OKC Thunder: Pros and cons of league seeding and group bracket formats
The NBA is considering a myriad of options for completing the season with non-traditional scenarios far from ideal for the OKC Thunder.
With momentum swinging toward a return OKC Thunder and NBA action fans are eager to learn the details. Every hour it seems there are new reports of how that return might be formatted with every option affecting each club in varying degrees.
This week the league talked to General Managers on Thursday and will hold a Board of Governor’s meeting today. These shareholders will provide input and votes on various options. This timeline would fall in line with the purposed June 1st date Adam Silver earmarked to get out an updated plan to teams. It’s likely after these calls the league will nail down definitive plans on the return and the format the league will employ to finish the season and playoffs.
A key decision for Adam Silver will be whether the league will play games when it resumes action and how many games will be played. Notably, the teams outside the playoff seeds are keen for a play-in tournament, but an equally compelling argument exists for the seeded teams who have an opportunity to move up or down.
The priority will be for the association to give as much time as possible for players to get in shape as well as get in enough games for players to re-gain chemistry and get into game shape with a view to slowly building player’s minutes in order to lessen injuries.
Although the association stated they were looking at a few venues including Vegas and Houston the site most likely to be used as the ‘campus bubble setting’ is Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
How different formats affect the OKC Thunder:
As noted in our recent article a key stakeholder in determining the return template are GMs who provided preferences via a survey. The specific areas they were asked to address were how many teams should participate, if there should be regular-season games (and how many) and playoff semantics.
The latter is the most intriguing of the questions since a play-in tournament is back on the table for consideration. Likewise, the fact the venue won’t require teams to travel also has the revamping of playoff seeds (by league not conferences) being revisited.
As for the OKC Thunder, the choices made on these matters could have a large impact on precisely how deep the team’s playoff run might be. Overall, the non-traditional options won’t be favorable for the club.
With that let’s dive into the particulars and including the pros and cons for each option and how each shift would impact the Thunder.