Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban calls NBA playoffs play-in tournament ‘enormous mistake’

Not long after Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic criticized the NBA's play-in tournament for the bottom two playoff spots in each conference, his boss offered his own analysis.

The conclusion was largely the same, as Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told ESPN that the compressed schedule combined with the pursuit of a top-six seed is a non-sequitur. 

"It doubles the stress of the compressed schedule," Cuban said. "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 6 since the consequences, as Luka said, are enormous. So players are playing more games and more minutes in fewer days."

The concept of a play-in tournament derived from the league's restart in the Disney bubble last year, and with fewer regular season games on the schedule for 2020-21, the NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved the installation of it again this year. 

"In hindsight, this approach was an enormous mistake," Cuban told ESPN.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban isn't a fan of the NBA's play-in format for the postseason. (Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA TODAY Sports)

Dallas currently is the seventh seed in the Western Conference. If the playoffs started now — and this was Doncic's gripe earlier in the week — it's possible they could lose two games (first to the No. 8 seed, then to the winner of the 9-10 matchup) and not advance any further after 72 games.  

Cuban suggested seeding the entire league 1-20 and then give the bottom four teams an opportunity to play themselves into the postseason. 

"In a regular season of 82 games where we aren't playing 30-plus games in 6 weeks, then it might have been OK," Cuban told ESPN. "But the compression of so many games into so few days makes this an enormous mistake.

"If we had gone 1 to 16, with the top 12 in, it still would have been rough, but there would have been more separation between play-in and the top 12. This is a season where we have to rest high-usage players. We have no choice. And that can and will have consequences."

Follow Chris Bumbaca on Twitter @BOOMbaca.

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