As of yesterday the NBA officially shared it’s proposal for changes to the 2020/21 season with all 30 NBA teams and Steve Kerr has had his say. The changes have largely remained the same as we originally reported, however some additional information that has been released.
Alongside the proposed changes to playoff seeding, adding play-ins to the end of the regular season and shortening the regular season, there was also the suggested addition of an in-season tournament. While not much has changed with the general idea of the tournament, the idea has now been floated that the league will offer a $15 million dollar prize for the tournament winner, giving $1 million to each player. As a small twist, it would’ve been nice to see the proposed reward go to a charity of the player’s choice, or a portion of it at least. But that’s by the by.
Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has been one of the first NBA figures to react to the changes, seeming keen on the idea of reducing the length of the regular season – something he has a vast amount of experience with over the past couple of years, managing the load of the regular season and preparing his team for the playoffs.
Stever Kerr isn’t shy in coming foward
“Eighty-two is a lot of games. Just cutting out a small handful could be really meaningful during the season, in terms of rest and practice time, I think it would make some sense.”
Kerr would also touch on the changes to playoff seeding for the final four teams and the addition of play in games for the 7th and 8th seeds. The multiple time champion seems keen on both ideas, saying of the play-ins “Something like that would definitely make things more interesting.”
Overall it seems as though he and most of the NBA, are in agreement that these changes seem that the will be positive for the league. “The league is really looking into everything and exploring what we might do to make the regular season more interesting,” Kerr said. “I’m all for it.”
The pro-activity in making changes such as these is what leads the NBA to being one of the most adaptive leagues in the world. Commissioner Adam Silver is always looking for ways to improve the league for both players and fans, it seems that he and his team have hit the nail on the head this time.
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