Nba revolution from 2021-22? All possible news
Possible revolution in 2021-22 with the introduction of a tournament in December, wild cards for the playoffs and extra conference scoreboard from the semifinals onwards
The NBA is not one of the most famous sports leagues in the world only for the talent and visibility of its players and its franchises, but also because it has a stable and historical format that has allowed it to have an unchanging identity throughout history modern. A structure that, however, could not only be changed, but even revolutionized from 2021-22 entering definitively into a new era which was inaugurated by the introduction of the sponsors on the shirts in 2017-18 and then necessarily by the Coronavirus emergency which interrupted the season. Now with the endorsement of the commissioner, the owners and the TV stations, we could witness epochal changes. This is a list of possible novelties to be introduced.
Regular season shorter
It has been talked about for years, in a crescendo of controversies for the number of injuries that an 82-game season entails and for the high percentage of useless matches especially after the All Star Game, with most of the teams not participating in the playoffs intent on testing his own roster when not in real tanking. The hypothesis is to shorten the regular season by four games, bringing them to 78 or a similar number.
Tournament in the fall
Perhaps the most unexpected choice, for a culture distant from American sport and more similar to the European one in which a tournament format in which all the franchises would participate in the initial phase, with games that would be valid for the tournament and also for the regular season. The format includes competitions against teams belonging to their Division and a final phase which is accessed by the best eight, the first of each Division and the two best second, which recalls the Italian Cup Final Eights. At that point quarters, semi-finals and knockout final. The choice of the time span, between November and December, is due to the need not to compete with other American sports leagues, in January and February there are the NFL playoffs and in March the NCAA direct elimination scoreboard.
Entrance playoffs to the playoffs
Word game that contains another novelty that aims to give competition to those teams that from March onwards risk or already know they are not going to the playoffs. There is talk of an entry tournament to the playoffs that would involve the teams between the seventh and tenth positions in the two conferences, a sort of wild card already present in the NFL and which would increase the competitive intensity of the last two months of the regular season. Another tournament in which the seventh classified would face the eighth and the loser would play against the winner of the challenge between ninth and tenth.
Crossed playoff scoreboard
Another hypothesis that has been talked about for some time and that could become reality, the concept of Conference could lapse from the semifinals of the playoffs to leave room for cross-challenges based on the record of the teams and not on their geographical disposition. The playoffs at that point would become an open tournament with challenges between teams of the two coasts based on the record in the regular season, for example the Lakers with the best record of the NBA could challenge the Knicks who access the playoffs with a worse record, a scoreboard that would allow to rebalance the values in an era in which the Western Conference is much more competitive than the Eastern one and the Finals could see the two teams with the best record or the two actually stronger even if they play in the same Conference.
New calendar
Intended not as a sequence of games but as the start and end dates of the season. The NBA is trying to save the 2019-20 abruptly interrupted by the Coronavirus and to do so it will necessarily have to move forward the playoffs and the Finals that typically occupy May and June. With this in mind, the hypothesis of the future foresees that the regular season can start in late December and play until August, with a compressed calendar, but also to avoid overlaps with the NFL which starts in September and ends at the beginning February.
