1 year where the 1st round of the NBA playoffs is actually good doesn't mean it won't revert to what it was before. And it doesn't mean it can't get better. I completely agree with Battier's ideas. http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/the_think_tank_shane_battier_2010_04_13.html JCF: Alright, well as long as we’re on the subject of making the league even bigger and better, what else have you got? SB: I also like the idea that Bill Simmons came up with, where instead of the 1 through 8 playoff seeds being determined by record, I think we should only guarantee the top-6 spots in each conference. For the 7th and 8th spots, I think we could have another single elimination tournament – this time including only the non-playoff teams. The teams in the 7th and 8th spots can have byes to give them an advantage but this would give fans of the teams that aren’t in the playoffs something to really grab onto and give them something to cheer for. And it would discourage teams and players from, let’s say, starting their summer vacation early. I think, again, this would create tremendous excitement for the league and it can only be a positive. JCF: Speaking of those 7 and 8 seeds, you’re not a big fan of the first round of the NBA playoffs being best-of-7 affairs, are you? You’d rather see the little guy have more of a sporting chance, right? SB: Changing the format back to best-of-5 creates more excitement and it gives the underdog, the lower seed, a better chance to win. There’s no question about it, it’s difficult for an 8-seed to beat a 1-seed in a 7-game series. I’m sure Daryl Morey can come up with some stat which gives you the exact odds of that happening. I’ll never forget watching the Denver Nuggets beat the Seattle Supersonics (in the ’94 playoffs). That was tremendous basketball and I just don’t think that’s going to happen much at all in a 7-game series. You have to give, I believe, your fans a little more hope than they currently have in a 7-game series where the 8-seed faces the 1-seed. The criticism from the first four seeds is that it’s not fair to them. Well, you know what? If you’re better, go out and prove it. JCF: Fair, but some would say that the beautiful thing about the NBA is that the cream almost always rises to the top, ensuring that the best teams in the league end up winning out and moving on. SB: Look, I want to see the best teams perform under pressure. That’s what makes sport what it is: people performing at the highest level with consequence on the line. That’s what makes LeBron James and Kobe so special: they deliver when the game is on the line. So if we create a more pressure-filled scenario like a best-of-5 first round series or a single elimination tournament like the Stern Cup, we see what an athlete’s made of. And that’s the beauty of sports. JCF: You’re also a proponent of shortening the regular season as well, correct? SB: There are too many throw away games in the NBA regular season. For anyone who’s gone through an NBA season, they know it’s nearly impossible to go maximum intensity for all 82 games of the year just because of the grind and the travel. I think the game suffers because of that. Don’t get me wrong, we travel first class all the way. We have chartered flights, we have people who pick up our bags, so it’s absolutely the best it can be. But with that said, I still think the game suffers because we can’t be at our physical peak due to the overall grind. I think by dialing the season back to where we play 58 games and you play every team once – once at home and once away – you’re creating a more pressure-filled environment where every game means so much more, so you have to play at your best if you want to get into the playoffs. You can’t afford to have a four or five game losing streak in a shortened season. JCF: In other words, you want to make it a little more like football then. SB: Yeah, that’s why the NFL is such great theater. Those guys are bringing it every single day and it seems to come down to the last game every single year. It’s great theater, it’s great drama and it’s great entertainment and that’s what our league is about, so let’s do everything we can to bring as much of it as we can to the NBA.
Really? Completely? You do realize that MANY MANY players play basketball year round. They play everyday. Just because KD and Paul George get hurt, isn't a reason to scrape the old system.
Who plays games every day? And many NBA players get involved in Olympics or FIBA cup. I'm not advocating taking huge time off. But eliminating back-to-backs would be nice. Those games are often jokes.
more than half make the playoffs. 16 out of 30. my problem is simply the length of time between games and series. 2, 3, 4, days off, all for television ratings but I can never get enough NBA playoff basketball, and it certainly isn't boring to me. they went from best of 5 to best of 7 in the first round just in 2003
The problem is, we don't know when a series will end. If we had a championship like game, we could emulate the superbowl or the NCAA tournament championship . The problem is, the Spurs could win it in game 5 and its all over. Advertisers and viewers that aren't fans of the teams competing do not want to invest in a series. Some of us like basketball enough to watch the entire series, but that's not the norm.
I do think that going back to a 5-7-7-7 format is better for the game and less meaning less games too. We already have to sit through 82 games, make every game count in that first round. But this is a business, and more is better unfortunately.
I don't see how you can think the NBA playoffs are boring, unless you don't really like basketball that much.
* It HAS to stay at 16 teams for playoff system to work where every team plays each round, because any other number means you'll have to give byes to teams. Giving the top teams 2-3 weeks off isnt a good playoffs product 1) Shorten regular season. Make every game count so its an actual "fight" to to playoffs, not a walkthrough. Play every non division team twice. Play everyone in division 4 times. Thats around 65 games (I prefer NO conferences but whatever) No back-to-backs to ensure best health of teams. 2) Seed playoffs 1 through 16. Top team plays bottom seed (1 vs 16, 2 vs 15 etc) 3) Best of FIVE. With this seeding itll mean theres even less chance at upsets since its playing slightly lesser teams each round (I'd add extend foul-out limit from 6 to 8. No one wants to pay to see Lebron and Durant sitting out half the game because of early ticky tack foul calls)
*Crazy awesome idea that will never happen here* You get rid of conferences and take the best 15 teams in the NBA, you seed them accordingly. Then you have a 3 game playoff with teams 2-15 with the #1 seed getting a bye (this makes the regular season race for #1 crucial). in round two you take the euroleague champ and the #1 seed and the rest of the remaining teams and play 7 game series. The #1 seed plays the lowest remaining seed and the Euroleague team plays the second lowest remaining seed. I think it would be cool to add a european team, it could really help the NBA go global, plus you could actually have a claim of a true world champion... the European team would almost always get dominated but they would get compensated. unfortunately i know this idea has many issues and it will never happen but it would be interesting.
I agreed with you that's ridiculous. But I think the problem is the length of the regular season and not the playoffs. You don't need to play 82 games to qualify for a playoff where more teams are allowed in than excluded. It cheapens the value of the regular season and encourages teams to rest players for playoffs.
