What is the point of East vs West?

BJ43 · Post #1 » by **BJ43** » Fri May 25, 2012 1:27 am

When determining the NBA champion?

Not sure if this thread has been created previously, if so, I apologise

But why can't it just be the 2 best teams from the entire NBA left to play in the finals, why does there have to be a representative from the East and West? I don't know too much about other american sports but does this happen in other sports? I can't think of any off the top of my head

Is it simply an issue of travel?

The way I see it, 82 games is too much. But that comes back to $$$

You have 30 teams in the league, so have them play each other twice, once on the road and once at home.

That leads to 58 games a season, only 8 less games than we had this condensed season, but you wouldn't need to squeeze the games in as much, give players a chance to rest, no need for back to back to backs

After 58 games, you take the teams with the 16 best records regardless of what conference they are in and match up
1 vs 16
2 vs 15
and so on...

Now this season it wouldnt have made a difference to what teams made the playoffs as the two 8th seeds had better ranks than the teams that missed out, but we've seen it in the past were good teams out West who have had to play better teams more often have missed the playoffs, whilst weak teams from the East have squeezed in based on being in the East

The only thing that would have changed this season would have been the matchups, and to me that makes things more interesting

To determine home court if a team has an identical record and split the season series, well you can always come up with something, whether it be the point differential in the games they split or something else, it shouldn't be that difficult to come up with something.

The reason for this thought process, is waiting for the Spurs/Thunder series and thinking how unfair it is that one of these teams wont be in the finals, in my opinion that should be the finals and it's not to take anything away from the Heat (who technically haven't advanced) but I just think right now the Spurs and Thunder are playing the best basketball and deserve it more

I felt the same way in previous years when we had those Spurs/Suns series

Thoughts?

spearsy23 · Post #2 » by **spearsy23** » Fri May 25, 2012 1:35 am

Most American sports leagues do this to some extent. If I'm not mistaken it's generally due to separate leagues combining, i.e. AFL and NFL in football.

VCRJKidd15 · Post #3 » by **VCRJKidd15** » Fri May 25, 2012 1:36 am

why is there an NFC/AFC? Why is there an American League and National League? Why did the woodchuck chuck wood?...I'm Ron Burgandy?

TheArabicSand · Post #4 » by **TheArabicSand** » Fri May 25, 2012 1:45 am

Honestly the biggest reason that Divisions and East vs. West makes a lot of sense is locations, travel lengths, and time zones.

It just doesn't make sense to have a 1st and a 16th seed have to travel cross country for a 7 game series or to force a team to play another in a similar fashion (multiple games) during the regular season.

BJ43 · Post #5 » by **BJ43** » Fri May 25, 2012 1:46 am

VCRJKidd15 wrote:why is there an NFC/AFC? Why is there an American League and National League? Why did the woodchuck chuck wood?...I'm Ron Burgandy?

I don't know why for any of the above, because I don't follow those sports. The question still stands, why should a team with a worse record make it over another simply because of some created split of East and West, when they're facing the same opponents throughout the season, under the same rules

BJ43 · Post #6 » by **BJ43** » Fri May 25, 2012 1:51 am

TheArabicSand wrote:Honestly the biggest reason that Divisions and East vs. West makes a lot of sense is locations, travel lengths, and time zones.

It just doesn't make sense to have a 1st and a 16th seed have to travel cross country for a 7 game series or to force a team to play another in a similar fashion (multiple games) during the regular season.

OK, so during the regular season that wouldn't be an issue as the teams are playing each other twice anyway on each others home court.

So it comes down the playoffs? What kind of travel are we talking about? Serious question as I'm not familiar with flight times within the US. For example say OKC had to play NYK in the 1st round. How long is that flight compared to NYK going to MIA?

Is it really that big of a deal when you're playing the 2-2-1-1-1 format? Would it be beneficial to go back to 2-3-2 format?

I just didnt think it was that big of a deal if they fly in and get a day or more rest *shrugs*

License2Lillard · Post #7 » by **License2Lillard** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:04 am

Tradition

Rivalries

How would you pick AS teams?

It's not just longer distance for flights, you're also traveling across time zones. A PDX-Miami or Boston-LA first round series would be hell on all involved and would put the winning team at a distinct disadvantage in the second round.

BJ43 · Post #8 » by **BJ43** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:16 am

Cali_Blazer wrote:Tradition

Rivalries

How would you pick AS teams?

It's not just longer distance for flights, you're also traveling across time zones. A PDX-Miami or Boston-LA first round series would be hell on all involved and would put the winning team at a distinct disadvantage in the second round.

Rivalries I understand, but is it worth the cost of a more deserving team not making the playoffs? or a better team being knocked out in a later round due to the best 2 teams being in the same conference?

AS teams - I don't care about the allstar game at all, but nothing would change here, the teams are still in the East/West it just doesn't have an effect on who makes the playoffs, top 16 get in regardless

The time zone thing I don't know, can I get an example of how bad it is? And cant these things be fixed with a couple of days rest? Having to only play 58 games a season allows more days for rest, so the playoffs can be extended and players can get rest, those dealing with small injuries can get treatment and hopefully be able to play.

For e.g. the Heat, this could have been the difference of Bosh missing most of the series or just 2 games

comet883 · Post #9 » by **comet883** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:19 am

BJ43 wrote:
TheArabicSand wrote:Honestly the biggest reason that Divisions and East vs. West makes a lot of sense is locations, travel lengths, and time zones.

It just doesn't make sense to have a 1st and a 16th seed have to travel cross country for a 7 game series or to force a team to play another in a similar fashion (multiple games) during the regular season.

OK, so during the regular season that wouldn't be an issue as the teams are playing each other twice anyway on each others home court.

So it comes down the playoffs? What kind of travel are we talking about? Serious question as I'm not familiar with flight times within the US. For example say OKC had to play NYK in the 1st round. How long is that flight compared to NYK going to MIA?

Is it really that big of a deal when you're playing the 2-2-1-1-1 format? Would it be beneficial to go back to 2-3-2 format?

I just didnt think it was that big of a deal if they fly in and get a day or more rest *shrugs*

It creates rivalries within the respective sports. RedSox/Yankees, Eagles/Cowboys

License2Lillard · Post #10 » by **License2Lillard** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:22 am

Right now it is 7:21 pacific and 10:21 eastern. Doesn't sound bad for a game or two, but when flying back and forth for a 7 game series it would be brutal. You would need to lengthen the POs by a lot. This is why in the regular season when you travel from one coast to another it's generally a "road trip" consisting of a few games in the other time zone and not just for one game.

BJ43 · Post #11 » by **BJ43** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:24 am

Cali_Blazer wrote:Right now it is 7:21 pacific and 10:21 eastern. Doesn't sound bad for a game or two, but when flying back and forth for a 7 game series it would be brutal. You would need to lengthen the POs by a lot. This is why in the regular season when you travel from one coast to another it's generally a "road trip" consisting of a few games in the other time zone and not just for one game.

OK fair enough, so how about going back to the 2-3-2 format then?

Sinant · Post #12 » by **Sinant** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:24 am

Making the Spurs play the 76ers would be unconstitutional.

Cruel and unusual punishment.

chyau.00 · Post #13 » by **chyau.00** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:27 am

BJ43 wrote:
VCRJKidd15 wrote:why is there an NFC/AFC? Why is there an American League and National League? Why did the woodchuck chuck wood?...I'm Ron Burgandy?

I don't know why for any of the above, because I don't follow those sports. The question still stands, why should a team with a worse record make it over another simply because of some created split of East and West, when they're facing the same opponents throughout the season, under the same rules

they dont play the same opponents the same number of times.

having divisions and what not is because of time zones, travel times, and ofcourse, to create rivalry.

License2Lillard · Post #14 » by **License2Lillard** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:35 am

The problem with 2-3-2 is when the lower seeded team steals one of the first two suddenly you have an 8 seed with home court advantage over a 1 seed.

To be honest, I've always thought a 1-16 PO would be cool. I have been on your side before. It's just to hard to make work in a league that's so spread out.

sonicFLAME6 · Post #15 » by **sonicFLAME6** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:47 am

Simple answer $$$

NY_Kn1cks · Post #16 » by **NY_Kn1cks** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:48 am

What is the point of the sky being blue

DAT TANK · Post #17 » by **DAT TANK** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:49 am

They save more time and money on travel.

BJ43 · Post #18 » by **BJ43** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:55 am

chyau.00 wrote:they dont play the same opponents the same number of times.

having divisions and what not is because of time zones, travel times, and ofcourse, to create rivalry.

I understand that, but recently teams from the West have had to play better teams more often and still had better records than the team ranked 8th in the East, yet they've missed the playoffs..in my suggest scenario every team would play the same teams an equal amount of times

BJ43 · Post #19 » by **BJ43** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:55 am

Sinant wrote:Making the Spurs play the 76ers would be unconstitutional.

Cruel and unusual punishment.

Technically the Bulls finished with the best record in the NBA and would have still had to play the Sixers, nothing would have changed in that series

BJ43 · Post #20 » by **BJ43** » Fri May 25, 2012 2:57 am

Cali_Blazer wrote:The problem with 2-3-2 is when the lower seeded team steals one of the first two suddenly you have an 8 seed with home court advantage over a 1 seed.

To be honest, I've always thought a 1-16 PO would be cool. I have been on your side before. It's just to hard to make work in a league that's so spread out.

I get the point you're making, I guess the way I see it, if you're the best team in the league, or have the best record, you should in theory be able to beat the team with the 16th best record regardless of home court and if you can't simply because they get 3 in a row at home, maybe you don't deserve it?