Adam Silver says the NBA Has 'to make a change' to its Playoff Format

..."conference imbalance"

….FT disparities

….the agenda is clearly visible

 

Finally! I hope they take the best 16 teams and reseed them. The disparity is too unfair for Western teams and Lebron has a easy clear path to the Finals every year.

 

Conference Imbalance...yes.

8 teams from each conference? Way too many teams. Making the playoffs in the NBA is not an accomplishment.

 

lol classic.

I was wondering why the hell you wanted us to reload the page.

 

They could draw lotteries like they do in the Champions League.

 

Re-seeding isn't the answer. Because, how do you impartially re-seed, without over-complicating the process.

1. Who decides which team gets matched up with each seed?
2. Will geography be taken into account?
3. If geography is taken into account, what happens in round 2 round 3
4. If seeding dicated that gs is matched up in an eastern bracket that would be unfair
5. what if gs has a better record against one 16 seed team over another 16 seed, there could be a problem here
6. say that the two one seeds (the overall top seed and the second top seed) the overall top seed gets to PICK their matchup against the 16 seed and they pick the BETTER sixteen seed, isn't that unfair to the overall top 16 seed of the two.

 

Nah, 8th seeds have beaten one seeds before.

Besides, those low seeds feature stars ready to grow, guys like Durant and Harden have been low seeds before. I really think it is great experience going into the next season for those guys. Their flaws are exposed in a tough 7 game series and they realize how much better they have to get.

 

Long overdue.

Easiest solution without upsetting the apple cart too much...

1) Division winners get automatic berths
2) Remaining spots given by record
3) Tournament brackets seeded solely by record, so 1-16, 2-15, etc, etc.

Win for sub-par East teams (they get actual draft picks) and for above average West teams (they don't miss the play offs). Most importantly we get to see the best players and teams play the best basketball come play off time and a lower chance of seeing really good teams forced to match up with great teams in the 1st round (GSW-OKC rd 1? Really?)

 

Divisions are stupid, need to scrap them.

 

no kidding. just look at the clippers vs the cavs last night. 44 free throws to 20. no wonder the clippers' players were so upset.

 

Agree this is the easiest way to do it, but it still doesn't fully solve the issue. You'd still likely have teams from the West miss the playoffs that would have had a better record if they'd been able to play more Eastern conference teams throughout the season. Maybe they can do this but remove the rule for the number of games that you must play against conference opponents.

 

Yep.

Scrap divisions and conferences or keep them in name only.

Every team in the league plays every other team twice each in the regular season. This reduces the number of regular season games and the wear and tear on the players.

The top sixteen teams go to the playoffs. Done.

Of course the owners will never ever allow fewer games in the regular season, but I'm just putting it out there.

 

I personally love 1 vs. 8 matchups. Nothing like cheering for an underdog and having a glimmer of hope that a major upset can happen. If and when it does it's freaking awesome.

Warriors taking down the Mavs was epic and I'll never forget the Nugs taking down Sonics and Deke laying on the floor elated. Watching the Spurs get tooled by Memphis was pretty sweet. There's been other close calls and exciting series as well in addition to JayGoogle's point that the lower seeds usually feature a budding superstar.

 

i wasn't able to see the game, but 44-20 does seem excessive even if CLE was beating their asses. i'd like to see some stats for the past 5 weeks on the overall FT disparity in games between East and West teams...

 

Play every team 3 times, cut the preseason to 3 or 4 games. More revenue for the league, and every team plays the same schedule.

 

Yeah, you can't take the top 16 teams and ignore the fact that EC teams get more games against weak competition. IMO, its better to keep the playoffs split than to take a half-measure. If you're to do this for the playoffs, you need to change the fundamental division/conference structure.

 

If you hold out for a complete overhaul, you're far more likely to have nothing change than if you're willing to compromise for partial reform.

You have to remember that abolishing conferences entirely has significant financial impact for teams. Dropping out of the play offs costs money. Traveling further distances cost money.

Evening out conference play also means you're either adding more games to the season (wear and tear), reducing the number of games in the season (losing money), or arbitrarily picking a number of games from an opposing conference which can result in other imbalances (IE, getting games vsAtlanta and Cleveland vs games against the Knicks and Magic).

If you simply seeded by record, then how many games difference are you really talking about? GSW is on track for 68 wins at the moment. If they had the East schedule how many more games would they really win? Atlanta is on track for 67 wins. How many more games would they really lose?

Realistically, balancing games schedules would at most result in 1 team missing the play offs occasionally versus what happens right now, which is every year you're looking at 2-3 very good teams missing the play offs entirely.

Sure, seeding would favor the East somewhat however at least fewer teams are not MISSING the play offs and you're not seeing sub .500 teams in the play offs.

The crime of an Eastern team getting a slightly higher play off seeding or a Western team not having home court is far less egregious than seeing the Rockets, Mavs, Grizzlies, Suns, etc missing the play offs entirely.

Even if it's a half measure, some fix is better than no fix at all. And far easier to negotiate when you need to get a majority of 30 owners on board.