National Basketball Association

Mark Cuban, Luka Doncic not in favor of keeping the NBA play-in tournament

Updated Jul. 21, 2021 3:39 p.m. ET

By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist

The NBA’s play-in tournament, soon to be back for just the second time, is already finding itself under fire.

The Boston Celtics aren’t planning to make any special concessions for it. Draymond Green doesn’t value it as a worthy target for the Golden State Warriors to aim for.

As for the Dallas Mavericks, all the way from their young superstar Luka Doncic to their long-standing owner Mark Cuban? Well, they absolutely hate it.

"I don’t see the point of [it]," Doncic said.

"It is an enormous mistake," Cuban added.

Why the disdain and antipathy toward a function that has until now been met with nothing except rave reviews? And are these fresh concerns enough to doom the play-in structure moving forward, just when it seemed it was about to become a staple of the NBA calendar?

The Mavericks' complaints are the best place to start, given how suddenly they appeared and how strongly they were worded. Dallas has the most to lose here, given that the team occupies the seventh spot in the Western Conference, previously a relatively safe position that guaranteed a playoff opener against the No. 2 seed.

Play-in action will see the No. 7 and 8 finishers in each conference square off in a single game, with the winner to clinch the seventh seed. The loser will then face the winner of a No. 9 vs. No. 10 game, with the victor of that matchup securing the eighth seed in the playoffs.

At the beginning of the campaign, Dallas might realistically have hoped for better and certainly would have wished to be closer to the conference-topping Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns and LA Clippers. Instead, the Mavs had lost two straight heading into Wednesday and are just 4.5 games ahead of the New Orleans Pelicans in 11th.

That kind of logjam, which frequently appears toward the lower end of the playoff picture, is part of the reason the NBA board of governors, which includes Cuban, ratified the idea for the play-in tournament, first for the Florida bubble and then for this season.

Cuban, however, is now adamant that it was the wrong move.

"The worst part of this approach is that it doubles the stress of the compressed schedule," Cuban told ESPN. "Rather than playing for a playoff spot and being able to rest players as the standings become clearer, teams have to approach every game as a playoff game to either get into or stay in the top six since the consequences are enormous. So players are playing more games and more minutes in fewer days."

His remarks highlight a tricky reality. The need to keep players fresh to help reduce injuries is real and present, yet the league also wants its games to matter, particularly down the stretch, or else the final weeks of the campaign become a yawn.

Doncic was on a similar path, though his point revolved more around competitive fairness.

"I don't understand the idea of a play-in," Doncic told reporters. "You play 72 games to get into the playoffs. Then maybe you lose two in a row, and you're out of the playoffs."

Both have valid points, but there are also legitimate benefits to the play-in. For the bubble season, the concept seemed like a fair way of mitigating the disjointed schedule and preventing teams from being unfairly punished by the halted season and resulting layoff.

It is an enjoyable idea that retains interest for supporters of lower-ranked teams and perhaps limits the temptation to tank. The games themselves should be entertaining, with everything on the line.

Last season, only one play-in game took place, given the requirement that the ninth team be within four games of No. 8 for a play-in to occur. That occurred only in the West, where the Portland Trail Blazers (No. 8) maintained the status quo by beating the Memphis Grizzlies in a single game. To advance, the Grizzlies would have needed to beat Portland twice.

Broadly speaking, the play-in tournament, certainly at this point of the season, is going to have few public defenders. If you’re a top-six team, you don’t want to talk about it and barely want to think about it.

A player such as Green, who has won three NBA titles, can hardly be expected to be enamored by the prospect of clinging to the 10th spot just to retain some sliver of a chance of winning it all. The Warriors are a +10000 shot for the title at FOX Bet.

"I hate losing," Green said recently. "So when I step on the floor, I want to win. But I'll be 100 percent honest with you, fighting for a play-in spot does not motivate me."

Celtics head coach Brad Stevens, whose team currently resides in the No. 5 spot in the East but sits just a game ahead of the No. 8 New York Knicks, said he will not be altering his process of ensuring players are recuperated just to avoid a play-in.

"We will not prioritize our seed over our players’ health," Stevens told reporters. "We will land where we land."

The smatterings of resistance to the play-in tournament aren’t likely to kill it off. Commissioner Adam Silver likes it, and the additional revenue is valuable at a time when all sports have been hit financially by the effects of the pandemic.

Fans generally are firmly on board with the chance, and the all-or-nothing element is something that can be rare in basketball — Game 7s and Olympic gold medal showdowns notwithstanding.

Doncic is one of the game’s brightest stars and Cuban one of its more enterprising owners, and their comments on things that impact the league are always welcome. In this case, however, a cynic might suggest a remedy.

If you don’t like the play-in tournament … play well enough to avoid it.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.