NBA playoff formatting options in a shortened season

March Madness in July

Cue the music people, make your brackets, and go crazy for the Cinderella. The NCAA’s Division I basketball tournament is arguably the best event in sports, and there’s good reasons for that.

The 2020 edition of this gargantuan 68-team, win-or-go-home battle royale would have concluded Monday night if not for [redacted]. But that doesn’t mean a bracket of similar ilk can’t be made.

The NBA has an opportunity to implement its own version of March Madness. Straight single-elimination probably isn’t feasible because there’s so much money on the line, but double elimination might work. That would amount to either 58 or 59 total playoff games, depending on how the final goes.

As a refresher, double elimination has two brackets: winners and losers. The winners bracket functions like a typical single-elimination tree, while the losers bracket pits teams with one loss against each other. Once a team loses twice, they’re eliminated.

Like the tournament on the previous slide, this one would be able to include all 30 teams. All teams would be seeded based on record, and there’s also the option of splitting it by conference.

Another benefit to this format is the excitement. Fewer games often lead to more randomness and more upsets, a big reason the NCAA tournament is so much fun.

The biggest downside to this setup is that it has the fewest games, meaning the least amount of revenue to gain. In a more condensed setting than what was outlined previously, it may be the best option to crown some sort of champion.

There is a solution to that. The NBA could institute double elimination up until a certain point and then shift into head-to-head series.

Whatever the NBA decides, the hope is that the season isn’t a lost cause.