Mark Cuban reacts to play-in tournament

The NBA expanded its playoff play-in concept for this season after the NBA bubble’s success last summer at Walt Disney World. Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic criticized the NBA’s play-in tournament for the bottom two playoff spots in each conference.

“I don’t understand the idea of a play-in,” Mavericks star Luka Doncic said, Monday night, via ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “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.”

Mark Cuban remarks 

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban chimed in with his thoughts on the play-in tournament.

“It doubles the stress of the compressed schedule,” Cuban said. “Rather than playing for a playoff spot and being able to rest players as the standings become clearer, teams have to approach every game as a playoff game to either get into or stay in the top six since the consequences, as Luka said, are enormous. So players are playing more games and more minutes in fewer days.”

Cuban has an option of the NBA can handle the season:

Cuban has an option of the NBA can handle the season:
“I get why the NBA is doing it,” Cuban said in a series of messages to ESPN. “But if we are going to be creative because of COVID, we should go straight up 1-20 and let the bottom four play in. This is the year particularly to do it since the 10 games cut [from the normal 82-game schedule] were in conference.

Cuban was a part of the NBA board of governors who unanimously approved the proposal to place a play-in tournament for this season after using in the NBA bubble last year.

Mark Cuban says the current play-in tournament "was an enormous mistake" in hindsight, partly due to the season's compressed schedule, per @espn_macmahon pic.twitter.com/DUBISzRfTc

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 13, 2021

Dallas Mavericks season

Dallas (29-24) is in seventh place in the Western Conference standings currently. The Mavericks would have to participate in the play-in tournament if they can’t move up in seeding. They are currently two games behind the Portland Trail Blazers, who own the tiebreaker between the teams after beating Dallas two out of three games this season.

The seventh and eighth place teams play each other, with the winner earning the seventh seed. The ninth and 10th place teams also play each other, with the loser eliminated from playoff contention. The loser of the 7-8 game and winner of the 9-10 game then play, with the eighth playoff seed at stake.

“Courtesy of ESPN“