Recent reports indicate that the NBA is close to finalizing the plan to resume the 2019/20 season. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the league will most probably return with 22 teams and hopes to crown a champion by early October.
After considering several options on how to resume the season, the NBA came to the conclusion that the best option would be to bring 22 teams that still have playoff chances to Disney World in Orlando and finish out the 2019/20 there. The league plans to have regular-season games, in-play tournament to determine all the postseason participants and then proceed with standard 16-team playoffs.
Wojnarowski reports that the targeted date for season resume is July 31st, while the eventual Game 7 of NBA Finals series would be set for October 12th. After the champion is crowned, the league would then proceed with regular activities like free agency and the NBA Draft.
The NBA commissioner Adam Silver reportedly feels good about this plan, but it still needs to be approved by the NBA’s board of governors. The board is expected to have a vote on Thursday and the plan will require “yes” from three-fourths of the members in order to go through.
If no last changes are made, the current one through eight seeded teams from both Eastern and Western conferences will make the trip to Orlando. They will be joined by teams that are within six games from the last playoff spot in their conference.
The West teams that will make the cut are Portland Trail Blazers (-3.5 games), New Orleans Pelicans (-3.5 games), Sacramento Kings (-3.5 games), San Antonio Spurs (-4.0 games), and Phoenix Suns (-6.0 games).
In the East, only Washington Wizards fall under these conditions, being 5.5 games behind eight-seeded Orlando Magic.
