I was thinking the opposite: that they might be reduced to a compressed playoffs, with just 4 or 6 teams per conference. 3 current playoff teams have losing records anyway. And this way they'd be able to get fewer games in a fewer cities into a compressed schedule. Another option, if they go with the full contingent of 16, is to have 1st (and maybe 2nd) round series be bets of 3, like back in the bad old days. If they got started late and had a compressed schedule. Really the NBA can push things back into July and even August if need be.
But my money is on no playoffs (60/40 in my book).
Now what would be fun is if the NBA decreed that only teams with winning records make the playoffs. And they fill out the remaining slots -- three in the case of this season -- with a lottery system. So the 21 W Knix might have a 5% or whatever chance of getting a playoff slot in a random drawing. Hell, maybe every team with a losing record, around 15 or 16 most years, get an even chance in the playoff lottery (6% - 7% per opening).
The catch is that any team hitting the playoff lottery gets reseeded for the draft as a playoff team, and is out of the draft lottery. So a cruddy team such as Los Knickeroos, could get in to the playoffs this year via a playoff lottery, and it would bump their draft position to mid 1st round, somewhere around 15-17. This might put a damper on tanking and a premium on have a winning record (.500 or better).
A little kooky, but you can bet those teams in the 7/8 slot below .500 will be playing hard.
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