“This game ” we love needs to do something to change the fact that some good western teams, like the Suns who struggles in the West with possibly 48 wins can not get to the playoffs while bad eastern teams like the HAWKS can, with barely 37 wins in the regular season. Here is my suggestion: -When the 9th and 10th seeds of the western teams have better records than the 7th and 8th seeds of the eastern conference, they ought to rank with the 5th and 6th eastern seeds and join the playoffs in the East. -The eastern teams would have to improve on their competence if they want to get to the playoffs. Real fans hate to see terrible teams with 45% wining percentage play with the Heat or the Pacers, but it would be eye-catching to see the first round game between the Heat and the SUNS.
Just let eveybody play against every team 2 times. And than let the top 16 teams into the play-offs. Than the pathetic eastern teams will not make the play offs. Every team has the same schedule (and there is not a difference in difficulty in schedule), and regular season games mean more.
If this way ,there would be no the final between the west champs and the east champs. There is something called tradition that still needs to be respected.
the NBA officlal ought to have a vote to see how many fans want to keep the tradition or change it a little(like my idea), or totally overthrow it.
Keeping something because it is a tradition is never a good idea. I used to be tradition that marriages were arranged by parents. With you system teams in the west still have a much much tougher schedule, and we still do not have the 16 best teams in the play offs. So it doesn’t solve the problem it is just a band aid. But I would not mind if the nba office let the fans vote on a new system. I cannot get worse.
The first round needs to be shortened back to best of 5. That should be the first order of business. Every sport has to deal with shifting balances of power in conferences and it always changes over time. Nothing wrong with it.
If you want to change things in a similar way to make the best teams make the playoffs, you just get rid of conferences all together when it comes to the playoffs. You can still use them for scheduling purposes if need be, but once the playoffs start, seed like the NCAA tourney bracket 1 #1 vs 16 #8 vs 9 bracket 2 #4 vs 13 #5 vs 12 bracket 3 #2 vs 15 #7 vs 10 bracket 4 #3 vs 14 #6 vs 11 with the records as of today that would lead to: bracket one: (1)San Antonio vs (16)Charlotte (8) Golden State vs (9) Dallas Bracket 1 winner plays winner of bracket 2 for the right to go to the finals Bracket 2: (4) Indiana vs (13) Phoenix (5) Miami vs (12) Chicago Bracket 3: (2) OKC vs (15) Washington (7)Portland vs (10) Memphis Bracket 3 winner vs Bracket 4 winner for right to go to the finals Bracket 4: (3) LA Clippers vs (14) Brooklyn (6) Houston vs (11) Toronto Bracket 1 vs Bracket 2 and Bracket 3 vs Bracket 4 replaces Conference finals, with winner going to the finals. The number of "meaningless games would certainly decrease and the quality of the playoffs would increase substantially. It would also fix the problem of bad teams in the east making the playoffs so they don't get any great draft picks, while good teams in the west miss the playoffs and have a shot at a lottery pick.
Just change the last spot in each conference to be "wild card" spots not tied to a conference. Which ever conference is stronger will get an extra spot.
The balanced schedule with the top 16 making it is the best way to go but I don't think teams would be willing to give up games (revenue) to make it happen. They could add some excitement by allowing any team not in the playoffs to play against a team with a worse record that did make it for a chance to take their spot.
Yep, this is the case for NYK (and we all know how the NBA caters to that pathetic franchise). I do like your idea of having the 8th seed team with a weaker record having to play the 9th seed team with a better record in the other conference. This would make the 1st round of the playoffs more interesting. There's a 3 day break between the season ending and the playoffs starting so it's not like there wouldn't be time to have this game played.
Don't have to eliminate conferences. Just make the play offs a best of 16 tournament. Not only would you see better basketball during the play offs, you'd see better basketball during the Regular season. If you did league wide ranking, you'd have a 6 way race for the 7th seed. Think about that... you'd have teams fighting to the Very last game to win seeding, and teams having to think very carefully about pacing their players and managing their rest instead of coasting through half the season. Teams like Indiana would be severely penalized for going off the rails, and teams like Miami wouldn't be in the position to coast for half the season. Every game in the regular season would actually matter for 16 teams instead of for a handful of teams. And the play offs would mean you'd see a TON of great match ups in the 2nd round instead of seeing good teams forced to play each other despite having some of the best records in the NBA. Phoenix not getting into the play offs with 48 wins is a travesty.
Don't teams that make the playoffs get bonuses from the NBA? How sucky is that for the West compared to the east?
