New York Knicks 2019-20 season is over, per NBA return-to-play proposal

The New York Knicks 2019-20 season is over.

The New York Knicks will finish the season with a 21-45 record, as the NBA voted on a return-to-play proposal that excludes them from the resumption of the 2019-20 season.

The NBA’s Board of Governors voted 29-1 on Thursday to ratify the 22-team plan that will see the season resume in Orlando on July 31.

According to ESPN, the 16 teams currently in the playoffs based on the standings as of March 11 will return to play, along with New Orleans, Portland, Phoenix, Sacramento, and San Antonio in the West, and Washington in the East.

Each of the 22 teams will play eight regular season games before a potential play-in tournament is used to determine the eighth seeds for the playoffs, as outlined by The Athletic below:

"“The play-in tournament would work as follows, according to sources: If the ninth seed is more than four games behind the eighth seed, the eighth seed earns the playoff spot; if the ninth seed is four or fewer games behind, then the eighth and ninth seed will enter a play-in tournament that is double-elimination for the eighth seed and single-elimination for ninth.”"

New York Knicks will focus on their head coaching search.

A report by the New York Times on Wednesday joined several other reports in putting Tom Thibodeau as the “overwhelming favorite” to become the next coach of the Knicks. Leon Rose will begin the interview process in earnest once it is officially announced that the Knicks season is over, which will seemingly come on Thursday.

It is unclear how the lottery odds will be impacted by the return-to-play plan. The Knicks currently hold the 6th best lottery odds for the number one overall pick in the upcoming NBA draft.

It would seem logical for those odds to remain the same, with teams on the playoff bubble who will play for a potential playoff spot seeing their odds accordingly adjusted based on how they perform in Orlando. But nothing has been officially reported.

The next dates to circle on the calendar for the Knicks are August 25 when the NBA draft lottery will be conducted and October 15 for the actual NBA draft.

This is a breaking story. Please check back as more details become available.