With the latest developments, all signs point to the NBA resuming their season in mid-July. What seems less clear is exactly what the remainder of the season and/or playoffs will look like. I made this suggestion on twitter recently and believe some variation of this is being discussed.
First - a look at the current standings.
It appears the NBA's Board of Governors will discuss their resumption plan on Friday, May 29 - and hopefully agree to a specific one. Let's say they agree to a 72 or 76 game regular season. As I've discussed on the A-Team (3-6pm weekday afternoons) several times, local television contracts are a consideration, since many are written with of a 70-game broadcasts to fulfill. (i.e. play the games, get the local tv revenue from the contract).
Facilities in home cities will be opened regardless - players can come to their teams' practice facilities regardless of if their team is resuming the season. The likely resumption plan includes sending teams to a single location in Orlando. Teams will practice and play games there and of course stay in hotels there. Teams will continue to be seeded 1 through 8 in each conference with no re-seeding.
Safety is a huge consideration, so it seems reasonable that teams who are not going to make the playoffs with a shortened regular season schedule could be told not to come back. That will result in 23 teams resuming the 2019-2020 regular season. Regular season games will be played against both eastern and western conference teams.
East Playoffs
Looking at the East, the top 10 teams have all played 64 or 65 games. With a 72 game schedule, only the Wizards (9th) and Hornets (10th) among the 9-15 seeds, would not be currently mathematically eliminated. The Bulls, Knicks, Pistons, Hawks and Cavaliers will not resume their seasons. That leaves ten teams to play 7 or 8 regular season games until they reach their 72 games played limit. The resulting standings would create a play-in scenario for the teams seeded 7 - 10.
East mini-playoffs (best-of-3):
7 seed vs 10 seed ; winner advances to the 8 team regular playoffs
8 seed vs 9 seed ; winner advances to the 8 team regular playoffs
The two winners are re-seeded, based on regular season record.
The remaining eastern conference playoffs would operate as they have for the last several seasons.
First round (best-of-5), conference semifinals (best-of-7), conference finals (best-of-7)
West Playoffs
A 72-game regular season would eliminate the Timberwolves and the Warriors, thus those 2 teams would not resume their seasons. The remaining 13 teams in the west would play out their remaining schedule until they reach their 72 games played limit. The resulting standings would create a play-in scenario for the teams seeded 8-13
West 1st elimination round (one elimination game)
8 seed vs 13 seed; winner advances to 2nd elimination round
9 seed vs 12 seed; winner advances to 2nd elimination round
10 seed vs 11 seed; winner advances to 2nd elimination round
Winners ranked 1, 2 & 3 based on regular season record.
West 2nd elimination round (one elimination game)
7 seed vs 3rd ranked mini-playoff winner
2nd ranked mini-playoff winners vs 3rd ranked mini-playoff winner
Winners advance and are seeded 7th and 8th seed, based on regular season record.
The remaining western conference playoffs would operate as they have for the last several seasons.
First round (best-of-5), conference semifinals (best-of-7), conference finals (best-of-7)
Winners meet in NBA Finals.
All east mini-playoff series will be played on consecutive days beginning after one day of rest after the conclusion of the regular season. The west elimination round games will begin following one day of rest after the regular season. The 2nd elimination round will begin after one day of rest from the first elimination round. The ensuing playoffs with the eight remaining teams will begin five days after the conclusion of the regular season.
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