Report: NBA Finals Contenders Seek Playoff Advantages Without Home Court

The NBA is finalizing its plan for a return to play after the league's coronavirus suspension, with the 2020 postseason likely held at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando. 

The NBA's decision to host the playoffs at a single quarantined site will eliminate home court advantage, negating a benefit for some of the league's top teams. But it appears as though a slate of Finals contenders are looking for alternative advantages aside from home court.

Several "title favorites," are discussing potential advantages aside from home court in the playoffs, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin. And there are no shortage of ideas under consideration. 

Organizations have discussed a scenario in which the higher-seeded team receives possession to start the second, third and fourth quarters, and those teams could also receive an extra coach's challenge. There is also consideration for a plan in which the higher-seeded team can choose one player who won't foul out until his seventh foul. 

None of the aforementioned ideas have been accepted by the NBA, though they were discussed at the NBA's competition committee meeting on Tuesday, per McMenamin. And while the potential advantages would provide top teams a boost, it could set off a change of unintended consequences. 

"For each problem you're trying to fix, you're potentially creating other problems," a league executive told McMenamin. 

The NBA hopes to settle on a format the 2020 playoffs in a Board of Governors meeting set for Thursday. In addition to potential advantages for top seeds, the NBA is expected to propose a 22-team return-to-play plan, per The Athletic's Shams Charania. The league's 16 playoff teams will play in Orlando as well as the six teams who are within six games of the No. 8 seed in their respective conference, per Charania. After eight regular-season games, a play-in tournament is expected to be held for the No. 8 seed.

"If the ninth seed is more than four games behind the eighth seed, the eighth seed earns the playoff spot," Charania wrote on Wednesday. "If the ninth seed is four or fewer games behind, then the eighth and ninth seed will enter a play-in tournament that is double-elimination for the eighth seed and single-elimination for ninth."

The NBA is targeting July 31 as its resumption date for the 2019-20 season. Game 7 of the Finals will be played no later than Oct. 12.