The statement- don’t change something that isn’t broken, is something that comes to mind when you think about Adam Silver’s claims that he is looking to overhaul the NBA’s schedule completely.
The announcement came on Saturday courtesy of ESPN, with Silver likely to make big changes ahead of the 75th season of the NBA in 2021.
Silver has revealed that some of the changes will see the reseeding of the final four playoff teams regardless of the conference that the teams are from. As well as this, he is also looking to introduce a mid-season competition which will feature every NBA team.
The news isn’t likely to go down well, especially considering that Silver is looking to shorten the length of the regular season to accommodate this mid-season competition.
Potential Obstacles To Plans
As you would imagine, there are a few stumbling blocks that could affect any kind of plan to alter the league drastically, and one of which revolves around the players.
Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe have already admitted that there could be a stumbling block surrounding the players’ interest in changing the league. At the moment, the NBA is one of the most lucrative sports competitions in the world, and there are already enough games.
Players will be forced to play more games under the proposed guidelines, and it would seem that resistance from some of the top stars would see this plan fall flat. Players such as Nikola Jokic could be a big stumbling block.
Not just that, but the NBA will also have discussions with the league’s broadcasting partners from around the world to see if it would be of interest for them.
Silver’s plan would be to get the reassurance of players and broadcasters before bringing the proposed changes to a meeting involving the board of governors. This meeting is likely to take place in April. But it is uncertain whether Silver will have the numbers to address his ideal changes.
What Is The Mid-Season Competition?
The mid-season tournament that is being proposed will loosely be based on the Champions League model used in European soccer. Regular season division games will be used to create a round-robin competition to set up an entirely new playoff system.
The teams that will progress from these playoffs will then have the chance to win the in-season championship. The appetite for this may be an issue, but it could be a profitable gain for the NBA.
They would be able to sell this stand-alone tournament as a completely different entity to the regular season and persuade bidders to make their move to showcase the best of NBA in one new competition.
The final proposal that Silver has made is to have play-in games for the playoffs at the end of the season. That would see teams that finish between seventh and tenth given a second chance at making it into one of two playoff spots.
This could be an idea that fans may be interested in, as it will add greater incentive to regular-season games despite teams being out of contention for the playoffs.
Time will tell whether any of these changes will materialise.
