Interesting tidbits from Marc Berman at the New York Post.

He dropped a story today with some information regarding NBA playoff scenarios, citing sources who are privy to executive-level discussions.

Writes Berman:

Though news of the coronavirus pandemic has been discouraging, NBA executives still cling to hope of arranging a one-site, fan-less, 16-team playoff and a five-to-seven-game regular-season prelude, according to multiple NBA sources.

…

The playoffs could be reduced to a slew of best-of-three series across the board. A single-elimination format has been all but ruled out — only under consideration as a last resort.

….

The obvious destination for a one-site event is UNLV in Las Vegas, which has hosted recent summer leagues with all 30 clubs. Hotels are plentiful. One destination reportedly discussed was the Bahamas. According to an NBA source, there’s also been internal talks about Orlando, Atlantic City, Hawaii and Louisville hosting the playoffs.

Atlantic City? Why the hell not? There’s plenty of hotel space down there, it’s pretty easy to get to, and it’s not some massive COVID-19 hot spot with a bazillion people stacked on top of each other. You could probably fit every single team inside of Revel with room to spare.

UNLV also sounds fantastic, and that’s probably the easiest thing to pull off logistically because they’ve done summer league in Vegas for some time now, as Berman mentions.

It would seem inevitable that we’re going the closed door, central location route here. That looks like the safest way to proceed. Other leagues have discussed similar ideas, such as the EPL, where leaders reportedly talked about the possibility of playing isolated games that are broadcast from World Cup-style sites. That’s much easier for 20 teams in a smaller country to pull off, whereas 30 NBA teams with essential personnel would have to travel across the country to the new location.

Not sure how you feel about something like that, but if it’s a choice between playing in front of empty arenas or not playing at all, I’m choosing the former without hesitation.