RealGM

make winning the division everything. if a team wins its given division, it is guaranteed a playoff spot. the other ten teams who make the playoffs would then be determined by overall record in the league. all teams would be seeded by their overall records, 1-16. this would solve the problem of teams in the west possibly winning 50 games and not making the playoffs. it would also eliminate teams in the east that make the playoffs but don't even finish with .500 records. under my format, this would be the current playoff outlook:
1. Boston vs. 16. Washington
2. Detroit vs. 15. Portland
3. L.A. Lakers vs. 14. Cleveland
4. San Antonio vs. 13. Toronto
5. New Orleans vs. 12. Denver
6. Phoenix vs. 11. Golden State
7. Dallas vs. 10. Orlando
8. Houston vs. 9. Utah

if all of the higher seeds win their first round playoff series, this would be the second round:
1. Boston vs. 8. Houston
2. Detroit vs. 7. Dallas
3. L.A. Lakers vs. 6. Phoenix
4. San Antonio vs. 5. New Orleans.

if all of the higher seeds were to win in the second round, this would be the third round:
1. Boston vs. 4. San Antonio
2. Detroit vs. 3. L.A. Lakers

if all things play out the way that they should, this would be the finals:
1. Boston vs. 2. Detroit

that would set up the championship to be played by the two teams in the league with the two best records in the league: THE WAY IT SHOULD BE. i don't care if they are in the same conference, this format would create the most exciting, fair way to detemine the NBA champion. i like to think of it as a professional playoff format with a little bit of NCAA tournament flair. i view winning your division as winning a conference tournament. it gains you an automatic birth. all other playoffs spots would be determined by how well you performed in the regular season, just like in college basketball. i really don't see any downside to this format.

who would be the western conference champs??

cool

edfmx86 wrote:who would be the western conference champs??

There would be no champs for the post season, although you can take the record.

However, although I like the idea and the interest (specially just the thinking of keeping T-Mac grounded without leaving the first round) but the reason why is not there is because of serious logistical and marketing issues with it.

Talk about a LA, Cleveland matchup. It is literally hopping 2 time zones and expecting the consistency of the times that people watch the game up.

LA's market negative side: Let's say Cleveland has their games usually at 7:00 PM EST, that means that the game would be broadcast at 4:00 PM PST in LA. You probably don't live in the Western USA if you don't understand that 5:00 PM is the time that people leave home, and in LA it means 1 hour and a half drive just to get home, imagine much it would be for season ticket holders to want to watch the game. The game would be at half time, when they would actually get to start watching the game.

Cleveland's market negative side: Since we established in LA that 7:00 PM is a breathable time for a game over there, now think of a game STARTING AT 10:00 PM EST! The game will be over around 12:30 AM PST and if it goes to overtime. Geeznets! Imagine that? How many people do realistically stay up until midnight on a weekday, and specially to watch a game.

The issue ultimately is that the less flexible it is, the less passionate more softcore fans will have a tough time actually wanting to watch the game. Less people watching the TV, or attending games means the less money in advertisement and promotion of the league and ultimately the revenue collapses.

To go with the grain on this system, NBA does try to change the time, for example, San Antonio can start the games at 8:00 PM CST rather than its usual 7:00 PM CST, and LA would still be able to get some affordable market watching the game. Also NBA can try to accommodate certain series that have great length within cities to games Friday/Sunday, although it does have a requirement with time. Also honestly, considering the effort and the efficiency of certain teams, by heart honestly I follow you into the fact that they should get to play in the playoffs compared to the Hawks or Bulls.

I haven't even talked about the fact that half of the country could lose interest if semis are inundated with western teams. And also how other teams depend on this playoff chances to develop their market. I think I agree with you that something should be done, and I commend you for your attempt to solve this issue. Idealistically, you are correct, but realistically it is a recipe for disaster in the NBA.

good points but not necessarily all mathcups will be a west vs east team, or teams with 4hour diff. in time zones. even in a 4hour difference, the home team could have the preferential time of start for that area, with perhaps a few hours later so the other zone can also watch it comfortably. so you'd only be losing some "softcore fans" of only 1 time zone really for every game in the series, which is definitely worth having better matchups, and getting teams that deserve it in the playoffs...

ps...who cares about conference champs? you either win it all or you don't...but they won't break the tradition.

Big problems with this scenario:
- The western conference has more strong teams so in this scenario the teams in the west are penalized by strength of schedule. This formula does not take into account this factor.

- Boston vs Detroit would be horrible in the ratings for a championship game. Because of time zone differences the whole series would be outside prime time for those in the west (or would need to be played outside prime time for the east coast).

- You throw away the rivalries built up between the Western Conference teams and Eastern Conference teams. Those conference championship series have huge draw regionally as well as nationwide. Why mess that up? After all, we know that the NBA is primarily about $$$.

Better to wait for the ebb in the western conference strength. Or talk the eastern conference GMs into not stacking the western conference with their stars.

john hollinger seems to think the same way that i do: http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/ ... es-080228a

his format is basically the same as mine, but it has slight differences.

Sounds good to me. Lets start a petition.

Fido wrote:Big problems with this scenario:
The western conference has more strong teams so in this scenario the teams in the west are penalized by strength of schedule. This formula does not take into account this factor.

It takes it into account better than the current system, which simply excludes west teams even with better records than eastern playoff teams.

How about this... if you can't make the cut, then better luck next time. I mean if you can't beat out 7 teams for one those 8 spots, then you aren't a title contender, and it's as simple as that. No 8th seed has ever won a title, and that means that no 9th or 10th seed team would have a chance, so I say lets stop treating the playoffs as an honorary thing, when it's really just a tournament to see who's the championship. To me 2nd through 16th place is just as bad, nothing more promissory, nor satisfactory. I mean the Jazz went to the WCF, and it doesn't mean squat this season. They have another potential road block in the Lakers now. So like I said, be the in the better half of your conference, or tough luck.