RealGM

Should there be a new Wild Card series added? So a week before the playoffs (during the break between end of season and playoffs) the west and east's 8th and 9th seed teams go on a 7 series game to decide who makes it into the playoff spot. The reason for this is that the 9th seed could have been unlucky getting teams healthy while the 8th seed might have had more teams when they were depleted. Also there may not be a significant difference in the season record which could maybe put a question mark on exactly which team is better as injuries/suspensions/etc could have plagued the team for a period of time as well.

If they went to a wildcard series, I'd want to see the playoffs cut to 6 teams per conference, with the top 2 getting a bye the first round. The down side to this is that's close to two weeks without a game, which can kill a teams momentum. You'd have to make the wildcard series a best of 5 or even 3