With each passing day, the playoff possibilities of a handful of teams, including the Sacramento Kings, get more and more bleak.
We are now nearly two full months in to the NBA’s hiatus due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and there are still far more questions that answers. For the teams that were on the outside of the playoff picture looking in on March 11th, their season may very well be over, and that includes the Sacramento Kings.
With each passing day, it has felt more and more unlikely that the NBA will be able to continue its regular season. There are just too many events and off season processes to take place that the league may simply run out of time. They will surely do their best to attempt to salvage what they can of the 2019-’20 playoffs, but a timetable for that has not been set either.
In a tweet that he sent out on Friday afternoon, Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports confirmed that whatever decision the NBA makes, it may not be a good one for teams like the Kings:
Yahoo Sources: Adam Silver acknowledged there would be a “series of bad options” to decide on pertaining to teams on bubble of making playoffs. He couldn’t guarantee those teams would have a chance to earn a playoff berth if hiatus extends too far out.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) May 8, 2020
This is tough news not only for fans in Sacramento, but New Orleans, Portland, and San Antonio as well. There was a good chance that one of those teams was going to be able to catch the idol Memphis Grizzlies for the 8th and final playoff spot. But now, coming straight from the commissioner himself (according to Haynes’ sources, of course), it looks as though the four outsiders could be out of luck entirely.
“A series of bad options” is apparently what the NBA has to choose from, making it a “lesser of two/three evils” situation. So what could those options be? And is there really a series of them?
It seems as though there is just one bad option, and that would be cancelling the regular season altogether. Anything else would give the other teams a chance to qualify, which sounds like a fine scenario at this point given what the league and its fans have been through over the last two months.
There have been steps made in the right direction over the last week, as certain teams will begin to open their facilities to players for workouts. Kings players will be able to get some shots up starting on Monday, pending any setbacks.
For continued coverage on when the NBA and the Sacramento Kings will return to action, stay tuned to A Royal Pain.