play in tournament for seeds 7-10

[ZachMlive]

from Zach Lowe

There is growing momentum for a play-in tournament to determine the final two seeds in each conference.

The play-in proposal that has generated the most discussion, according to several sources: two four-team tournaments featuring the seventh, eighth, ninth, and 10th seeds in each conference.

The seventh seed would host the eighth seed with the winner of that single game grabbing the seventh seed while the ninth seed would host the 10th seed with the winner of that game playing the loser of the seven versus eight matchup.

There is nothing imminent for the implementation of this concept and it would surprising if it arrives by 2020 or 2021.

A play-in would require collective bargaining with the players' union.

Backers of the play-in tournament view the 7-through-10 proposal as a workable compromise.

This concept would have ramifications on the lottery. There has been discussion to include the seventh and eighth seeds into the lottery to expand the field from 14 to 18 teams.

 

[Brian Dombrowski]

To me this would make more sense after expanding the NBA by several more teams. Either way I would exclude all the "playoff" teams from potentially winning a top three pick in the draft. I would expect that either the wild card and first round of the playoffs to be only three games, or for the playoffs to be stretched out over more time to keep the players reasonably fresh.