I disagree with Kelly. Think about it. The conferences were created because teams rode buses to cut costs (#BeWell). Now everyone flies and it doesn't take much longer from GS to Memphis than it does from GS to NY.
So? 100% chance some teams will have 4 hour flights, or 10% chance? Just because one Western team is almost as far as an East team, doesn't mean it wouldn't substantially increase the total amount of travel time. I'm pretty sure the NBA is still obsessed with cutting costs.
Kenny Smith suggested something similar to this on Open Court awhile back. The only difference was he said it should be the top 16 overall, not 8 from each conference. This would've put the Rockets in the playoffs the last 3 years.
I think there should be less teams in the playoffs, like MLB and NFL. It's ridiculous.. more than half the teams make the playoffs and it doesn't even mean anything. As long as you're an above average team you're going to (probably) make the playoffs.
Why cant they just change it 2-3-2 like the finals for every round instead of the 2-2-1-1-1 if flying time is such a big issue.
Yeah well the rockets would not have won back to back titles seeing how the 2nd one was as a 7th seed.
If the NBA can do a rotation similar to what the NFL does with Division, conference and League play that would be kinda cool... a)5 games within the division...25 games b)3 games within the conference...30 games c) 5 games within 1 of the opposing conference division(3 divisions Altlantic, Central, SouthEast) - total of 25 games (80 game season) or 3 games with 2 of the opposing conference divisions-total of 30 games(85 game season)
Karl has a good idea - but ONLY if all teams play equal numbers of games against East and West. We would have a better record than Indiana if both teams played equal East/West games...
Wow. Amazed that a writer is so poorly thought out on an issue and wants to stick with 'tradition' rather than thinking out how to make it happen. Is there some reason it couldn't be 2-3-2 every round with a 2 day break between city change??? OR - 4 hours flying is nothing...
I think it's funny how people are calling this a radically good idea. The reality is that it is insane that what he is suggesting is NOT the current system. The only thing that should be a consideration is travel time, and you can set up a schedule for that without having to use arbitrary divisions/conferences. Easy to do, much fairer, much more interesting. Miami would massacre Milwaukee, but that's what they've earned by playing hard all season - an easy first round matchup.
Everyone seems to have their own solution to fix the playoffs. I say let every team play LerBon and whoever doesn't lose, wins the championship.
Isn't Miami playing Milwaukee anyways? Why do people keep mentioning that? Anyways wow tmac would have loved this a few seasons ago.
