NBA to approve tomorrow plan for 22-team return
Board of Governors expected to overwhelmingly approve NBA latest plan, which would feature eight regular season games for each team and an eventual play-in tournament.
The NBA’s board of governors is expected to convene and approve tomorrow afternoon the league’s plan for a 22-team return in Orlando, as reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
Each of the 22 teams will play eight regular-season games in Orlando for seeding purposes for the playoffs. Joining the 16 current playoff teams will be the New Orleans Pelicans, Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings and San Antonio Spurs in the West and the Washington Wizards in the East.
The eight regular-season games could be followed by a playoff play-in tournament: if the No. 9 seed is more than four games behind, the No. 8 seed will make the conference playoffs. If the No. 9 seed is less than four games back, there will be a play-in tournament. As of now, Washington trails Orlando by 5.5 games in the Eastern Conference, while three teams (New Orleans, Portland, Sacramento) are 3.5 games behind Memphis’ 8th seed in the West.
The return would begin July 31 under the proposal, and a last possible date for Game 7 of the NBA Finals would be Oct. 12, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.