NBA Hopes Mid-June is Where Amazing Happens

NBA's office is aiming for the best-case scenario, which is coming back in mid-June, depending on what the health organizations like the CDC state. 

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According to different reports, the NBA started to look for August dates in the arenas, which would be the later stages of postseason. NBA schedule consists of 82 games, and at the time of suspension, teams were approximately 18-20 games left of regular-season. 

Twenty games are quite the last gap -and race- for many teams to push for a playoff spot, or to fight for a better seed placement to ensure home advantage when the going gets tough. 

For example, looking at the Western Conference, nothing is decided. The LA Lakers have a 5.5 game advantage, and that's huge, but not definitive. However, if you watch below them, the Nuggets and the Clippers have just 1.5 games between each other and are desperately fighting for that second seed. 

Between the fourth and seventh seeds, only one victory separates the Jazz from the Thunder, Rockets, and Mavericks. The fourth-seeded team has home advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The eighth and last spot has the Grizzlies trying to maintain their place against the late pressure of both the Blazers and Pelicans.

A whole 20 games is a lot when you see how tight this conference is.

The Eastern side of the league was a bit more settled when postponement came in to play. The Bucks were thriving with 6.5 games of advantage over second seed Raptors. Celtics and Heat are battling for the third spot and, just behind, Sixers and Pacers have the same record, and only one game distance the Nets and the Magic for the seventh and eighth positions.

By returning in mid-June, as hoped, the NBA will still be able to finish their regular season just in time to complete the whole thing (playoffs and NBA Finals included) right before football season in September, which you would want to avoid. No one beats the NFL in ratings, and the NBA knows it.

It's important to state that, if the NBA does come back in the stipulated date, this doesn't mean that the games will take place in the usual arenas. The league is considering using smaller establishments in the same cities to resist the emptiness of a giant stadium.

Remember, this is a hopeful date, meaning that even if you could see NBA action back in mid-June, some changes will still happen. What changes do you ask? Well, firstly, NBA can't go into September as previously mentioned, so the regular season may be shortened if necessary. The other format specified, was the idea of Brooklyn Nets point guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who brought the plan of making a 30-team tournament, with regular-season records providing the standings for the competition.

Nothing is definite yet, but alternatives are must being discussed. The NBA has been affected by the coronavirus, with many flagship players been diagnosed with it, some of the statures of Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, and most notably Kevin Durant.

In other minor basketball news, the G-League, NBA's development competition, is expected to cancel their season officially. They would still pay the players according to reports.