With the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers each holding 3-0 leads in their respective conference finals, the NBA reportedly is exploring moving the start of the Finals.
According to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com: the NBA Finals might be moved up two days to June 2. With the Warriors up 3-0 on the Rockets and the Cavaliers leading 3-0, the league faces the possibility of an eight-day gap between the end of the Eastern Conference Finals and the start of the NBA Finals, scheduled for June 4.
The NBA is exploring the possibility of moving up the start of the NBA Finals to June 2 if both conference finals series end in sweeps, league sources told CBSSports.com Sunday.
It’s complicated and unlikely, sources say, based on television commitments, hotel capacities, international media travel and other considerations. One person familiar with the discussions described them as being in the “very early exploration” stage.
One obvious potential issue would be arena conflicts, but there are no scheduled events at either Oracle Arena or Quicken Loans Arena that would make changing the start date of the Finals problematic from a building perspective.
Warriors forward Draymond Green had no problem addressing the hypothetical situation.
“A little rest would be cool,”
Green said Sunday, according to Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News,
“but June 4th, man, that’s a long time to just not be playing.”
The league is aware of the potential conflict, however, Kawakami reports they will at least consider the possibility of bumping the Finals up to June 2. I personally like this idea and think the league should further pursue it. It would be a great idea for the NBA to leave it as an open-ended format for future playoff series, and determine a better start date as the conference finals progress.
