A solution for the future of the NBA that I wish...

[Pappyman]

David Stern would seriously look at:

NBA Future Divisional Format:

Atlantic Division:
Boston Celtics
Brooklyn Nets
New York Knicks
Philadelphia 76ers

Central Division:
Chicago Bulls
Cleveland Cavaliers
Indiana Pacers
Washington Wizards

Dixieland Division:
Atlanta Hawks
Charlotte Bobcats
Memphis Grizzlies
Oklahoma City Franchise

Great Lakes Division:
Detroit Pistons
Milwaukee Bucks
Minnesota Timberwolves
Toronto Raptors

Northwest Division:
Denver Nuggets
Portland Trailblazers
Seattle Supersonics
Utah Jazz

Pacific Division:
Golden State Warriors
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Sacramento Kings

Southeast Division:
Houston Rockets
Miami Heat
New Orleans Hornets
Orlando Magic

Southwest Division:
Dallas Mavericks
Las Vegas Franchise
Phoenix Suns
San Antonio Spurs

With the creation of two more divisions, the NBA would simply do away with the conferences. The playoffs and each team's seeding would be determined by the following measures:
1. If a team wins its division, it automatically gains a birth into the playoffs. Based on this season's final standings (which would most likely change completely if realignment were to occur), these teams would have been the division winners: Boston Celtics (Atlantic), Cleveland Cavaliers (Central), Detroit Pistons (Great Lakes), Utah Jazz (Northwest), Atlanta Hawks (Dixieland), Los Angeles Lakers (Pacific), New Orleans Hornets (Southeast), San Antonio Spurs (Southwest)
2. After each of the division winners earns an automatic playoff birth (eight), the other eight births would go to the remaining teams among non-division winners who had the best overall records. Based on this season's final standings, these teams would have all made the playoffs: Houston, Phoenix, Orlando, Dallas, Denver, Golden State, and Washington. Toronto and Portland finished with identical records and split the season series with each other. Beings that they are in separate divisions, their divisional records cannot be used to determine a tie-breaker. They would most likely play a one-game playoff to determine who gets the last playoff spot. For no particular reason (other than they made this year

[thorian]

With only 4 teams per division, rules like this, "1. If a team wins its division, it automatically gains a birth into the playoffs." are a major problem. Take the Dixieland conference, for instance. What if the best record is only 30-52. How can you justify the division winner getting in the playoffs. The smaller each division is, the more likely it is that you will have a division won by a horrible team.

[Pappyman]

I look at it as the same way that teams from lesser conferences in NCAA basketball earning an automatic birth by winning their league's conference tournament. Also, it is not likely that a team who wins it's division is going to have that horrible of a record. One adjustment that I would make to the scheduling would be to have more games against the rest of the teams in one's division. Do you realize that right now if a team in the NBA was the best team among the horrible teams in their own division, they would still earn a top four seed even if they had a 30-52 record?

[JTSPEED]

I like it.

[Pappyman]

As I said in my earlier post, I would like to see more games against one's own division. To show my further nerdiness, I have figured out how to accomplish this and still play an 82 game season. Each team would play each other team in their division 6 times (18 games, 3 at home and 3 on the road). Also, each division would have a primary rival division. The Northwest's would be the Pacific, the Southwest's would be the Southeast, the Central's would be the Dixieland, and the Atlantic's would be the Great Lakes. Each team would play each team from their rival division 4 times (16 games, 2 at home and 2 on the road). That is 34 games so far, right? 82 games subtract 34 games is 48 games. 8 teams in the NBA have been covered so far. That leaves 24 teams that haven't. The simple solution would be to play each of the remaining teams twice (1 at home and 1 on the road) for the other 48 games. For the slow person, here would be the Jazz's schedule: They would play the Nuggets, the Sonics (after they return to Seattle), and the Trailblazers six times (3 times at home and 3 times on the road), they would play the Lakers, the Clippers, the Kings, and the Warriors 4 times (twice at home and twice on the road), and they would play everybody else twice (once at home and once on the road).

[SonicYouth34]

Dixieland?

What about traveling? What if the Portland plays Miami, that's a hell of a travel.

[Pappyman]

Dixieland?

What about traveling? What if the Portland plays Miami, that's a hell of a travel.

Hey! Dixieland is the best that I could come up with. What would you call it? And another thing: so what if it is a long flight. teams do it all of the time. they have private planes. it's not like they are taking a bus or something.

[MeestR]

it makes sense. not sure how do-able it is though. the allstar game in vegas, i thought, threw the possibility of expansion out of the window for that city.

and im not sure about playing any team 6 times in a season. its annoying enough having to play the same team in the playoffs until one of them gets 4 wins. but in the regular season? what if one just totally dominates the other? thats an automatic 5 or 6 losses, which hurts huge.

and a great lakes division without chicago? brooklyn nets? are you trying to just stir the pot?

well, it was very well thought out. and it does makes sense. but IMO it will never get done or even get consideration from the owners and stern.



instead of expansion (which i feel dilutes the talent) relegate the lower teams into a lower league for the following year.(like the knicks and heat. its not fair to the fans to have their teams play and lose every night, they should have an opportunity to compete at a similar level next year. and if they succeed then bump them up to the top league again the year after that.) the top league would have 15 or 20 of the best teams to compete against eachother.

the players salaries and willingness to win will sort the teams and talent out for itself. kinda like the premiership soccer league in GB. but that would require a lot of money and a lot of organization (for a new sub-league) . and i hate to admit it but basketball is not as popular here as soccer is over there and we wouldnt have enough talented players to justify another professional league worthy of spectating.

[Pappyman]

it makes sense. not sure how do-able it is though. the allstar game in vegas, i thought, threw the possibility of expansion out of the window for that city.

and im not sure about playing any team 6 times in a season. its annoying enough having to play the same team in the playoffs until one of them gets 4 wins. but in the regular season? what if one just totally dominates the other? thats an automatic 5 or 6 losses, which hurts huge.

and a great lakes division without chicago? brooklyn nets? are you trying to just stir the pot?

well, it was very well thought out. and it does makes sense. but IMO it will never get done or even get consideration from the owners and stern.



instead of expansion (which i feel dilutes the talent) relegate the lower teams into a lower league for the following year.(like the knicks and heat. its not fair to the fans to have their teams play and lose every night, they should have an opportunity to compete at a similar level next year. and if they succeed then bump them up to the top league again the year after that.) the top league would have 15 or 20 of the best teams to compete against eachother.

the players salaries and willingness to win will sort the teams and talent out for itself. kinda like the premiership soccer league in GB. but that would require a lot of money and a lot of organization (for a new sub-league) . and i hate to admit it but basketball is not as popular here as soccer is over there and we wouldnt have enough talented players to justify another professional league worthy of spectating.

I don't know about forcing teams down to a lower league because have not been successful recently. That is the purpose of having NBA Draft. That is also what is good about this format. Only the teams with the best records in the league make the playoffs. One conference does not become stronger by having teams like the Golden State Warriors getting a lottery pick when they finish 48-34 and teams like the Atlanta Hawks making the playoffs at 35-47 and not getting a lottery pick. It is clear to me that the western conference has clearly been exploiting the draft and the east has been suffering. That is why I am such a proponent of dissolving conference play and focusing more on divisional play. That is why I would like to see more games against divisional foes. My format puts more emphasis on divisional outcomes, so why not have more games against other teams in one's own division. Also, the only reason that Chicago is not in the Great Lakes division is because there are too many teams already in the division. Who are you going to take out so chicago can go in?

[thorian]

Do you realize that right now if a team in the NBA was the best team among the horrible teams in their own division, they would still earn a top four seed even if they had a 30-52 record?

Yep.

The smaller each division is, the more statistically probable it is that none of the teams in that division are good. I would like your suggestion if it were 4 divisions of 8 teams rather than 8 divisions of 4 teams.

[Pappyman]

-= original quote snipped =-


Yep.

The smaller each division is, the more statistically probable it is that none of the teams in that division are good. I would like your suggestion if it were 4 divisions of 8 teams rather than 8 divisions of 4 teams.

If you like 4 divisions of 8, you could do them like this:
Combine the divisions who I have set up to be rivals into one division. New divisions:

Pacific West Division (combination of Pacific and Northwest):
Golden State Warriors
Las Vegas Franchise
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Portland Trailblazers
Sacramento Kings
Seattle SuperSonics
Utah Jazz

Southern Division (combination of Southwest and Southeast):
Denver Nuggets
Dallas Mavericks
Houston Rockets
Miami Heat
New Orleans Hornets
Orlando Magic
Phoenix Suns
San Antonio Spurs

Central Division (combination of Central and Dixieland)
Atlanta Hawks
Charlotte Bobcats
Chicago Bulls
Cleveland Cavaliers
Indiana Pacers
Memphis Grizzlies
Oklahoma City Franchise
Washington Wizards

Northeast Division (Combination of Great Lakes and Atlantic):
Boston Celtics
Brooklyn Nets
Detroit Pistons
Milwaukee Bucks
Minnesota Timberwolves
New York Knicks
Philadelphia 76ers
Toronto Raptors

You then give the top 2 teams in each division automatic births and have the other eight births go to the next 8 best records in the league. These teams would have all earned automatic births this season:
Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz (Pacific West Division); New Orleans Hornets, San Antonio Spurs (Southern Division); Cleveland Cavaliers, Washington Wizards (Central Division); Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons (Northeast Division). These teams would have gotten the other eight births: Dallas, Denver, Golden State, Houston, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, and Toronto. Under this format, no teams under .500 made the playoffs, which is a very good thing. This would have been the seedings and matchups: Boston (1) vs. Portland (16); Detroit (2) vs. Toronto (15); Los Angeles (3) vs. Washington (14); New Orleans (4) vs. Cleveland (13); San Antonio (5) vs. Golden State (12); Houston (6) vs. Denver (11), Phoenix (7) vs. Dallas (10); Utah (8) vs. Orlando (9).

[bstein14]

Why not make 5 Divisions of 6 teams?

I mean if there are no conferences anyways who cares how many divisions there are.

Play each team in your Division 6 times (3 home 3 away) for a total of 30 games.

Play the other 24 teams 2 times each for a total of 48 games.

78 Regular season games... Reduce the preseason to 6 games...



Atlantic
Boston
New York
New Jersey
Philly
Washington
Toronto

Central
Minnesota
Milwaukee
Chicago
Detroit
Indiana
Cleveland

Southeast
Orlando
Miami
Atlanta
Charlotte
Memphis
New Orleans

South West
OK City
Texas
Houston
San Antonio
Phoenix
Denver

Pacific
Utah
Portland
GS
Sacramento
LA Clips
LA Lakers

[Pappyman]

That alignment would work for next season, but my alignment had in mind what the association would do if expansion teams were given to seattle and las vegas. I do like that alignment, however.

[bleu]

I would definantly like to see a couple new Franchises added.