The NBA has gone nearly three months with no action since Utah’s Rudy Gobert was a late scratch from the Jazz’s matchup in Oklahoma City on March 11 due to COVID-19.
Now, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is figuring out how to get the season back on track.
Multiple theories and different ideas have circulated the airwaves on how play will return, but none are as captivating as the “group stage” idea proposed by Silver to GMs across the league last Friday.
The format derives from soccer, the world’s most popular sport. Like his predecessor David Stern, Silver is still looking for ways to grow the NBA brand globally. Giving domestic fans something new, and providing foreign fans with a familiar twist, could play into Silver’s hands.
In fact, the NBA took steps this season to integrate its fans in the regular-season action beyond North America. The Milwaukee Bucks faced off against the Charlotte Hornets on Jan. 24 in Paris, becoming the first regular season game played in the City of Lights.
Silver is a passionate soccer fan, and speaking to ESPN the day before the Bucks and Hornets tipped off, admitted he was jealous of soccer’s reputation around the world.
The group-stage format is well known for its use in the FIFA World Cup. Thirty-two teams qualify from six continents, and each country is placed in a tier based on their performance during qualifying for the tournament. From there, eight groups are created with four teams and the top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage (tournament bracket).
If the NBA were to go down this road (and I hope they do), the group stage would consist of four groups with five teams in each. No, it would not be the top 10 from each conference, but eight from the East and 12 from the West.
Washington sits as the ninth seed in the East at 24-40, five-and-a-half games back behind eighth-seed Orlando. Compare that to the West where it was going to be a dogfight for the final playoff spot. Memphis was the eighth seed at 32-33 when the season was canceled, but Portland, New Orleans, Sacramento, and San Antonio all remained “somewhat” in the hunt. The Spurs, being the 12th seed in the West, were only four games behind Memphis at 27-36 when the season was postponed.
It makes sense to have more Western than Eastern Conference teams due to the quality the West possess, but the format would ditch conferences. Being a traditionalist, I like conferences, but in these times maybe a one-time audible wouldn’t be too bad. After all, many have wondered why the league doesn’t just put the top 16 teams in the postseason to start. So, here is their answer.
These are the 20 teams that would qualify for the NBA’s one-of-a-kind postseason format, and the tiers they’d be placed in based on regular season records:
—Tier 1: Bucks, Lakers, Raptors, Clippers
—Tier 2: Celtics, Nuggets, Jazz, Heat
—Tier 3: Thunder, Rockets, Pacers, 76’ers
—Tier 4: Mavericks, Grizzlies, Nets, Magic
—Tier 5: Blazers, Pelicans, Kings, Spurs
If this format were to go through, the league still has to figure out the grouping process. A lottery style selection is probably the best way to go about creating groups, but can lead to unfair groups. In many cases, a group stage format can lead to a “group of death,” a phrase used to describe the superiority of one group versus the other.
For example, imagine a group with the Bucks, Celtics, Sixers, Mavericks, and Pelicans — it would be a bloodbath for the Bucks who finished with the best record when the regular season was postponed. Another option is for the teams in the top tier to draft their opponents, but that seems more like WWE drama than professional basketball.
