Why The Oklahoma City Thunder Should Prefer The Standard Playoff Format And To Skip The Regular Season

As we get closer to the potential resume of the 2019-20 NBA season, there are quite a few scenarios that are being proposed. While each is unique and has its own upside, the Oklahoma City Thunder should prefer to skip the remainder of the regular season, go straight to the playoffs, and play the standard playoff format.

For starters, it appears the NBA season in some capacity would resume at Walt Disney World in Orlando in order to isolate players and staff from the outside world. This results in no home-court advantage for any teams as fans would not be allowed in the arena.

As far as how the season would resume, there are four main scenarios that have been discussed by the NBA and the Board of Governors. Only one of the four skips straight to the playoffs, while the other three either include more regular season games or some sort of play-in format.

While there is still no clarity on which format will be chosen, the Oklahoma City Thunder should prefer the league to take 16 teams to the playoffs immediately based on their current position.

They have worked so hard to get to the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference and playing more regular season games could end up being bad for them. Even if they move up in the standings, they could end up playing a team like the Houston Rockets. If they end up moving down in the standings, they could end up playing a team like the LA Clippers.

Oklahoma City should also prefer to play the traditional Eastern Conference and Western Conference playoff style. There has been talks of executing on a 1-16 playoff format, with no conference breakout, which would not benefit the Thunder when it comes to matchups as they stand now. At this point, they would be looking at a first-round matchup against either the Miami Heat or Utah Jazz depending on which format took place.

If the 2020 NBA Playoffs are not conference specific and teams are seeded 1-16, the Thunder would take on the Heat. To this point in the season, these teams only played one time, resulting in a Miami victory 115-108 back in January.

Oklahoma City found themselves down 40-26 at end of first quarter before attempting to claw back in fourth quarter per usual, but it was not enough. While the Thunder had a balanced scoring attach in this game, Miami’s offense was too much to handle. Danilo Gallinari (27 points), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (18), Dennis Schroder (18), Chris Paul (14), Hamidou Diallo (11), and Nerlens Noel (10) all scored in double figures. It was a game in which Steven Adams was out due to injury.

To combat the Thunder’s six players who scored in double digits, Miami had seven with Kendrick Nunn (22), Bam Adebayo (21), Jimmy Butler (14), Duncan Robinson (14), Derrick Jones Jr. (13), Kelly Olynyk (12), and Goran Dragic (10). Miami didn't even play rookie Tyler Herro who is also a lethal scorer, even for his age. Jimmy Butler was the best player on the floor with ten rebounds and seven assists to go along with his 14 points.

Although it was only one game, the Heat were a better team. A first-round matchup for Oklahoma City would be brutal if it were against Miami. They also recently added veteran Andre Iguodala at the trade deadline. They also nearly acquired Danilo Gallinari from the Thunder as well before contract extension negotiations fell through.

With all this being said, the Oklahoma City Thunder are a tough team as well and were one of the hottest teams in the NBA before the season was put on pause. Even if they were to play a team like the Miami Heat in the first round, nobody should count them out.

On paper, however, who might be a better matchup for the Thunder would be the Utah Jazz. If the NBA decided to go with the traditional playoff format and skip the regular season, the Jazz would hold the No. 4 seed and the Thunder would hold the No. 5 seed. Since there won't be any home court advantage, this would be an extremely even matchup.

What works out in the Thunder’s favor is everything that has happened recently with Utah. There were several reports of there being chemistry issues between Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert when the league was shut down due to coronavirus, although it doesn't appear that will make a major impact on their on-court play. Additionally, the second leading scorer on the Jazz, Bojan Bogdanovic was recently announced as out for the season.

Oklahoma City and Utah split the two games the played this season, with the Jazz winning by 5 in October followed by the Thunder winning by 14 in December. In both of these contests, Ruby Gobert and Donovan Mitchell were incredible, combining for 84 points and 49 rebounds in the two matchups. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 20 or more points for the Thunder in both matchups and Steven Adams was a monster on the glass with 24 rebounds between the two games. The matchups of Steven Adams vs Rudy Gobert, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs Donovan Mitchell, and Chris Paul vs Mike Conley would be fascinating.

With Bogdanovic out for the year, Utah will have to heavily rely on Conley who has had an extremely rough season. Considering Oklahoma City has the best point guard depth in the entire NBA, a matchup against the Jazz would be ideal.

Both in the same division, Utah playing Oklahoma City would be a ton of fun. Although the Thunder roster is much different now, Oklahoma City fans would love to knock off the Jazz in the first round as payback for the 2018 NBA Playoffs.

What is ironic is that the 2019-20 NBA season was actually put on pause due to what happened prior to a Thunder/Jazz game tipping off. It would feel so natural to pick back up in the playoffs with the same two teams taking the court.

Again, there are so many different scenarios that could affect the Oklahoma City Thunder’s potential first-round playoff matchups, but if we go straight into the playoffs, they should prefer to play the Utah Jazz over the Miami Heat.