Hours after Luka Doncic criticized the idea of the NBA play-in tournament, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told ESPN the concept is “a big mistake,” especially given the tight schedule of the NBA season.
“I understand why the NBA is doing it,” Cuban said in a series of messages to ESPN. “But if we want to be creative because of COVID, we have to go straight from 1 to 20 and let the last 4 play their way in. This is the specific year to do that as the 10 games have been eliminated. [del calendario normal de 82 juegos ] they were in conference ”.
“The worst thing about this approach is that it doubles the stress of the compressed schedule. Instead of playing for a playoff spot and allowing players to rest as the standings become clearer, teams should approach each game as a playoff game to “Or stay in the top 6 because, as Luka said, the consequences are huge. So the players play more games and more minutes in less days.”
The board of the NBA, which also includes Cuban, unanimously approved a proposal to implement a play-in tournament for this season, after the league first used it for the play-in. offs in the summer bubble of 2020.
“In retrospect, that proposal was a big mistake,” Cuban told ESPN.
Dallas (29-24) is seventh in the Western Conference standings, which means they have to compete in the play-in tournament if they can’t get a promotion. The Mavs are two games behind the Portland Trail Blazers, who own the tiebreaker between the teams for beating Dallas in two of their three encounters.
“I don’t understand the idea of a play-in,” said Doncic on Monday. “You play 72 games to make it to the play-offs, then you might lose two in a row and you’re out of the play-offs. So I don’t see the point in that.”
The play-in concept includes teams that finish from seventh to tenth place at each conference. The structure, which the NBA announced in March, includes three games per conference.
The seventh and eighth place teams face off, with the winner taking the seventh seed. The ninth and tenth place teams also play against each other, with the loser eliminated in the playoff battle. Play the loser of “Game Seven-Eight” and the winner of “Game Nine-Ten”, with the eighth seed at stake in the playoffs.
“In a regular season of 82 games, where we played no more than 30 games in 6 weeks, it could have turned out fine,” Cuban told ESPN. “But the compression of so many games in so few days makes it a big mistake. If we had gone from 1 to 16, with the top 12, it would still have been difficult, but there would have been more separation between the game. . in and the first. 12. This is a season where we have to let demanding players rest. We have no choice. And that can and will have consequences. “
The Mavericks generally rest Kristaps Porzingis before a match during back-to-back games and occasionally rest Doncic for stretching exercises in the back-to-backs.