When the season resumes I dont want them trying to make it seem normal. I want chaos.

This is already gonna be one of the 4 weirdest seasons ever along with 99, 2012, and 1977 when they had to fold in the ABA teams and figure out how to make it work. Lets not even shoot for normalcy.


Lets make it exciting.

On day one of the return im jumping right into the playoffs. But a modified version.

To reduce the cries of the not quite playoff teams that lost the chance to earn a spot(and in a fairly transparent effort to give the Pelicans a shot at a first round series vs the Lakers which we would all enjoy) im having 8-11 in a single elimination mock final 4 to earn a playoff spot.


Right now that gets us:


Grizzlies/Kings
Blazers/Pelicans



Magic/Bulls
Wizards/Hornets


As usual....west is must see....east is less interesting...but tournament style? First games back? You would get huge ratings. With no other sports on....Pelicans vs Blazers to advance and play for the 8th seed tomorrow night? It does numbers.

But where do you play? Empty arenas? No. Boring.

The problem is most places ban large gatherings. So....

Im playing those games in local high school gyms with tickets available via lottery among season ticket holders for half...the rest to go to local known superfans. 100 fans a team.

We get a dream team of sports personalities at the game doing sideline and covering it. Inside the NBA from the studio elsewhere. I want Bill Walton on color. I want no famous fans. I want cheering insane local fans and kids. LEts invite the basketball teams from each local school to go for free as well.


After that works out...


I dont want the playoffs to be normal from there either.

Taking it back to the 70s and 80s with short series.

3 game first round series.

5 game second round.

7 game conference finals and finals.


Imagine the chaos of Pelicans/Blazers/Grizzlies winning game 1 vs the Lakers at Lebron/Wades sons high school gym with the kids watching them fail....and game 2 is on the road...elimination game.

What kinda numbers would that do?

Wouldnt it be more exciting than a 7 game series you know the best team likely pulls out?

ITs the midpoint between the playoffs and march madness.

The 5 game series would be tense too. Weird shit happens. Like the defending champs being beaten by an actual crackhead(talented...but a crackhead):






[video=youtube;mb0bLsolTjg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb0bLsolTjg[/video]









The ideal situation is it takes a couple months and we get to where KD and Kyrie return to get the Bucks in a 5 game first round series....not that its realistic.




I just dont wanna see it return for a boring extended thing of closed arena games.

Its already a circus. Put on a show.

I wanna see someone eliminated in a gym with 100 of their biggest fans crying while Bill Walton is talking non sense about the grateful dead sitting on a folding chair 16 inches off the court. A 3 game series you would get all a team had to give right out of the gate. No holding back. No tomorrow.

You have a bad first half of game one you ruined your season.

The ****ing Nuggets might win the title.

Im not reading all of that, but good for you for remaining optimistic during a very dark period of time.

[QUOTE=highwhey;13948012]Im not reading all of that, but good for you for remaining optimistic during a very dark period of time.[/QUOTE]

Yeah I'm stressing about being alive not if the trash magic can make the playoffs.

You....will be fine. Almost(but not quite) everyone will be fine.

The last thing people want and need in an already chaotic time is more artificially generated chaos and instability... or the narrative that only the elite have access to NBA games.

I suspect people won’t equate a short playoff series with real world chaos.

Shit would be crazy, we'd get a legitimate fluke title. Imagine Zion winning the chip or Harden ft-ing his way to a fmvp? I already feel like it will be somewhat open when play resumes because no team will be in rhythm and whoever comes back together the quickest may win it.

I just want to see KD in the playoffs.

The flukes were just a part of the playoffs back in the day. The 81 Lakers lost in the first round with 3 starting hall of famers and another all star to a 41 win team by a single shot in game 3. Not the best way to see who the best is....but it’s both exciting and shorter. Both things I think the nba might require soon.

I suspect people would equate what you've outlined above as unnecessary and artificially chaotic for the sake of generating excitement. NBA games in high school basketball gyms that are generally 10 feet shorter; single game eliminations as soon as games resume, even though players would need a few games to get back into rhythm, and even though some teams have played more games than others. Orlando for instance is in 8th place, but they're only half a game behind the Nets, whom they have beaten the two times they have faced each other this season, and that half game is by virtue of having played more games and having one more loss on their record than the Nets. They would be tossed into single game eliminations against teams they are 5.5, 7 and 8 games up on.

And then there's the matter of 100 season ticket holders and superfans being at games and trying to secure a high school basketball gym full of millionaires and billionaires.

I think the crazy and surreal nature of what has happened will be enough to get fans watching again without devising unnecessary machinations.

Security? That’s a concern? Did you miss the courts full of millionaires playing in the lockout leagues?



[video=youtube_share;wicRi3yW07I]https://youtu.be/wicRi3yW07I[/video]



Give me that environment over 3 hours of hearing shoes on hardwood in an eerie ghost arena.

Im not sure what’s gonna be required but if they wait long enough it’s gonna be really rushed. Half these guys are in the summer olympics if they even get played.

Time will become a factor.

[video=youtube_share;OWp7T6E8ug8]https://youtu.be/OWp7T6E8ug8[/video]


A game like that....that counts?


It would be the center of the sports world. There would be 50 for 50 specials on those playoffs in the future.

Imagine the chaos if KD and Kyrie return to face the Bucks in the 1st round? :lebronamazed:

They might force it to game 5 then :lol

Oh no, I don't want this season to become similar to past ones that went under the usual 82 games. Here I'm hoping it will still resume someday.

[URL]https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/the-playoff-scenarios-nba-is-discussing-for-hopeful-return/amp/[/URL]





Some of this is not out of the question



[QUOTE]

The playoffs could be reduced to a slew of best-of-three series across the board. A single-elimination format has been all but ruled out — only under consideration as a last resort.
“Nothing is off the table,” another league official said.
[/QUOTE]