It gives the NBA hope to the play-in continuing in the future
Should the Phoenix Suns make the playoffs, the league’s play-in tournament idea worked. This is exactly what the NBA wanted when it integrated the idea. The league wanted to limit tanking and wanted to give teams not completely out of the playoff picture something to play for. That’s exactly what happened, and the Suns got red-hot.
Entering the restart bubble, not many gave the Suns a puncher’s chance at making the play-in tournament, much less the postseason as a whole. Not only did they have to go 8-0 or 7-1, at worst, but they also needed plenty of help from all the teams ahead of them in the standings.
When the eight seeding games started, the Suns were 13th in the Western Conference and six games back of the 8th seed. With a few more days remaining before the playoffs, the Suns are tied for the 9th seed and a half-game out of the final playoff spot.
The Suns need to win their final seeding game and need a loss from either the Grizzlies or Trail Blazers to make the play-in tournament. The hottest team in the NBA has a fair shot at throwing a wrench in the West’s playoff picture. The new NBA format for fighting for the final playoff seed worked, at least in the Western Conference. Maybe the league has fallen upon something that could be built on moving forward.