The NBA continues to inch closer to a restart at Walt Disney World
Over the past week, there have been encouraging signs that suggest the NBA is planning on the resumption of the 2019-20 season. Over the past few days, there’s been a clear indication that if the NBA season does resume, it will in Orlando on Walt Disney World owned property.
However, for the most part, much of that had been whispers and general rumors. Now, though, the traction of restarting the NBA season in Orlando is actually gaining a bit of tangibility.
The NBA has now released a statement saying they’ve entered “exploratory” talks about restarting the season on Disney property.
NBA statement on possible resumption of play in late July, with all games at Disney: pic.twitter.com/oaQuL82xBZ
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) May 23, 2020
How would a resumption of the NBA season work?
And this is a big question. Assuming that The Disney Company and the NBA could theoretically create a safe “bubble,” how would the logistics of the resumption of the season work? That, in itself, is an entirely difficult variable to tackle.
For one, what will Adam Silver and the rest of the league decide to do about the remainder of the regular season games? Most teams played between 62-65 games before the hiatus was implemented. Will they play out any of those? Perhaps to get to 70 to hit the rumored magic number when it comes to unlocking the local TV money?
Or will they bypass that and just jump straight to the playoffs? Will there be an NBA Playoffs play-in tournament for the bottom few seeds of both conferences? Will there be one big play-in tournament for the entire NBA?
NBA surveyed GMs on several formats to restart the season:
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 23, 2020
- 16 teams directly to playoffs
- “Playoffs Plus” (play-in or group stage)
- All 30 teams — or all 30 teams with play-in tournament
Full story on @TheAthleticNBA: https://t.co/knIzZjGaFY
Will the playoffs be limited in any way? Will they be full best-of-seven series or will the first two rounds be best-of-five or even best-of-three to try and limit the possible danger of being in a “safe bubble” for too long.
What if a positive test emerges? Does that mean the end of the playoffs?
There are so many questions that the NBA and its board need to sort out. At least for the fans, the good news is that the NBA appears to be gearing towards a return. The logistics still need ironing out, but it’s looking like the NBA is going to try and get the idea of resuming the 2019-20 season at Walt Disney World off the ground.