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Report: NBA players “adamant” about not going straight to playoffs

Photo: Katharine Lotze/Getty Images

As the NBA continues to weigh options for a return to play, the consensus among players is to not rush straight into the playoffs.

On SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne made note that players are in agreement on playing some regular season games before moving to the playoffs.

“I think the NBA players are adamant right now that they do not just want to have 16 teams and go right to the playoffs,” Shelburne said. “Nobody wants to have, what is essentially going to be a four-month layoff, the last game was March 11. We’re talking about late July, early August. That’s four months between games. And nobody wants the first meaningful game that they play to be a playoff game. They need some time to find their groove again, get some chemistry back in their teams. And there’s the injury risk.”

Commissioner Adam Silver reportedly hopes to make a decision regarding the season in early-to-mid-June.

The league has had discussions with Disney about making the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida a possible “bubble” site to resume games.

It still remains unclear how many teams will be involved and what the format will be, but it seems pretty clear that players need some “ramp up” time before playing in live action again.

Shelburne outlined what that would potentially look like.

“You have a couple regular-season games, probably five to seven, and then you have that play-in tournament,” Shelburne said. “The players do not want to come back and go straight into a playoff.”

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