Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel applauds several of the league innovations introduced during the NBA’s summer restart on the Orlando Disney World campus.
Winderman has special praise for the play-in game option ahead of the playoffs between the eighth and ninth seeds of either conference, if they are within four games of each other. He also cites the league’s wider court layouts and sideline buffers as excellent innovations. Winderman hopes to see these changes for the NBA restart permanently implemented ahead of the 2020/21 season.
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Shooting guard O.J. Mayo will remain in the Chinese Basketball Association for the 2020/21 season, according to Dario Skerletic of Sportando. Mayo will re-sign with Liaoning, for whom he averaged 28 PPG, 6 RPG, 3 APG and 2 SPG. The 32-year-old, drafted with the third pick in 2008 by Memphis, spent eight years in the NBA, playing for the Grizzlies, Mavericks, and Bucks. Mayo was suspended in 2016 for two years after violating the NBA’s Anti-Drug Program.
- Due to the coronavirus pandemic, NBA college scouts will not be permitted in team practices during the 2020/21 season, per Adam Zagoria of Forbes.com. Additionally, scouts will only be allowed into games that the general public can also view in-person. NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Kiki Vandeweghe alerted league personnel to these developments in an email today.
- As we previously mentioned, recently retired eight-time All-Star Vince Carter was gifted with the 2019/20 NBA Sportsmanship Award.
I can’t believe OJ Mayo is only 32.
Yeah that hit me too. That age he can still play a few yrs. He blew a nice career. Avg 28 in CBA. Must have something left.
Play-in games are a dumb fabrication. What even are they? There will always be drama when the stragglers try to climb aboard; the race doesn’t need a special title. By making it 18 of 30 qualifying instead of 16, the competition gets watered down to the point where the teams would rather lose and be in the lottery.
Adding empty space between the benches and the court costs big money. It comes at the expense of high-dollar customers.
The transparent shield behind the bench is what is most important and is likely to survive.
Agree that loss of courtside floor seats is going to cost teams a fortune, only it’s something many have been calling for now for years. Including the players union. I’m not so sure it will go away.
Disagree that the play in tournament for the 8th seed is bad. That slot is mostly irrelevant in the actual playoffs. Why not let a couple more markets get a chance to extend the season?
Because if you’re Brad Stevens at the #8, you tell your team you won’t get far, but you can make your impression in other ways. That is a call to injure, so the Cavs play in the finals without KLove.
If a team is going nowhere, they don’t belong. That is why there’s an RS and the playoffs are seperate.
It’s already a long season at 82 games.
You forget why it’s done. Regular yr they won’t have it.
Mayo must be SOME kind of stupid. Loses MILLIONS because he needs his drugs. Plays a game for millions and yet so amazingly stupid that he needs to do his drugs.