The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that NBA general managers participated in a survey to help league officials decide the best course of action to resume the season.
Some scenarios Charania reported as under consideration include going directly to the playoffs with a normal bracket, “playoff plus” that could include a play-in tournament or group stage, and resuming the regular season.
Let’s take a quick look to see how these may affect the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Directly to playoffs: The Thunder, slotted as the fifth seed, would play the Utah Jazz in the first round of the playoffs. Nothing would change, and it would be as though the NBA season concluded on March 11 when league play was suspended.
Play-in tournament: It’s hard to imagine Oklahoma City would have to participate in a play-in tournament. With the fifth seed, the Thunder were firmly entrenched in the playoffs before the season was halted.
The league is considering how many teams they would allow to compete for the final playoff spots in this “playoffs plus” scenario, according to Charania.
There’s another way this could affect the Thunder even if they don’t play in the tournament, albeit it’s a very slim chance.
Should the Thunder beat the Jazz in the first round and the eighth seed manage to topple No. 1 seed Los Angeles Lakers, Oklahoma City would face off against that eighth seed in the second round.
Resume regular season: If the NBA schedules more regular season games, the Thunder would have to field a roster and decide how much to play their starters and help them get re-accustomed to the daily grind.
This could impact the Thunder in the standings. They were set to play the Jazz on the night the NBA shut down. If the schedule resumes with that game, Oklahoma City would have an opportunity to snatch fourth seed and home court advantage from Utah.
The Jazz and Thunder both have one win against the other this season. If they do get one more game to face off, that would decide the tiebreaker, if necessary.
Charania also mentioned the general manager survey included the idea of reseeding all teams instead of using the traditional East vs. West format.
If the league decides to do that using records as of March 12, the Thunder’s first-round matchup would actually stay the same. Oklahoma City would be the ninth seed and face the Jazz. Utah and the Miami Heat, both with 41 wins, went 1-1 against each other during the regular season. The Heat will win the Southeast division, earning them the tiebreaker.
All this is relatively early work by the NBA. The league is still gathering ideas and discussing the best ways to come back.
But there has been progress, as demonstrated by the announcement Saturday that the league is looking into play at the Disney World facility in Orlando, Fla.
As more details come out about what the league uses from the GM survey, speculation about Thunder can turn into real discussion.
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