NBA restart plan will deliver high level of play, says Mike Tuck
The NBA Board of Governors voted to restart the regular season for the 22 teams in contention for the playoffs in a near-unanimous vote on Thursday
Friday 5 June 2020 17:05, UK
Adam Silver's plan for restarting the 2019-20 season with 22 teams on July 31 in Orlando will deliver a high level of play, says Sky Sports NBA's Mike Tuck.
The NBA restart plan is exciting. This is something the fans have never seen before. It's also a format the players have not done before. It has a multi-sport event feel to it, like an Olympics or Commonwealth Games, with all the players housed in an athletes' village-style environment. Imagine being a fly on the wall there with all those superstar players in the same building! It will be incredible.
I think the NBA has got the format right. The teams that missed out had just as big a chance as the others over the course of the shortened season. We are going to see a high level of competition because we have got the best 22 teams and have got rid of eight teams who are not cutting it right now. It is going to be super-exciting to see these guys hit the floor.
Everything that has been agreed feels right: having 22 teams involved; teams playing eight regular-season games; normal playoff seeding; the possibility of play-in games if the ninth-seeded team can get within four games of the eighth seeds. I think there are enough components there to make it exciting and keep the fans engaged.
The tough part of the plan is that we are pushing on through the end of summer and into the autumn which will affect the start of next season. That could potentially end up changing the timeline of the league forever.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has had a lot on his plate but the reported 29-1 vote in favour of his plan shows how much the teams are behind it. I think everyone has shown they are willing to make sacrifices to get things off the ground and make it successful. In times like these, people need something to focus on, believe in and put their energy into.
The downside of the plan is the risk involved. Ensuring the campus environment is safe and sanitised for players and staff will be a super-complicated process. The worst outcome would be multiple people testing positive for coronavirus.
For the players - and we have not heard much about this yet - can they bring their families or will they be there by themselves? If you're on a top-five or top-six team in the league and you know you will be going deep into the playoffs, that could mean not seeing your family for three or four months. That's a really long time to be away from your family, especially if you have kids.
But those are the micro-problems. The macro is we are getting NBA basketball back and that is exciting.
When the season resumes, I think we are going to see the players who needed rest, coming off injuries or surgeries or who were load managing right back at their best. But there will also be guys who be rusty. With preseason camps and then two or three weeks of practice in Orlando before the first game, the opportunity is there before the restart to kick off that rust.
Thankfully, the season hiatus was a three-month break whereas an offseason is a lot longer. I think players will be able to pick up where they left off and we will see a high level of play. Guys have enough time to rest and prepare for the moment. But early on, we will be able to see which guys have just been sitting on the couch!
The deeper your team is, the deeper your bench is, the more dangerous you are going to be in this new format. Teams will be playing a lot of games in a short amount of time. The risk of injury is higher. If you have a deep team like the Denver Nuggets or LA Clippers, it is going to benefit you, for sure.
Who makes the Finals? It is still very much up for grabs. If you look at the top teams - the Bucks, Lakers, Clippers, Celtics - they can 100 per cent get there. But you also have dark horses like the Houston Rockets. You never know what the Philadelphia 76ers are going to bring. Miami have turned a few heads this year. There are a lot of dark horses lurking in the waters.
Adapting quickly to the environment in Orlando could be a real advantage. Houston have a 'run-and-gun' team that could thrive in an environment where games come thick and fast, particularly if they get into an early rhythm. The problem with them is that they were collapsing at the point the season was initially stopped. That time off might have helped them to reset and reboot and give their coaching staff and front office to make the changes they need to make.
