NBA could keep play-in tournament for 2021
Because of a global pandemic, that caused roughly a four-month hiatus, the NBA was forced to experiment. While the biggest part of that consisted of a bubble, which was successful, another interesting twist that the NBA added was a play-in tournament for the final playoff spot in each conference.
While it wasn’t necessary for the Eastern Conference, it was quite the experiment in the Western Conference in which the Portland Trail Blazers came from behind to knock the Memphis Grizzlies out of the postseason.
It was such a hit that it’s something the NBA will look to carry into the 2020-21 season. Perhaps it won’t be exactly the same in 2021, but it would make sense for the league to carry it into 2021 in some form or fashion.
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For one, it keeps more teams alive and playing for something substantial – even if they are four games back of the final playoff spot. In the 2020 restart, if the ninth seed was four games (or fewer), they would play a best-of-three tournament with the eighth seed for the final playoff spot (the eighth seed would only need to win once, while the ninth seeding having to win twice).
The tournament, along with getting hot during the final few games leading up to the play-in, helped the Blazers unseat the Grizzlies for the final playoff spot.
If the NBA can carry that sort of excitement into the final couple of weeks of the regular season, you can’t help but think it will at least add some entertainment to the end of the regular season.
Of course, it might be structured a bit differently and perhaps expanded at some point (who knows what that would mean for 2021). While there were many aspects of the restart bubble that were successful, you’d have to say that the play-in tournament was one of the best ideas to come out of the hiatus (especially if it’s something that is kept moving forward).
The 2020 NBA Draft is the next slated activity on the schedule for the league, while whispers continue to grow that the start of the 2020-21 season could happen as soon as December.