2016 NBA Finals: Revised Format, Schedule and More
The NBA announced changes to the schedule format for the 2016 NBA Finals on Wednesday. The league confirmed there will now be two days between games when the series must change locations.
Marc Stein of ESPN reported that altering the approach, which previously locked the games into either Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday, is part of an ongoing effort to build more recovery time into the schedule. It goes for both the regular season and the playoffs, as NBA Vice President of Basketball Operations Kiki Vandeweghe discussed last month.
"Our focus was really on players' rest and recuperation," Vandeweghe said, per ESPN. "We've worked hard with the teams, the broadcast partners and the venues to get the overall travel down and more time between games."
As a result, here's how the Finals schedule will look next June:
| 1 | Thursday, June 2 |
| 2 | Sunday, June 5 |
| 3 | Wednesday, June 8 |
| 4 | Friday, June 10 |
| 5* | Monday, June 13 |
| 6* | Thursday, June 16 |
| 7* | Sunday, June 19 |
Last season's championship series, which featured the Golden State Warriors defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games, ended June 16. So the league has been able to revamp the schedule without adding any additional dates.
That was a crucial factor for one of the league's most influential people. San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich told Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News back in March that he was drawing a red line at the end of June.
"I think the season is long enough," Popovich said. "I will not come to work in July. If there's a game in July, count me out."
Asked if that included NBA Finals games, he confirmed his stance: "Count me out. Count me out. Life is too short."
Now, of course, it's unlikely Popovich would have walked away from his team on July 1 ahead of a potential Game 7 with the title on the line, but his point is clear. Even a coach with an aging group of stars in Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili doesn't want to stretch the season out too long just to build in more rest.
The ESPN report noted that the number of back-to-back games and instances where teams play four times in five nights have been reduced for the 2015-16 season. The schedule-makers also took teams changing time zones into greater account.
Given that they were able to lessen the burden without lengthening the schedule, perhaps the only question is why they didn't make the changes sooner.
Hopefully the alterations will help keep players healthier over the course of the year. As injuries mounted during last season's playoffs, the postseason started to become more of a survival of the fittest than anything else.
