This is bat-**** crazy. To me, and this is my personal opinion about playoffs in general, I would like to go to a system similar to the early 80s baseball era. To me, this was the best playoff system of any sport. You had 4 divisions and four playoff teams. If the nba did something similar to this they could just keep the same conferences but have 4 divisions instead of six. Increase the regular seasons games AND MAKE THEM MORE IMPORTANT
C'MON!!! The playoffs are, were, and will forever be the greatest aspect of the NBA, along with the superstars. Favorite Playoff Years: 1987 -1998, 2002, 2004 - 2008, 2009, 2011- present I'm one of the few people on the planet who thinks March Madness is woefully overrated, too long, and waste time, at least these days. It's silly to have the league's best teams to play a single elimination...the season would end April, most likely. Summer Sports Blues would start in May, while everyone would lose more money in the process of much less games. Things to make playoffs better: 1. Keep the conferences with stipulations: *If a winning team in either conference fails to make the playoffs in their own conference, they automatically take the place of a playoff team with .500 or worse. *Moreover, if the same non-playoff team (s) finishes 5 games or more ahead of any other playoff team (s). The team in question will be awarded the strongest seed, possible. E.g. in the 2014 NBA Playoffs, the Phoenix Suns finished 48-34: 9th in the Western Conference. Under these rules, they'd be tied for 3rd in Eastern Conference with Chicago and Toronto, but lose both tie breakers to division winners. Phoenix is awarded the 5th seed for Eastern conference playoff, as the Nets; Wizards; and Bobcats fall one seed. Atlanta loses their playoff spot (38 wins). If Phoenix won 49 games, then they would've been awarded the 3rd seed over both division winners. http://www.nba.com/news/features/playoff.tiebreakers/ 2. Shorter, but Longer Playoffs 1st Round - Best of 3 or 5, no back-to-back games, try to get every national exposure. 2nd Round - Best of 5 or 7, no back-to-back games. Conference Finals, NBA Finals - Best of 7 3. Neutral-sited NBA Finals: Basically, like the Super Bowl or All-Star Game, but the game is played in 2-3 different cities. You have your selected cities, both NBA and non-NBA. For instance, the Spurs could've played Heat in Madison Square Garden for 2-3, and moved down to Washington D.C. for 2-3 more games. 4. A five day to a week+ rest before playoffs start: 5. Mini-trade/signing period between the last few regular season games and the first games of the playoffs:
"This is bat-**** crazy." 85-100+ game NBA season is overkill. There was a time the NBA only let 4-6 teams into playoffs, when the league was weaker, overall. I feel like 6th-8th seeded are alot stronger now versus 30 years ago.
I don't get how anyone who watched last year's first round can support a best of 5 series. If anything the first round is the only round that should for sure be 7 games.
you know what will be exciting for the playoffs? playoffs team can "draft" a single player from a non-playoff team and he can play for them from the 1st game of the playoffs how exciting and crazy would that be? of course, the team with the worst record gets to pick first and so on it would be exciting for fans of non-playoff teams to watch their best players still see action in the playoffs and the selection would totally cause chaos haha chaos=excitement if the playoffs ended today, guys like davis, kobe, durant (he will be healed by the playoffs), westbrook, anthony imagine the crappy 8th seed in the east suddenly getting durant or davis that would really screw the 1st seed in the east and i like top seeds getting screwed by the lower seeds
The Rockets start winning in the playoffs will make it great to watch again. Once that starts happening then I guarantee no one on this board will complain about how the playoffs are. We just don't like them because our team has either lost in the first round, not made it to the playoffs or made it to the second round and realize we are rebuilding the next season. Face it, watching the other teams win that we should have beat sucks. Once we are legit contenders the playoffs will be great!
I don't get how anyone could think that a 5 game series could be LESS exciting than a 7 game series. A shorter series adds more excitement, period. The first round is where you need more excitement and less games. A shorter series actually increases the chances of an upset.
I think playing division games, creates rivalries much more than when you play in an 8-team playoff seeding, where two teams might not ever meet each other. To do this kind of thing, you really need a re-alignment and unbalanced scheduling. The Celtics vs the Lakers should be more than 2 games a year. 1. broklyn vs the knicks should be a featured series. 2. or the texas two step: The rockets, vs dallas and the spurs 3. The grizzlies vs. okc and the clippers (also, you could have the grizzlies vs chicago or the battle of defense). 4. Lebron vs KD Vs Paul George. Basically what I am saying throw out conventional scheduling and make appealing machups matter. Make the Spurs, Lakers and Celitcs and Bulls lead divisions. The way we have it now is that it is criminal that KD vs Lebron is only 2 times a year. The nba needs an overhaul of the scheduling conventions.
Like I have said in the past, all they have to do is get rid of conferences in the playoffs and seed NCAA tournament style Best record in the league vs 16th best record, 2nd best record vs 15th seed; 3rd seed vs 14th seed. For example last year the playoffs with this system would have been: Bracket one: 1) San Antonio 16) Charlotte 8) Golden State 9) Memphis 4) Indiana 13) Phoenix 6) Houston 11) Toronto Bracket 2 2) OKC Thunder 15) Brooklyn Nets 7) Portland 10) Dallas 3) LA Clippers 14) Washington 5)Miami 12) Chicago East and west conference, if it existed at all, would just be for geographic scheduling during the regular season. That would make the best 16 teams always make the playoffs and would make sure that bad teams that make the playoffs currently in the east start going to the lottery like they should so they can improve their roster in the draft. All the regular season games would mean more because the chances of "locking up a playoff position" when you are competing against the whole league are so much less. Miami would have been a 5th seed in this set up for example. An example if the favorites had all won in this system last year, the second round would be Bracket 1: 1) San Antonio 8) Golden State 4) Indiana 6) Houston Bracket 2 2) OKC 7) Portland 3) LA Clippers 5) Miami Again an example with favorites winning all series, 3rd Round would be: 1) San Antonio 4) Indiana 2) OKC 3) LA Clippers example of Finals with favorites = 1) San Antonio 2) OKC
Wait, what? Last year's first round was sick esp in the West. A couple of Eastern teams can put you to sleep but the West was so stacked.
In my opinion the NBA playoffs are the most exciting event in any sport. But yeah I'd be down for a slightly different format, as long as there aren't less rounds/games.
The playoffs are only boring if you are an uncommitted fan. There are always compelling series to watch.
the only reason the western conference first round is interesting is because what we were really watching last year was 1v9 parading as a 1v8 conference series.
The only thing I would allow is smaller penalties for fighting. Would cut the fake tough guy act and add some excitement. Jokes aside though, I love basketball and furthermore love the Rockets. I don't think I would change anything because I am "bored", but I would change a few things for balance.
can't shorten playoffs because it would mean less $$. can't abolish conferences because you would lose rivalries, which draw ratings, which leads to $$. here's the way to spice it up while keeping conferences, keeping the length, but adding excitement and even more revenue for the league. step 1: the top 2 teams in each conference get a buy to the third round (the first two rounds will be shorter so it won't be a long wait). we dont need to see them sweep the scrub teams in round 1. its boring. step 2: teams 3-6 in each conference will make the playoffs in round 1 with home court advantage in a best of 5 series against the winners from the single elimination play in (see step 3). step 3: teams 7-10 will play teams 11-14 in each conference in a single elimination "play in" to get into the playoffs. here's what it would look like using today's conference standings: SINGLE ELIMINATION PLAY IN: clippers vs warriors suns vs thunder kings vs jazz nuggets vs pells heat vs pistons pacers vs hornets nets vs knicks magic vs celtics ROUND 1 BEST OF 3 (assuming all higher seeded teams advanced from the play ins): blazers vs clippers rockets vs suns spurs vs kings mavs vs nuggets bulls vs heat hawks vs pacers bucks vs nets cavs vs magic ROUND 2 BEST OF 5 (assuming all higher seeded teams advance): blazers vs mavs rockets vs spurs bulls vs cavs hawks vs bucks ROUND 3 BEST OF 7 (again, if higher seeds advance): grizz vs blazers warriors vs rockets raptors vs bulls wizards vs hawks CONFERENCE FINALS, BEST OF 7: grizz vs rockets bulls vs wizards FINALS rockets vs bulls i think you'll find closer matched games than the typical 1 vs 8 matchup, more upsets due to the shorter series, but more overall playoff games for almost the whole league means more $$$ from raised ticket prices and tv ratings.
how can you complain about more basketball? the only things I would recommend is to throw out the conferences and have a seeded 16 team tournament (based on which teams have the best records) as well as expanding the nba regular season's length 2-3 weeks or so to eliminate back to back games (while keeping the number of games played at 82 in the regular season. This would improve both the quality of basketball played during the regular season and make the league overall more competitive by adjusting the playoff seedlings.
