What NBA return format is best option for OKC Thunder?
22 team format:
After the Thursday and Friday conference calls with the GMs and BOGs the format of 22 teams was leaked as the preference. In this scenario, teams would play some more regular-season games followed by a play-in tournament of the bottom teams to determine presumably the seventh and eighth seeds. Again, whether Silver used a league rank or conference rank would affect the final outcome.
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Of the three options on the table, this is the most desirable for the Thunder and has gained the most momentum of late. The best part of this scenario is it allows teams to change their seeding via the regular-season games played and not just the bottom bubble seeds.
For the Thunder, they could surpass a number of teams. A rested Chris Paul and Steven Adams should help enable the team to have a great shot at getting to the second round at a minimum.
As a Thunder fan getting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as much postseason experience is also at the top of the checklist. And, for those who want to build for the further having Dennis Schroder produce in the playoffs will only serve to increase his trade value. And let’s face it if Sam Presti is going to trade him doing so with one year on his contract would be the best time to do so.
In the West, they trail the Jazz by one game, Nuggets by 2.5 games, and the Clippers by four games. If league seeding is used OKC could set their sights on the Heat by a half-game and the Celtics by three. That’s five teams they could potentially vault past. Is it reasonable to assume they would? In truth, the Clippers are likely out of reach and probably the Celtics but the other three teams could definitely be caught.
Conversely, finishing in the 11th seed would guarantee they keep their draft pick so the option to actively lose some games is also on the table.