:
- Memphis Grizzlies*
- Portland Trail Blazers*
- New Orleans Pelicans
- Sacramento Kings
- San Antonio Spurs
- Phoenix Suns
As for the Eastern Conference, the six-team tournament would be outlined as follows:
- The top two seeds would get a first-round bye.
- There would be reseeding after the first round.
- There will be two playoff spots up for grabs (teams that meet in the championship game both earn a playoff both, winner would get the higher seed).
The seeding would be as follows:
- Brooklyn Nets*
- Orlando Magic*
- Washington Wizards
- Charlotte Hornets
- Chicago Bulls
- New York Knicks
With the assumption that this is how an NBA Playoffs play-in tournament would work and be structured, let’s take a look at three teams that would benefit from it.