There’s going to be a lot of basketball played in a short period of time under the proposed plan.
The NBA appears to be nearing a firm proposal for a plan to return to play later this summer in Orlando. The expectation is that 22 teams will be invited: the 16 teams currently in playoff position, plus five bubble teams in the West and the Wizards in the East.
With a target completion date of Oct. 12 for the last possible day of the NBA Finals and a start date of July 31, there are 73 days for the league to get through the proposed eight-game, truncated close to the regular season and the playoffs. There had previously been discussion about whether the league would need to move away from best-of-seven series throughout the playoffs, returning the first round to best-of-five, but according to Marc Stein, that won’t be happening.
