When the NBA first shut down due to COVID-19, noise and speculation flowed among fans over how the league would resume and come to a conclusion that suited all. In the 2019-20 season, the ‘Play-In’ was introduced, culminating in a 17th championship for the Lakers and a 4th for LeBron to add to his own collection. Whilst the season was completed rather admirably under the supervision of ever-present league commissioner Adam Silver, the somewhat jumbled nature of the ‘Play-In Game’ left many sceptical of its continued fusion with the NBA Playoffs in the following campaign. The evolution of the NBA, like most of the ‘Big 4’ sports leagues, has continued to brim with smart tweaks and changes showing a willingness to adapt to the modern demands of their audience. It seems like now, with the ‘Play-In’ making yet another successful comeback, that it is here to stay – but is it really beneficial for the league?
The original purpose of the Play-In was to give a team outside the top eight a chance at making the playoffs, because of the cutting short of the NBA regular season post-COVID, but its remarkable success in attracting a large viewership reminded the NBA that nothing is closer to the hearts of its fans than one-game elimination. With the NBA only averaging 1.19m viewers on ESPN in 2020-21, down 10% from 2019-20 and 25% from 2018-19, such small changes are likely highly significant in tempting the league into keeping the tournament going. While the point remains that the NBA tried to establish more league parity with the Play-In game, the measures taken were purely in response to the COVID pandemic, raising questions about whether the Play-In really needs to be present in an 82-game season, where teams have rightfully earned their seeding in their conference.
The big issue of the Play-In arises here. As the standings are, the Minnesota Timberwolves sit 7th in the Western Conference, 12 games ahead of the 10th placed Spurs. If the Timberwolves were to lose two one-off elimination games and the Spurs were to win two, it’d allow San Antonio to get the eighth seed after a drastic losing season. That cannot be fair. The Timberwolves have turned their fortunes around to become clearly one of the better teams in the NBA, - and many tout them as a team that could make playoff noise - so the potential for the Spurs to take away their playoff place to a team in a one-game elimination series seems unnecessarily harsh. A team under .500 record should not be able to make the playoffs based off of two games.
The argument against this may simply be that if the Timberwolves can’t beat the Spurs, they don’t deserve a spot in the playoffs. Ultimately, this has some weight to it, but the one-game nature of the Play-In makes hedging your bets on a team who can easily have a bad shooting night quite risky, and largely unfair.
Many also question the purpose of the Play-In: why give teams like the Spurs, who are highly unlikely to give the 1st seed Phoenix Suns any challenge at all, a playoff berth. Sure, the Hawks and Hornets occupying the Eastern Conference Play-In spots are more capable of playoff noise, but that would make the Play-In terribly reliant on having total parity to be purposeful – which we all know is unlikely to ever happen. Just last year, the Grizzlies and Wizards, the respective 8th seeds of their conference, lost their first -round playoff matchup in 5 games – a ‘gentleman’s sweep’. The Play-In tournament doesn’t necessarily merit the most exciting playoff series matchups.
But the Play-In should remain. It’s still a hit with the fans, who take well to the one-game-elimination style of basketball. The players are not necessarily the biggest of fans yet, with LeBron taking time to question the tournament, stating that whoever made the tournament ‘should be fired’, but given the success it has been at home, that will change. The NBA is constantly adapting to changing demands and improving its watchability, so the Play-In can likely continue to evolve in a way that makes it even more exciting than it already is – and it can continue to provide us with exciting, tense basketball.
