While the Boston Celtics and 29 other teams of the NBA begin to consider how the league might actually start playing the suspended 2019-20 season again, former Celtics and current Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers has his own idea of what should happen.
Making a point of noting the futility of some games to teams with no chance at all of making a postseason, Rivers floated an alternative model to playing out the full slate in the middle of a pandemic just to finish games that will only lock teams into a draft order largely already determined.
Instead, speaking on former Celtic Cedric Maxwell’s CLNS podcast, Rivers suggested an alternative that would let the worst teams simply stay home.
“I can’t even think of whoever the last place team is this thinking, ‘Wait a minute, we’ve got to come back, train for 30 days, get up and play five games and then go back home? No, thank you!’
Boston's Brad Stevens part of committee guiding return to play https://t.co/yRtyJtbnbe via @thecelticswire
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) May 2, 2020
“So, it’s going to be an interesting decision. If we do that. We go directly into the playoffs,” he continued, “there’s so many different formats [we could try].”
“The one I like the best is 7, 8, 9 and 10 [seeds] have a playoff to get into playoffs,” explained Rivers. “And while they’re playing, [seeds] one through 16 can train. So we get to do all the practices, [and] 7, 8, 9, 10 [seeds] get to play.”
“Now, the advantage they have is in the first round. You’ve got to play teams that have been playing games where you haven’t played, but they haven’t had as much practice,” he added.
The proposal makes sense given the risk — even if mitigated by aggressive testing and isolation efforts — may not be worth the trouble to teams with little to play for.
It would also reduce the logistical challenges and cost of housing those players, their families and the crews of people needed to support their safe presence. In this pandemic, even small boosts to safety and expenses matter.
However, with no fans likely to be in attendance, the former Boston head coach did have a specific request if the season does manage to be restarted.
“I don’t even know how that will work. The only thing that I jokingly told the league is you’d better put earmuffs on the refs,” Rivers cracked.
That could be a fair trade-off if they mic up the players for our enjoyment at home, though it may need to be on tape delay if the earmuffs are really needed.
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