Hours after Luka Doncic criticized the idea of the NBA play-in tournament, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told ESPN that the concept was “a huge mistake,” especially due to this season’s compressed schedule.
“I understand why the NBA does it,” the Cuban said in a series of messages to ESPN. “But if we are creative because of COVID, we should go straight up 1-20 and let the bottom 4 play. This is the year we have to do it from the 10 cut games [from the normal 82-game schedule] were at the conference.
“The worst part of this approach is that it doubles the stress of the compressed schedule. Instead of playing for a place in the playoffs and being able to rest the players as the standings become clearer, teams need to approach each game as a playoff game to get either in or stay in the top 6 because the consequences, as Luka said, are huge. So players play more games and more minutes in fewer days. “
The NBA Board of Governors, which also includes the Cubans, unanimously approved a proposal to implement a play-in tournament for this season, after the league used it for the first time before the balloon playoffs last summer.
“In retrospect, this approach was a huge mistake,” the Cuban told ESPN.
Dallas (29-24) is in seventh place in the Western Conference standings, which means the Mavs should participate in the play-in tournament if they can’t go up. There are two games behind the Portland Trail Blazers, which hold the tiebreaker between the teams due to the defeat of Dallas in two of their three meetings.
“I don’t understand the idea of a play-in,” Doncic said Monday. “You play 72 games to get into the playoffs, then maybe you lose two in a row and get out of the playoffs. So I don’t see the point in that.”
The play-in concept presents the teams that finish from seventh to 10th place in each conference. The structure, which the NBA announced in March, includes three games in each conference.
The teams in seventh and eighth place play each other, the winner winning the seventh head of the series. The teams in the ninth and 10th places also play each other, with the loser eliminated from the playoff dispute. The loser of game 7-8 and the winner of game 9-10 then play, with the eighth playoff series in play.
“In a regular season of 82 games where we don’t play 30 games in 6 weeks, then it could have been OK,” the Cuban told ESPN. “But compressing so many games in so few days makes this a huge mistake.” If we had gone from 1 to 16, with the first 12 inside, it would still have been tough, but there would have been a greater separation between the game – in and in the top 12. great use. We have no choice. And that can and will have consequences. “
Mavericks usually rest Kristaps Porzingis for a game during back-to-back games and occasionally rest Doncic for back-to-back games.