The 72 game shortened NBA season is starting tonight and it could very well be the best season we’ve seen in a long time. It’ll be one like no other. It was the shortest offseason in sports history at only 71 days from the last game of the NBA Finals to the first day of the season on December 22nd. There won’t be fans in most of the arenas to start the season due to the global pandemic so we’ll have a similar feel of the bubble in Orlando but on a much larger scale and will probably have players miss games or games get rescheduled to some testing positive. It won’t be like the bubble where they had zero cases the entire time.
The NBA is trying to keep players from catching Covid by having rules in place like mandating that players can’t go out to bars, clubs, or lounges, can’t attend sporting or any other live events like concerts, can’t use random gyms or spas, can’t attend gathering of more than 15 people, can only go to restaurants on the road if the restaurant provides outside dining, only have traveling parties of 45 people or less, and there will be a snitch hotline for people to call just in case players are caught disobeying the rules.
Players can also be fined and penalized a game check if they’re caught so the NBA is taking this very serious.
One of the other changes to the NBA season that will make it like any other in history is the play in “tournament” for the 7th and 8th seeds which will add a little excitement at the end of the season. The way that will work is the league will take teams ranked 7th and 8th and play a game for the 7th seed. The 9th and 10th seeded teams will play each other for a chance to play the loser of the 7/8 game. Then, the winner of the 9/10 game will play the loser of the 7/8 game for a chance to be the 8 seed in the playoffs.
So all in all, teams only have to make it to the 10 seed this year and they could end up making the playoffs by winning 2 games which will add a little craziness to the season.
Something else that will add to the craziness is the fact that for the 2nd season in a row, for now, there are no super teams that are constructed. The Lakers are the clear favorites to repeat but there are teams like the Nets, Clippers, Heat, Bucks, Nuggets, Sixers, Raptors, and Celtics that could unseat the Lakers as champs.
Now, let’s get into predictions.
Rookie of the Year: