Philadelphia 76ers: NBA Approves 22-Team Format for July

The Philadelphia 76ers are set to continue the 2019-2020 NBA season next month, according to a report from ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Ever since the NBA went on its mandatory hiatus back on March 11th due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was unclear if and when the league was going to come back to crown a champion or not.

Initially, decision-makers around the league had their doubts. At a point, there was growing pessimism, and some believed the 2019-2020 NBA season could officially be canceled before summertime approaches.

But that belief wouldn't last long. Over the last month or so, the NBA has worked hard on a return-to-action plan. Knowing they wouldn't allow fans to attend games for the remainder of the season, Adam Silver and the league looked into finding a single-site area to host teams utilizing a 'bubble-city' concept. After considering many cities, the NBA eventually settled on ESPN's World Wide of Sports in Orlando, Florida.

Now, 22 teams will flock to Orlando in July to continue the 2019-2020 NBA season on the 31st. Sixteen of those teams have locked in one of the eight playoff seeds in their respective conference. The other six organizations will fight for one of the final seeds with a play-in tournament. For the Eastern Conference, the Washington Wizards are the only outsiders looking to crack a final playoff berth, potentially.

While the Sixers have been a disappointment to many this season, the team has officially clinched a playoff spot. Currently, the 76ers will resume the season as the sixth-seed in the East -- but they will have eight additional regular-season games to try and improve their rankings this summer.

Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Sports Illustrated. You can follow him on Twitter: @JGrasso_