now mind you, i have no problem that dallas got bumped this year in the first round. but realistically dallas would not have wanted to face GS if they had a choice... well why not give them a choice. each of the first 3 seeds in a conference would get to pick their first round opponent. that way teams that are "hot" could be avoided. plus it would make for more rivalry in the series, because essentially each of the top teams is saying to their chosen opponent " i can beat you". plus the second guessing after each upset would be wonderful opinions? objections?
so this year the mavs, suns, spurs would get to pick from the rockets, jazz, nuggz, lakers, and warriors. well it would've definitely avoided an upset. not a great idea tho because there would be no upsets if teams chose who they know they can beat. i like it when teams are stuck playing difficult matchups.
This is actually a brilliant concept. What is the point of busting your ass in the regular season when you are vulnerable to a dark horse with momentum or a injury-hobbled "fake" eight seeder (see: Houston 1998, New York 1999)? The playoffs are ALL about matchups, so this makes more sense than the current luck of the draw system in that it rewards regular season performance.
A CHAMPION should be able to beat any "dark horse". I don't want to hear any excuses. Plus it would be boring if teams had to option to PICK their opponents. There would be NO UPSETS, and thats just part of the playoff drama. So what Dallas won sixty something games in the regular season.. Its the PLAYOFFS that count!
What if every series was 5 games and not 7? You would have a shorter, more intesne playoffs and more upsets.
why not make a 1-16 bracket in which teams are seeded by record alone, regardless of conference. each division winner would be given a seed but not guaranteed homecourt. 1. dal 16. orl 8. chi 9. tor 4. det 13. gsw 5. hou 12. lal 2. pho 15. was 7. cle 10. den 3. sas 14. njn 6. uta 11. mia
That is brilliant! I love this idea. It will create FIERCE rivalries in a hurry (Even though that will never happen). People earning their right to pick their opponent makes the regular season even more meaningful. Or maybe have a Quadriple elimination will be very cool (Similar to the College World Series).
actually i think there would still be upsets because the lower ranked team would go in with a chip on their shoulder because essentially they got called out by the higher ranked team. plus in other years we all have seen teams hoping to fall to the 6th seed for better second round matchups. well if in each round the remaining higher seeds got to re-pick their next opponent, it would eliminate this mini-tanking. and what about seeing second round matchups like phoenix-SA and Utah-GS. lets face it the WCF this year was played one round early. in my system phoenix would likely have picked GS or Utah just to avoid SA for one more round.
Best way in my opinion is to guy NCAA style tournament and screw conference and division. Use overall record to divide into 4 groups. Based on 2007 standings it would look like: Group 1: (1) Dallas Mavericks vs (16) Orlando Magic (8) (2)Chicago Bulls vs (9) Toronto Raptors Group 2: (2) Phoenix Suns vs (15) Washington Wizards (7) Cleveland Cavaliers vs (10) Denver Nuggets Group 3: (3) San Antonio Spurs vs (14) New Jersey Nets (6) Utah Jazz vs (11) Miami Heat Group 4: (4) Detroit Pistons vs (13) Golden State Warriors (5) Houston Rockets vs (12) Los Angeles Lakers RED GROUP play each other BLUE GROUP play each other Rockets get a better draw in a weaker opponent like Los Angeles instead of top 6 team like Utah. Plus Detroit in second round instead of Dallas, San Antonio and Phoenix. This system ensures ever team gets a fair match up and East teams don't get easy trip to Finals. The Final Four actually happens for once and top 4 teams have chance to might. Some side attractions like Lebron vs Melo and Deron vs Wade. Overall better system than what is currently in place especially since West just got loaded with Oden and Durant.
While that system doesn't seem all too bad, it makes one question why even you have conferences in the first place, and why the schedules shouldn't be more balanced. Also traditionalists who hate it.
i just have a better idea instead of an "east" and "west" conference why not just change it to "north" and "south" that should be a lot more balanced now than what it is. they would have to redo some division, the south conference still maybe the tougher conference with the texas teams,miami and all but it would be a whole lot more balanced. makes sense to me but thats just me.
If they were going to start messing with schedules, I would rather they make them unbalanced to play division rivals more, such that the divisions actually mean something like in MLB. Then the rewards for being a division winner actually make sense. You could probably cut down the number of playoff team to 4 per conference, or 6 per conference with a 1 game 1st round and the top 2 teams in each conference get a bye.
Unrelated to the original poster idea, my wife came up with a solution when the two best teams comes out of the same conference (this assumes the best two are the last two in the conference finals): (I laughed her off at first, but the more I thought about it the more I liked it) When it's down to the final two teams in each conference, have #1 of the WC play the #1 of the EC while #2 of the WC play #2 of the EC. For the finals, winners play each other. Seems like such a simple solution...
ehhh so the #4 and #5 teeams dotn get to pick?? but what if one of the top 3 teams chooses to play one of them?? if its also the top 3 seeds then have divisions becomes pointless
How about we make it so that only the top 12 teams make the playoffs, then have #3-6 play in a 1 game elimination match to get down to the final 8, where we can continue the 7 game series.
