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

A nation divided against itself will not stand.

Spoiler

Toronto wins!

 

Seems to me Silver wants to change the playoff format due to favoritism of the NBA owned New Orleans Pelicans. If they were in the east and the playoff started today, they would be in the playoffs. Just my opinion, that's all

 

The NBA doesn't own the Pelicans and any changes wouldn't apply to this year's playoffs anyway.

 

Um, I want you to think about this for a bit.

 

you're right, but also, Anthony Davis is a main reason for this. Sherly!

 

At this point, the Rockets don't have any real rivals because they have been irrelevant in the playoffs for a long time. But teams that are constantly in the playoffs and constantly facing each other will become rivals, even if only for a short period - as was the case of the Rockets rivalries I described in the 90's. If you mix up the East and West, teams will run into each other in the playoffs much less often.

So why not fix that?

I don't think a team that finishes 9th out of 15 teams has any business in the playoffs either. Who really cares if Phoenix or Atlanta was in the playoffs last year? In either case, you're talking about marginal teams who aren't going to win the NBA title. 95% of the time, they will be first round fodder and no one will think anything about them after the first round of the playoffs.

 

About time...

 

I kind of like this idea. I like having the teams with the best record in there, but having "wildcard" games for spots in question would be interesting. Overall I still just think it should be based purely off of record. the best 16 teams.

 

Rockets had an old rivalry with the Sixers from their time in the Eastern Conference. It's the playoffs that make rivalries, so that shouldn't deter a reformat, new rivalries will arise.

 

get to it silver!

 

You dug up a quote from someone who hasn't posted in over 3 years?

AntiSonic, quit being a lurker and come back.

 

Can anyone give a legitimate argument that would demonstrate how a title has been compromised due to the current NBA playoff setup?

Why should the NBA be the only sport to get rid of conferences? That is what you'd be doing by setting playoff matchups without regard for the conference.

This is such a non-issue and I hope the commish is only trying to get publicity by bringing it up.

The ONLY problem with the NBA playoffs is that the first round should not be a best of 7 and shouldn't be dragged out for a month. This is so obvious but will never be addressed because it would cost money.

 

Does the EPL have conferences? Silver isn't trying to mimic football, you cant cut out market share in a big way by following #1's blueprint, you have to innovate. It seems like he's looking to the biggest sport, soccer, for ways to evolve. He's thinking bigger than worrying about what other people are comfortable with. He's trying to disrupt the market.

 

But SAS has had the #1 seed three out of the last four years.


And they were the #1 seed in four out of their five championships.

 

The argument is logical.

Imagine we have the 2 best teams in College basketball.

If you have to play Duke, Kansas and Gonzaga for 3 x 7 game series, and I get to play Wichita, Iowa State and Kentucky for 3 x 7 game series, then my players will get to take more plays off, my starters will play fewer minutes, my series will be shorter, and my 2nd and 3rd string will get more reps and play time. Meanwhile, your guys will have to play more minutes, will get to jog back on defense more often, and your starters will get more bench time resting.

Sure, it won't necessarily happen every season, but the fact is the easier your road to the Finals, the easier it is to win it since most of the battle is about getting to the Finals.

Would Miami still have 2 titles if they had to run through the Western Conference gauntlet? Maybe. However, having to run through Memphis, SAS and OKC is a very, very different scenario than getting to play Charlotte and the Wizards.

In other words, you can't prove that it would have compromised the Championships, but when people are saying that the Real Championship series took place during the WCF year in and year out then that raises questions about the integrity of the format.

As for the Cyclical argument, that's BS. Just because Eastern teams got screwed in the past and will be screwed at some point in the distant future does not justify the Western teams getting screwed Today.

I couldn't care less if the East rebalances 5, 10 or 15 years from now. In 10 or 15 years I could be dead. I could have a heart attack, be hit by a car, go blind, or be stranded in the wilderness without cable.

I want to see the Best players on the Best teams play NOW, when I know that I have the time and the means to watch them. I wanted to see the Rockets in the play offs while Dragic and Lowry were here instead of watching them wander off to other teams. I want to see Anthony Davis, Durant and Dragic playing in the play offs THIS year, not some time down the line when they may or may not even be on the same teams, or be past their prime or retired.

As a basketball fan, I want to see the best basketball on the court during the play offs season in and season out, not watch Miami steamroll marginal and mediocre teams in the first round.

And honestly, I couldn't care less what other sports do... many of them are run like crap. Are we really going to hold up Goodell and Co as some shining example? Or Bud Selig and his snorefest of a sport?

Just because someone else "does it that way" is not any kind of justification for the NBA to do it that way. Innovation by definition is doing things differently.

If everyone used the past or tradition as a justification for doing things, then we'd all still be using DOS and text menus instead of Window driven interfaces with mice. We'd all still be carrying around Walkman's instead of Ipods.

At best the only argument against Play off reform is travel, but honestly it's not an issue. In past years teams rode buses. Then they flew commercial. Now every team has charter flights or private jets with Internet and fully reclining seats and beds big enough to accommodate 7 footers.

Even if you had teams flying coast to coast they would STILL be taking chartered flights with on board nutritionists, masseuses, private chefs, on board video games, etc.

Read this. These guys aren't exactly laboring in the salt mines...

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203897404578076574126494236

And let's be honest here, what are we really talking about? If you have Houston playing LA how long is that flight? 2 hours in the air? Now fly from LA to NY.. that's 4 hours in the air. Are we really THAT worried about teams flying 2 more hours every 2 days?

Honestly, the only legitimate fan based argument is about time zone (aside from whining about their sub-par team not getting a play off spot). IE, the broadcast time. As it stands now the biggest time zone difference in 2 hours (Pelicans vs LA). If the Clippers had to play in New York it would then be 3 hours. So the issue would be what time games would start and end in terms of local broadcast. An issue, yes. However, I don't think that should preclude from taking away from the level of competition.

The best should play the best, and in the play offs a team shouldn't get an easier road through the play offs just because they're on one coast or the other.

 

It is in the West

 

Current format is fine, don't like the idea of 2 teams in the same conference potentially meeting for a Finals matchup.

Might as well get rid of the divisions and conferences as well.

 

I don't like this idea. Fix the tanking issues first, then work on the playoffs.

 

This 100%