As the NBA’s plan to finish the season at Disney World takes shape, more and more of the specifics are becoming clear.
According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, the NBA has set July 31 as the target date for its return. The NBA’s Board of Governors is expected to vote to approve commissioner Adam Silver’s recommendation on a format for resuming the season on Thursday, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. As of right now, 22 teams are expected to be invited to Orlando. Those 22 will include the 16 current playoff teams as well as the New Orleans Pelicans, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns and Washington Wizards.
Once there, the remaining teams would begin a truncated regular season of eight total games per team, per Wojnarowski. Charania reports that it would include a play-in tournament for the eighth seeds in each conference. Those tournaments would only come in to play if the No. 9 seed finishes the shortened regular season within four games of No. 8. If that is the case, the No. 9 seed would have to beat the No. 8 seed twice in a row in order to earn their conference’s final playoff spot. The plan also calls for the NBA Draft Lottery and combine to be held in August.
Among health precautions that are expected to be proposed are:
No showering at arenas. Players would shower at their hotels.
Bench players would sit in spread out rows, and inactive players would watch from the stands.
Players could not bring guests to Orlando until the playoffs.
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