NBA idea No. 4: Season picks up at the start of the playoffs
The good: As of now, all predicted playoff participants in their respective conference standings have been decided since the start of March. Surprise teams like OKC and Memphis have deservedly punched their ticket into the dance by a surprising margin out West.
In the East, while the playoff pool cools down after the sixth seed, they’re no other playoff participants that’ll usurp the underwhelming Nets, and Magic. The playoff pool has been established, and the justifiable thing to do is to pick up during the heat of playoff play where the participants can decide their postseason fate as soon as possible.
The bad: There will be no assimilating factor for the various teams in the playoffs to prep for postseason play. The regular season that had served of that hasn’t been played in a full month, and training camp can’t drive the body and mind into gradual playoff mode as a season does.
No in-season play to prep players for the regular season can have them face even more lulls during the playoffs in a potentially revised format. A best-of-five series could be an option in the early playoff rounds which could put a team within an 0-2 series hole because of mental fatigue behind an eight ball they won’t ever pass.