Assuming the standing in the East stay as they are except that the Heat start to improve......ie 5 from the Central and 3 from the SouthEast Is it possible the Winner of the Atlantic could actually have the 9th worst record and make the playoffs???
That's how much it sucks to be in the east. Even tho you do well, a team with a worse record than you could make the playoffs. You play, you win, you play, you lose, you play.
If Rockets played in the East and the playoffs start today, the rockets will be the no 1 seed in the East!!
If the playoffs would start today and the 8 teams in it would have qualified after their record strictly, new jersey would still be in as they are 8th seed
yeah but lets assume miami gets wade and shaq back in enough time and starts winning... even 500 will be better than the atlantic
Some more bizarre things: 6 teams in the West would be the #1 seed if they were in the East. (And it is conceivable that the #7 Western team Denver, with Carmelo back, can end up with a better record than the best Eastern team.) The best team in the Atlantic is worse than the worst team in the Pacific. The defending champion Heat is one game behind the 8th seed. But they are actually 2.5 games out of the playoffs because they have to beat out somebody other than the Atlantic division "champ." In the old playoffs format, New Jersey would have a higher seed than Cleveland, who is 6 games ahead of them.
I think what they're trying to say is that it's possible that a team like Miami, who is only one game behind them in the standings, could get hot, finish with the 8th best record in the East, but get screwed out of a playoff spot unless someone from the Atlantic Division gets hot and at least finishes with one of the 8 best records.
The division system sucks. Even in the previous incarnation, the true second seed could get bumped down to third just for being in a stronger division.
Divisions mean absolutely nothing in the NBA...it makes sense in the NFL and even in MLB, just not in the NBA. The NBA should be composed of nothing but two conferences: East and West. The top eight seeds go in, the rest stay out...it's a classic example of needlessly complicating something when the best option is the simple one. No one thinks of NBA rivalries as "division rivals", it might be "state rivals" or "conference rivals", but it just makes zero sense for each Conference to be split into three divisions. Keep it simple...
Aside from Pistons, and maybe Chicago, Cavs, I cant see any team in the East finishing above 0.500 mark in the West. Heck, I will say Chicago and Cavs are borderline break even team.
i wish we were in the atlantic conference..but we're just stuck with the other texas two, the hornets and the grizz. o well at least we have the advantage of beating teams when they have to play either dallas or SA then us back to back
What the NBA should do is have the top 16 teams, regardless of division or conference, go to the playoffs. You'd probably have like 12 West teams and 4 East teams make it, but at least it'd be fair to teams with better records than other "division champs".
The east is a joke... the West is so much better. I think what would solve this completely is to take the 9th seed in the West and just let them get into the eastern conference playoffs ahead of whoever makes it in the eastern atlantic division.
I agree on the problem, but don't necessarily think your solution is the best one. How about unbalancing the schedule like the other sports do? That way the divisions actually mean something.
