With the NBA's governing bodies agreeing to a restart plan that involves a 22-team tournament, the league will officially be back to finish off the 2019-2020 season.
All remaining games will likely be played at ESPN's Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.
22 teams will finish off the season which will also sort out playoff seedings. The season will conclude with the current 16 teams that are in playoff spots as of now, while also featuring six more teams in the Washington Wizards, Portland Trail Blazers, New Orleans Pelicans, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings and San Antonio Spurs as they are all within six games of a playoffs spot.
The 22 teams will play eight regular season games before a potential mini-tournament that will determine who finishes in the 8-seed to round out each conferences playoffs. Followed by this mini tournament would then be the usual best of seven series match ups within each conference.
Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps from ESPN further reported what the season could potentially look like.
"There will be up to seven games per day played over roughly three weeks during the August regular season, which the NBA has branded "seeding games," and it is likely there will be weekday afternoon playoff games during the the first round. Sources say the league will use three different facilities at first to stage games: The Arena, HP Field House and Visa Athletic Center, all at the Wide World of Sports Complex. As things progress, it will be reduced to two sites and then one."
The last possible date for the NBA to finish its season is October 12th, which is scheduled to be game 7 of the Finals.
Players and staff will be tested daily and should there be a positive test, that player or staff member will have to quarantine away from the group, but games will still be played.
The 22 team competition has allowed the NBA some breathing room. If all 30 teams were to get to Orlando, some teams (in the case of Golden State), would be almost immediately eliminated from playoff contention, so the final 22 teams are the one's who have every chance or are already on the brink of a playoff berth.
Many questions will be answered with the seasons resumption, with the seedings, playoff berths, championship runs and the individual and team awards all being sorted in the process.
Something that didn't look possible a couple of moths ago, is now a reality. The NBA is back!