Amid the NBA suspension, many questions are begining to emerge about what it means for the season going forward.
How will this affect the MVP race? Will this allow injured stars to return? Will the league continue where they left off, or will they jump straight to the playoffs?
In regard to the latter question, Stephen A. Smith provided his take on ESPN, saying he’d like to see the NBA play out the rest of the regular season rather than just jump straight to playoff basketball.
“Absolutely not just jump to the playoffs. They should finish the season. The Lakers right now are 49-14, the last time I checked 49 plus 14 equals 63. The reality of the situation is you got about 19 games left in the season, finish the season. After a month layoff, if not longer considering the circumstances that nobody could have predicted, the reality is that to just come back and jump into the playoffs considering the lack of preparation, lack of practice time, lack of cohesiveness, particularly after you’ve been playing all season long, then you take that kind of hiatus — I don’t like it at all.”
Stephen A. makes a fair point here. To just jump into playoff basketball after months of no basketball at all seems like a tough adjustment for teams to make.
Playing out the regular season would allow teams to get their legs back under them in time to compete for a title.
But there is a possibility that the NBA doesn’t return at all. Truth be told, nobody is sure what to expect in the weeks and months to come. We are truly walking in uncharted waters.
.
