http://www.nba.com/news/realign_031117.html The NBA Board of Governors has approved a realignment plan that will take effect with the start of the 2004-05 season, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced today. The NBA's newest member, the Charlotte Bobcats, will tip off its inaugural season as part of the Eastern Conference while the New Orleans Hornets will move from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference. Each conference will now have a total of 15 teams with three divisions of five teams. Eastern Conference Atlantic Division: Boston Celtics, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Toronto Raptors Central Division: Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks Southeast Division: Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Bobcats, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, Washington Wizards Western Conference Southwest Division: Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Hornets, San Antonio Spurs Northwest Division: Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Portland Trail Blazers, Seattle SuperSonics, Utah Jazz Pacific Division: Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings Under the new plan, teams will play divisional opponents four times each (two home games/two road games), conference opponents outside the division three or four times each and opponents outside the conference two times each (one home game/one road game). The three regular season divisional winners in each conference will earn a playoff berth and one of the conference's top three playoff seeds based on regular season record. The remaining five playoff berths for each conference will be based on regular season records with no regard to divisional alignment. Home-court advantage throughout the NBA playoffs will be based solely on regular season record, not playoff seeding, thus a divisional winner that has a higher playoff seed than an opponent will not necessarily have home-court advantage in the playoff series.
My god, based on the power ranking, San Antonio is 3, Dallas 4, New Orlean 6, Houston 8 and Memphis 14. Unbelievable.
You say best. I say worst. I hate that the division winners will get the top three spots in a intra-conference balanced schedule.
But, once again, it doesn't matter. They might as well not even have separate divisions in conferences... since WE ALL PLAY THE SAME SCHEDULE. Watch out, when in the upcoming years, the NBA decides to just seed the best teams 1-16, no matter what the conference, in order to bridge the ever-widening gap b/t the western and eastern conference. (this is from Feigen's Notebook on Sunday).
Orlando is the best team in the divison without a doubt, yet, they have a 1-9 record this year. The 4 teams in that divison that are playing this year, are 9-30 combined (Washington tops at 3-6). Atlanta, Washington and Miami dont have much to look forward too in the next few seasons. Orlando can certainly get its act together and run away with it next year, which wont be saying much. Even they wont be able to keep that division from being the laughingstock of the league.
Read the article, they don't play the same schedule anymore. Teams in the same division play each other 4 times, and teams in the same conference will play each other 3 or 4 times.
Actually, it does matter. Imagine how mad everyone would be if the Rockets finished second in the southwest division and are seeded behind the winner of the northwest division. We'd then be on track for a 1-4 matchup in the second round vs. a 2-3 if they just seeded by record. Yeah, you can say that the champion has to beat everyone else anyway, but it makes a difference.
i hate thats mean that we don't would have more rivals the jazz,and minnesota that part of ur history is sad that somethinks come to a end well is all fault of new orlean let beat the hell out of him i want blood some one have to pay
*Now awaits for the league to let the top 16 teams into the playoffs, instead of 8 from each conference* Down with the East!
I thought the article said that seeding is based purely on record, not on who wins the division and who doesn't. Did I miss something?
Thanks for posting that. Enjoy your stay...quickly. Anyway, as for realignment, how about this: Move the Southwest Division into the East and the Central Division to the West? Mild timezone problems would occur, of course (although Chicago and Mil are in the central time zone,so no big deal there), and travel will be slightly more costly. With one fell swoop, the East gets two bonafide title contenders in Dallas and SA and two future ones in Hou and Memphis, and a decent team in NO; and the West gets a bit of a breather with; although Indy and Detroit are tough, they are nowhere near as tough as having to play Hou, Dallas, SA, in one road trip. It's not exactly geographically congruous but it seems like the best you can do unless you want teh East to remain irrelevant.
Hey, I like it. 14 of those teams would be from the West and the 2 from the East would quickly lose in the first round. Then we'd have some great playoff basketball! See my sig.
i had to hold back tears after seeing our insane division and then scrolling down to the southeast. my God that is one terrible division.
