Every weekend, SI’s Chris Mannix will check in with his Bubble Bits, a quick hit on something remarkable from the NBA campus
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla – By any measure, the NBA’s decision to make a play-in series has been a resounding success. On Thursday, the penultimate day of the league’s renewed season, three teams played in significant, win-as-go games at home level. The Suns beat Dallas, Memphis edged the Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Bucks and Portland won a nail-biting bitter against the Nets. It was close to midnight when the two teams that will play for the final playoff spot of the Western Conference were announced.
Taking the play-in game permanently is a no brainer … is not it? The end of the regular season is generally turbulent, with teams from the playoffs often focused more on improving his lottery odds than winning games. As teams believed they could force a play-in series by crawling within four games of the no. 8-seed, would suddenly become more significant the last month of the season.
“I see this as something we would embrace going forward,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Sports Illustrated. ‘As you know, I’ve been talking about it for a while. We saw this as an opportunity to establish a form of it. I’m not sure if this will be the right format going forward. But this is what we want to keep seeing. ”
Indeed, the NBA has pushed the idea of a play-in tournament as recently as last fall, as part of a broader proposal to create a 78-game regular season and an in-season, financially boosted tournament. At the end of the regular season, the final four teams in each conference would compete for the final two seeds.
The proposal did not go all the way, but Silver, clearly, at least wants to see the play-in series made permanent. Said Silver, “I think it would be a great addition to the league.”
However, that feeling is not widely shared. The pushback is that the NBA already has an 82-game season to decide the playoff teams. And there’s the issue of the top seed, playing all year to earn that spot, having less time to prepare for an opponent of the first round.
“The play-in format is exciting,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said. “[But] I think with 82 games, that in itself warns that someone is getting in there or not. So if I had to vote, I would vote no. ”
Said Frank Vogel, ‘I will leave that in the hands of Adam Silver. They do a great job of being innovative and trying to make the game better in every way they can. I’m typically a traditionalist … but I’ll leave that in the hands of the league.
Both Brown and Vogel acknowledged the buzz the play-in series has generated, and that may be all that matters. Brown said the dip in game quality is noticeable in the final month of the season; giving teams a reason to play at the highest level could change that. As Silver suggested, tweaks could be made. Instead of four games separating the last two teams, it could be whitewashed to two. However, the play-in series could be here to stay.
· The Athletic report that the NBA and NBPA are in “serious talks” for the so-called Delete Aight – the eight teams not involved in the NBA reboot – to have bubble workouts in September. Several teams have laid the groundwork for getting players by the end of the month, sources told SI. Last week, Michele Roberts, the director of the NBPA, told SI that the only way she would sign up for these workouts is if they had the exact same safety protocols as the Florida bubble.
“It’s about the bubble,” Roberts said. ‘What I said from day one is absolutely that I do not want our boys to go out in public gyms, because I absolutely and firmly believe that our teams can create safe places, safe spaces in the ten facilities. Our boys would be able to work out together and individually, and there is a plan for that. It’s called a bubble. And that’s what I’ve been signing since day one. It’s apparently not something that has been resolved, it’s still in conversation. ”
‘The competition together with the PA, together with our experts, spent many months on the safest way to resume, practice and play, and we agreed that we found it. To deviate from that protocol and suggest that, well, what is safe in Orlando, does not have to be the case outside of Orlando is not acceptable. And it’s just completely in line with what we have convinced ourselves, we have convinced our players the only way to do this. And yes, I do worry a lot about our boys, especially those guys, especially those who don’t have many, many months now to compete. And we need to come up with ideas, and to see them flush it out, it’s really fun. And the protocol for doing so is directly for us. It’s called a bubble. So let’s do it. ”
· With players from remaining teams to bubble guests next month, the league sent a memo describing who will be allowed. Among the details: No “casual” guests, which includes anyone “known by the player only via social media as an intermediary.” One director of the team who reviewed the memo said, “Good luck maintaining this . “It’s a little strange to see the league drop, especially since everyone who enters the bubble will have to go through the same strict protocols to get in. Moreover, one of them is really hanthavene? Another team cracked exec, “There could be some really attractive family members in there.”
The Bulls’ decision to shoot Jim Boylen raised eyebrows over their timing – Arturas Karnisovas, Chicago’s top basketball player, has been on the field for four months. But there’s a reason the team waited so long. Karnisovas was clear – he wanted to have time to evaluate Boylen. And with no other coaching opening – the Knicks job was available, but it became widely known that they liked Tom Thibodeau, and Chicago did not go after Thibs – the Bulls could pay them to be patient. But with the advent of seeding games, that dynamic changed. Brooklyn and New Orleans could have coach openings. The next few weeks could see Philadelphia and Houston as well. Boylen’s dismissal now gives Chicago a jump on the interview process. Expect former Nets coach Kenny Atkinson to get a long look.
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