NBA Playoff Preview: The Play-in Tournament

Why the New Playoff Wrinkle is a Great Idea to Spice things up and Spark Interest in teams that, frankly, nobody really cares about all that much

The beginning of the NBA Playoffs is always one of the best days on the sports calendar. This year is no different. In fact, this years playoffs are shaping up to be one the best brackets in recent history. One of the main reasons why is because of the new playoff wrinkle: the play-in tournament.

The idea of a play-in tournament was introduced last season during the NBA bubble in Orlando.

The bubble’s version of the play-in was as follows: If the ninth seed within a conference finished the regular season within four games of the eighth seed, they would then compete in a play-in series to determine who would be the eighth seed.

The catch was that the eighth seed had to win just once to advance to the playoffs whereas the ninth seed had to win twice.

This idea of a play-in tourney was implemented as a way to spark greater interest in fans since usually nobody really cares about who ends up as the seventh and eighth seeds in each conference besides fans of those respected franchises. Those teams usually end up losing in the first round anyways.

This season the idea of a play-in tourney has been expanded upon further.