Per Woj and Lowe:
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...eding-conference-finalists-postseason-play-in
The whole article has a decent amount of detail, but the three basic proposals (which appear to be independent) are these:
1) Re-seeding Playoff Semis By Record: For this proposal, it sounds as if the playoffs would continue as normal (or, see #3 below) until there are four teams remaining, at which point the Conference Finals series would be eliminated and the teams would be re-seeded by regular-season record. Effectively, this would allow two teams from the same conference to meet in the finals, but would still have two from each conference in the final four teams.
2) A Mid-Season "Tournament": This one is weird. There would be a slate of within-division regular-season games (how many, we don't know) that would be played presumably in November/December. Based on the results of these "special" regular-season games, six division winners and two more teams (essentially wild cards) would enter into an eight-team single-elimination tournament to be held around Christmastime (as non-regular-season games). Note that as a result, at least partially, of this in-season tournament, that could add 3 games to some teams' schedules, the regular season slate of games would apparently be reduced to 78 games from the current 82.
3) Ten Teams To Make Playoffs Per Conference: For this proposal, only the top six teams in each conference would get an automatic playoff series. The 7th spot would be awarded in a single-game playoff between the 7th and 8th place teams. The loser of the 7/8 game would play the winner of a 9/10 game in another single game playoff for the 8th spot.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...eding-conference-finalists-postseason-play-in
The whole article has a decent amount of detail, but the three basic proposals (which appear to be independent) are these:
1) Re-seeding Playoff Semis By Record: For this proposal, it sounds as if the playoffs would continue as normal (or, see #3 below) until there are four teams remaining, at which point the Conference Finals series would be eliminated and the teams would be re-seeded by regular-season record. Effectively, this would allow two teams from the same conference to meet in the finals, but would still have two from each conference in the final four teams.
2) A Mid-Season "Tournament": This one is weird. There would be a slate of within-division regular-season games (how many, we don't know) that would be played presumably in November/December. Based on the results of these "special" regular-season games, six division winners and two more teams (essentially wild cards) would enter into an eight-team single-elimination tournament to be held around Christmastime (as non-regular-season games). Note that as a result, at least partially, of this in-season tournament, that could add 3 games to some teams' schedules, the regular season slate of games would apparently be reduced to 78 games from the current 82.
3) Ten Teams To Make Playoffs Per Conference: For this proposal, only the top six teams in each conference would get an automatic playoff series. The 7th spot would be awarded in a single-game playoff between the 7th and 8th place teams. The loser of the 7/8 game would play the winner of a 9/10 game in another single game playoff for the 8th spot.