NBA general managers reportedly are split over whether the league should finish the regular season when it resumes action after the shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic or if the playoffs should commence immediately.
The league sent out a survey to all 30 GMs last week, and commissioner Adam Silver revealed the results Thursday to the same people who were polled, TheRinger.com’s Kevin O’Connor reported.
O’Connor published the results Thursday, citing anonymous sources:
Half of the GMs want to see the regular season continue.
A little more than half of the GMs would like to see the 16 playoff teams seeded first through 16th without consideration of conferences.
Given a choice of a play-in tournament to determine the final playoff teams or a World Cup-type group stage that would take the place of the remainder of the regular season as well as the first round of the playoffs, 75 % opted for the play-in event and 25 % for the group-stage option.
An anonymous general manager told O’Connor of the Thursday call with Silver, “There was zero commitment to any one plan. But it was a call to gather more information.”
An unnamed team executive told O’Connor earlier this week, “Adam isn’t taking the results seriously. Every team is obviously gonna vote for what’s best for them.” The NBA announced last weekend that it was in negotiations with Disney to restart the season this summer at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando, Florida. 
It would be a “single site for an NBA campus for games, practices and housing,” league spokesman Mike Bass said.
However, the NBA has yet to commit to a format for games when they do resume.
The 2019-20 season was suspended March 11 when Utah Jazz All-Star center Rudy Gobert tested positive for Covid-19. At the time, NBA teams had played between 63 and 67 of their scheduled 82 regular-season games. Earlier this week, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban proposed having all teams return for five to seven regular-season games, leading into a 20-team postseason that would include a six-team play-in tournament. In the meantime, Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry says that he expects a vote “early next week” before moving toward playoff games being played in Orlando in July.
“I think at the end of the day, we’ll be in Orlando at Disney,” Lasry said Thursday in an interview on CNBC. “The question is going to be will we have all 30 teams there, or will we have 24; whatever the number will end up being. But hopefully, by the middle of July, we start playing again.”
To be determined is whether the NBA will resume the regular season or skip to the playoffs. A play-in tournament to determine the final spots in each conference could be held, and has support from players including Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard. Lillard said he wouldn’t play if the Blazers returned for regular-season games but didn’t have a shot at the playoffs.
Lasry told CNBC the expectation for Friday’s call was to receive a number of options for returning to practice and how to proceed with the remainder of the 2019-20 season. Lasry said a final decision on those options is not likely on Friday.
A typical timeline of the NBA season would involve the conference finals before the NBA Finals, which began May 30 last season.
Delaying the start of the playoffs during the hiatus also led the league to postpone the NBA Draft Lottery, NBA Scouting Combine, and NBA Draft.
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