NBA: The pros and cons of 4 potential league resumption of play ideas

NBA idea No. 1: The 30-team playoff play-in

The good: The public is itching for basketball to come back in some capacity, and a 30-team play-in tournament would provide a level of uniqueness and excitement for every team’s fanbase. The tournament’s “March Madness” feel of sudden-death postseason play could aid a new wrinkle in a dark time for the sport.

The games can be conducted in a swifter manner with seven-game series seeming to be more of a current time-consuming compromise while an eventual victor will fully capture the ultimate grit-and-grind of being a champion during a pandemic. All organizations will get a source of playoff revenue for their participation, and the public gets a postseason wrinkle that will further grasp their attention.

The bad: Fourteen of the 30 teams that’ll be involved would have been non-playoff participants within the normal format. This would make the aspect of sudden-death postseason play seem criminal against the league’s most consistent teams this season. Imagine the Lakers or Bucks succumbing to the Knicks in this year’s play-in transaction preventing the league’s best team’s from pursuing a championship.

Not the most ideal final chapter to their season. While this idea would be revolutionary in the NBA history books, the side effects of rewarding everyone at the eventual expense of denying the hard-working deserver would seem to be the eventual nail in the coffin for this idea.