My Vote For Potential NBA Playoff Format Change Goes To...

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia and

Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA under CC BY-SA 2.0 License

 

Whenever discussion starts to heat up in the world of sports concerning any potential change to a respective league's current playoff format I'm usually in favor of it as long as it doesn't cheapen the value of said playoffs.

To that effect, I applaud NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's efforts to look at any and all possible ways to improve the NBA'S current playoff format.  Under the current system a total of 16 out of a possible 30 teams make the playoffs from the league's two conferences. 8 from the Western Conference and 8 from the Eastern Conference make the playoffs under a seeding system based on overall records where the #1 seed from each conference plays the #8 seed, the #2 seed faces the #7 seed and so on leading to the winners from each conference playing each other in the NBA Finals to determine a champion.

This current system has been in place in some form or another for over 30 years.  It has worked fairly well for the most part during that span.  There have been numerous instances recently though when the 9th place team from one conference had a better overall record than the 8th place team from the other conference.  This scenario played out last season when the Atlanta Hawks made the playoffs with a record of 38-44 made the playoffs while the Western Conference's Phoenix Suns had a record of 48-34 and did not make the playoffs.  Historically the Western Conference has now become far superior of the two conferences to the point where it is almost laughable.  In what world does it make sense for a team with a clearly worse record than another to be granted the opportunity and privilege of competing for the league's top prize, especially when one of those teams has a losing record and the other does not?

The way I see it, the league could do one of two things to fix the current conundrum.  Do some form of conference realignment where you could have 3 conferences of 10 teams each based on geographical location and proximity where the top 4 or 5 teams from each new conference make the playoffs.  Or my personal favorite, have the best 16 teams regardless of conference affiliation qualify for the playoffs and the right to compete for the championship title.  Whatever new system is put in place for the future, it is quite clear that something needs to be done to give all teams a fair and equitable shot at potential playoff glory.

 

Tim Musick
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