http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...lug=ap-stern-playoffseeding&prov=ap&type=lgns -- Stern unveils new plan for playoff seeds By PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press Writer May 15, 2006 DALLAS (AP) -- Maybe this will make Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban feel better about his $200,000 fine from the NBA last week: Cuban's club has forced a likely change in the playoff format. NBA commissioner David Stern discussed a new seeding system Monday aimed at fixing the flaw the Mavericks exposed this season. The Mavs won 60 games, but were seeded fourth behind the three division winners despite a better record. That's why Dallas and San Antonio, both in the Southwest Division, are meeting in the second round despite having the two best records in the Western Conference. Under the new proposal, the top four seeds would be slotted by record among the three division winners and the team with the next-best record. Had that been in place this season, the Spurs still would have been No. 1, but the Mavericks would have been No. 2. And they couldn't have met until the conference finals. The team with the better record -- regardless of seed -- would also have home-court advantage in a series under the new system. Stern said it was important to keep rewarding division winners in the new system, which still must be approved by the league's competition committee. "I think if you're going to have a division structure, then give some credibility to that fact," Stern said. Before Monday's game, Stern visited with Cuban while the outspoken owner worked out on a stair-stepper machine in the Mavericks' locker room. Cuban was wearing a T-shirt that read "Payback time" and told Stern the workout was his pregame ritual. Last week, Cuban was fined for going on the court to complain about the officiating and for critical comments he made in a blog entry under the title, "How to improve NBA Playoff Officiating." In the blog, Cuban called the current way officials are chosen for the playoffs a "huge problem." He went on to suggest the league rank referees based on their regular-season performance and use the minimum number of officials necessary in the postseason. Stern said Monday he didn't think there was merit to the idea. "It's the kind of conversation I understand and it is an issue, but that's a conversation I would have privately with my owners," Stern said. "Whatever the individual merits of a particular incident, I can't have 30 owners out there saying whatever they feel like saying. And I can't have 30 owners running on the court to berate the officials." Stern also said the league would likely ban players next season from wearing tights underneath the shorts. Some players, including Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade, have worn leggings that extend all the way down to the ankles. Stern squeezed in a parting shot at the tights before he likely outlaws the growing fashion trend. "I think it's good that they look goofy," Stern said.
I still don't buy the "well, we have divisions... so we should reward them" argument. If they're still giving home-court advantage based on RECORD, there is realy no point of not seeding that way also.
Yeah, that makes no sense. Either seed them all by record, or by division champs. This is like the BCS - a bandaid fix for this year's problem. What happens if the Spurs/Mavs/Rockets have the 3 best records next year? One of them gets the 5th seed and complains again?
Actually, I included that scenario in my original post... but deleted it because in that case, the 5th seed (likely the Rockets) still gets home-court advantage, and still would have had to play a top 1-2 seed in the second round anyways (assuming all favorites win). It's just annoying that they're going out of their way to award meaningless division championships, and creating false hope for teams that play in weak divisions, by giving them high seeds... but no home-court. It just seems like semantics... why not just seed by record, but still let a team hang their precious division championship banner if it means that much to them (which apparently it shouldn't... Denver was an awful 3 seed).
Yeah, but in this case, I agree with him; the only thing worse than the Clippers blatantly trying to lose games is that Denver couldn't even play the disrespect card and take down Los Angeles; their team was that bad. Hockey has done a lot of things wrong, but you can't deny that their playoff system is flat out amazing. The NHL playoffs are certainly the most exciting and unpredictable out of the three major sports that play 7-game series (1 seeds getting upset, 3-0 deficits being overcome, lower seeds sweeping, and of course, sudden death overtime). The NHL has 30 teams in 6 divisions, just like the NBA, and awards the top 3 seeds to divisional winners, as well as giving the higher seed home ice no matter the record, but reseeds after each round. If the same model were applied to this year's NBA playoffs, we'd have Detroit vs. New Jersey, and Miami vs. Cleveland in the East, while in the West, we'd have San Antonio vs. Los Angeles and Dallas vs. Phoenix in Dallas, which are the matchups we want to see anyway. The NHL also makes divisional play matter, by having their teams play an astounding 32 divisional games, 8 against each other member, greatly reducing the chances of two or even three teams from the same division getting top 5 seeds. Now this might not work very well for a team that went 1-15 in divisional play last year, but it is something to think about if you want the divisions to matter (though ironically, such a scheme should actually concentrate the talent in one particular division, as a team with a terrible intradivision record will end up with a high draft pick, and will play less games against other bottom feeders to bulk up their records). Hockey gave Houston Tracy McGrady; why can't it lend its playoffs to the NBA?
isnt this the way it is now? clippers had a better record and worse seed than denver and got home court right?
I don't really think it's an example of Cuban getting his way. It just makes sense, and people have been complaining about the structure for a while. Hell, before the season, when we had hopes of possibly having the 2nd best record in the West, I was complaining about the format. How naive I was to have so much faith in the rockets.
what a fricken crock, maybe they should free up the schedule some with less back to back, less games or less preseason and then players wouldn't have wear tights which aid in recovery
He's just make the playoff structure more artificial. The real structure is not Divisional, it is Conference-based. Either go to a schedule like hockey where you play your own division a lot more, or stop pretending and make the playoffs only conference-based.
Exactly what I was thinking. The "we have the divisional structure that's why we should award division champs" argument is BS unless your scheduling reflects the divisional structure.
i really dont see the point in having divisions anymore, its not like baseball of football where only the teams that win each division go into the playoffs, and the fact that the divison's basketball teams are soo lopsided, you got teams like the central divison with dallas, san antonio, houston...... ect, then you got teams in divisions with no potential 50 game winners. I say get rid of the divisions alltogether
