With the sudden resurgence of Denver to .500, and with Durant/Westbrook coming back soon off injury, there are 12 teams all gunning for the playoffs in the West, where in the East there are maybe 4 quality teams. Why on earth does the NBA choose convenient scheduling over putting out an excellent post-season product?
so where do you think top teams get their 60+ win records? so most teams win 40-45 wins. The league is more balanced Why not abolish playoff seeding and just do it randomly with lottery balls?
I've been begging for an end to conferences in the NBA for ages. The cost and time of travel nowadays is an afterthought. It creates such imbalance when one conference is weaker, which has been the case for 15 years. I can count numerous times where a team that would have missed the playoffs out west, has not only made the playoffs out east, but even advanced. Not to mention all the years where the Finals was an afterthought because the real title series was the WCF. Just do a 1-16 bracket, not only would things be fair, but it would really create greater incentive to get a high seed. I think it would help the east in the long run, because mediocrity would stop being rewarded with playoff success.
conferences breed rivalries. MEeting teams over and over again in the playoffs becomes far less likely if you eliminate conferences.
Really? So Dallas vs Houston would b more exciting, if they were in different conference? Since the Late 90's to 2010 the biggest rivalry has been Lakers vs Spurs. The Bad Boy's biggest rival was the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan. No need for conferences for there to be rivals.
Conferences will last as long as the 82 game season does. No way players and coaches would sign off on increasing the chance of a back-to-back hopping from Portland to Miami. And as a practical matter I'm theoretically in favor of a shorter season, but it really messes with stat keeping and would make it hard to compare stats from different eras, so I think it would take a lot of persuasion and isn't likely in the immediate future. That said, you could re-seed the playoff schedule as a simple 16-team bracket with the best from both conferences without having to change regular-season scheduling. I'd be in favor of that. It would still skew advantage to the East as it's much easier to have a top 16 record with an East schedule than a West schedule, but it's a hell of a lot better than the travesty of fairness we've had recently, with an average difference between the two conferences' 8 seeds of nearly 10 wins in the last six non-lockout seasons.
Or let everyone join the playoffs... that way everybody wins. Championships aren't that important anymore. What matters most are the friendship and camaraderie between players across the league.
I think what you can do is have all the teams play equal amounts of games against each other regardless of conference but then seed the playoffs by conference. That way you get a more even representation of strength of schedule between the conferences. Of course that will mean longer travel distances.
it has actually been about the same records every season, tanking isn't rebuilding which is unfortunately what a lot of East teams are doing at the moment
They should re-do the divisions and have the 4 like in earlier days. If you look at the map this makes much more sense: WEST Pacific division: The current 5 + Blazers, Jazz & Nuggets Midwest division (southwest): The current 5 + Thunder & Hawks EAST Central division: The current 5 + Raptors & Twolves Atlantic division: The current 4 + Wizards, Hornets, Magic & Heat Only the Hawks and Twolves would change conferences, which would not be so bad since Atlanta & Memphis are very close and could become a potential rival. Minnesota and Chicago are already rivals in other sports so could also be a potential NBA rival and distance wise it also makes sense. The only problem is that as of right now, the Midwest would be even tougher (OKC when they are healthy) and does not really shift the balance. However, with more inner-division competition and division winners guaranteed #1 and #2 spot in the conference, it should make it better. Then 3-6 is just based on record.
Edited post: They should re-do the divisions and have the 4 like in earlier days. If you look at the map this makes much more sense: WEST Pacific division: The current 5 + Blazers, Jazz & Nuggets Midwest division (southwest): The current 5 + Thunder & Hawks EAST Central division: The current 5 + Raptors & Twolves Atlantic division: The current 4 + Wizards, Hornets, Magic & Heat Only the Hawks and Twolves would change conferences, which would not be so bad since Atlanta & Memphis are very close and could become a potential rival. Minnesota and Chicago are already rivals in other sports so could also be a potential NBA rival and distance wise it also makes sense. The only problem is that as of right now, the Midwest would be even tougher (OKC when they are healthy) and does not really shift the balance. However, with more inner-division competition and division winners guaranteed #1 and #2 spot in the conference, it should make it better. Then 3-6 is just based on record. FORGOT TO MENTION that what this should also do is allow more games within the division (up to 5 like back in the day) and then less between any other divison, regardless of conference. For the current southwest division, this could also mean more games (up to 4) against the Heat, Magic, Hornets while playing less against the Blazers, Kings and Warriors. For the Thunder, Nuggets & Jazz this could mean more games against the Bulls, Bucks & Cavaliers.
"Great idea, let's abolish conferences, and give all teams the ability to fight for seeds 1-16, with automatic playoff berths given to the Lakers, and whatever team LeBron is on each season. It's the NBA's dream scenario." -Adam Silver
It should just be top 16 teams. It's dumb that the west has multiple teams over 500 not making playoffs, while the easy has multiple under 500 making the playoffs. Adam silver won't change it because he knows the nba golden child lebron would probably never make it to the semi finals. I honestly believe if lebron played in the west for a team that only had 1 other Allstar on it like most teams he probably rarely make it to the WCF
And I thought the OLD Midwest division was the toughest in the NBA back THEN, it would truly be murderer's row with OKC in there as well, along with the teams already there now.
