Hours after Luka Doncic criticized the idea of the NBA play-in tournament, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told ESPN that the concept is “a huge mistake,” mostly because of its compressed schedule. season.
“I understand why the NBA does that,” Cuban said in a series of posts on ESPN. “But if we’re going to be creative because of COVID, we should go straight from 1 to 20 and let the bottom 4 play. This is the year particularly for doing so from the 10 cut games. [from the normal 82-game schedule] they were in conference.
“The worst part of this approach is that it doubles the stress of the compressed schedule. Instead of playing in a playoff spot and being able to rest the players as the standings become clearer, teams have to tackle every game. like a playoff game getting in or staying in the top 6, because the consequences, as Luka said, are huge. So players play more games and more minutes in fewer days. “
The NBA governing board, which includes Cuban, unanimously approved a proposal to implement a play-in tournament for this season, after the league used it for the first time before the bubble playoffs on last summer.
“In retrospect, that approach was a huge mistake,” Cuban told ESPN.
Dallas (29-24) ranks seventh in the Western Conference standings, meaning the Mavs would have to participate in the play-in tournament if they fail to move up. They are two games behind the Portland Trail Blazers, who are the owners of the tiebreaker between the teams due to winning Dallas in two of their three meetings.
“I don’t understand the idea of a play-in,” Doncic said Monday. “You play 72 games to get into the playoffs, then maybe you lose two in a row and you’re out of the playoffs. So I don’t see the point.”
The concept of play-in includes teams finishing seventh to tenth in each conference. The structure, which the NBA announced in March, includes three games at each conference.
The seventh and eighth place teams play each other, and the winner wins the seventh seed. The ninth and tenth place teams also play, eliminating the loser from the playoff dispute. He then plays the loser of the game 7-8 and the winner of the game 9-10, with the eighth place playoff in play.
“In a regular 82-game season where we don’t play more than 30 games in 6 weeks, maybe it would have been okay,” Cuban told ESPN. “But compressing so many games in so few days makes this a huge mistake.” If we had gone from 1 to 16, with the top 12 ranked, it would still have been tough, but there would have been more separation between games. between the first 12 and the first. This is a season where we need to rest high-end players. We have no choice. And that can and will have consequences. “
The Mavericks usually rest Kristaps Porzingis during a game for consecutive games and occasionally rest Doncic on his back.