The NBA Board of Governors has voted to approve a new competitive format to resume the unfinished 2019-20 season in Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida on July 31, the league announced Friday morning (Philippine time).
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Board of Governors voted 29-1, with only the Portland Trailblazers voting against the proposal.
The return will have 22 teams play eight more regular season games for seeding purposes.
A play-in tournament will also be implemented, in case the 8th and 9th seeds in both conferences are separated by four games. The 8th seed only needs to win once against the 9th seed, while the 9th seed has to win two games to qualify for the postseason.
Aside from the 16 current playoff teams, the New Orleans Pelicans, Portland Trailblazers, San Antonio Spurs, Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns in the western conference and the Washington Wizards in the eastern conference will be included in the resumption.
Wojnarowski said training camps would be held on July 9 to 11.
The NBA said the 2019-20 season would conclude with a traditional playoff format and a best-of-seven series in the first round, conference semifinals, conference finals and the NBA Finals.
The league also targets an Aug. 25 draft lottery and Oct. 15 draft, Wojnarowski said.
Meanwhile, the NBA G-League cancelled the remainder of its 2019-2020 season. John Ezekiel J. Hirro