The NBA’s general manager survey has produced scattered results

The NBA’s general managers were surveyed on methods of restarting the season, and the only consensus was that there was no consensus on how to proceed.

Any time you get 30 NBA general managers in a (virtual) room together, you’re going to have a wide array of interests and perspectives. Of course, that’s part of what gives the NBA its flair and appeal, from the ultra-modern Morey-ball of the Houston Rockets to the more traditional approaches of some of the less progressive franchises.

Each team and executive has its own goals and aims, some of which are in alignment with those of the others, and some of which are not. The NBA’s general manager survey was a recent example of this. In an effort to determine where the league’s GMs stood on ways to restart the season, a survey was conducted, and the results of that survey were made public on Friday.

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According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, a wide array of possibilities showed interest.

Most topics appear to receive mixed and roughly equivalent support, like 53 percent of general managers voting to maintain traditional playoff seeding and 47 percent preferring to re-seed. As for the possible methods of re-starting the season, 53 percent of general managers voted to go directly to the playoffs, while 60 percent voted for a 72-game season for all teams.

That 72-game number would get all teams to their contractual obligation to qualify for their regional broadcast money.

Mind you, there were some points of firm consensus. For example, according to Charania, most general managers prefer the season end no later than October 1st, and that makes plenty of sense. If the 2020-21 season is to begin around Christmas, players will need to reset and prepare for yet another season at an odd time, and teams will need time to conduct free agency and set rosters.

In addition, the NBA would likely prefer not to overlap its season with the likely NFL season any more than is absolutely necessary, so letting the season run much longer than that seems counter-productive in most ways.

The final key point most NBA GMs agreed on was the “Playoff Plus” group stage, and the consensus was to include 20 or more teams.

Of course, these are merely a list of preferences and at some point NBA commissioner Adam Silver will weigh in with a final order to re-start the season.

As the month of May ends and June begins, we can expect word from the league office soon on more elements of the final plans.