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Although the NBA play-in tournament, akin to the one that took place last year, was unanimously voted to take place in the 2020-21 season by the league's governors, it has come under considerable criticism recently.
The structure of the tournament is simple - teams that finish ninth and tenth in their conference will have a second chance to make the postseason by first playing each other, and then facing the winner of a 7th/8th place playoff.
Although it was put together to add some additional excitement before the playoffs, as well as making the regular season more competitive, some see it as unduly unfair to the teams that finish in the 'traditional' postseason berths.
NBA play-in tournament gets brought into question
Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic was the most recent player to voice his frustration with the NBA Play-in Tournament after his side lost their third game in four matchups on Monday. The Mavs sit 7th in a stacked Western Conference and are two games behind the Trail Blazers in 6th with less than twenty fixtures left.
After the Mavericks lost 113-95 to the 76ers, Doncic let his annoyance toward the NBA play-in tournament be known to the postgame media:
"I don't understand the idea of a play-in, you play 72 games to get into the playoffs, then maybe you lose two in a row and you're out of the playoffs. So I don't see the point of that."
The Dallas Mavericks have held the 7th seed since the 29th of March though are only 2.5 games ahead of the Spurs in ninth. They will certainly feel aggrieved that, should they finish where they are currently and not make the playoffs, they have been robbed of a chance to make a deeper postseason run than last year.
Playing two one-off games does seem unfair to teams who could finish the season multiple games ahead of the team two or three places below them in the final standings. Concerning enough as this is for Dallas, their home record this season is also cause for unease, losing 12 of 25 matchups.
Another team in the play-in positions are the Golden State Warriors, who having won their last two games, have held onto the tenth seed in the West. Their defensive leader Draymond Green, however, does not see the NBA play-in tournament as a motivation to win games. He recently stated that he hates losing and doesn't want to win just to make it into a play-in position.
Therefore, although the prospect of a play-in place gives more impetus to teams who would usually accept a losing season, it brings the competition of the league somewhat into disrepute and may cause long-term issues. For now, the Mavs will have to hope they can either climb the rankings or fight off those below in the NBA play-in tournament.
Guess the Lakers players!
