50 Wins and No Playoffs - A Case for Playoff Seeding Change

[pointman]

The Golden State Warriors, Denver Nuggets, and Dallas Mavericks are engaged in a heated battle for the final two playoff spots in the Western Conference. We could potentially see a 50-win team be excluded from the playoffs in the West while a team with less than 40 wins gets in the playoffs in the East. The Western Conference team that just misses the playoffs would likely be the 3rd or 4th seed in the East, but instead is forced to sit at home to watch a flawed collection of teams fight for a title that they should have a right to fight for themselves.

It was said that the Western conference dominance is cyclical, but if you look at the young talent base brewing in the West, you will see that it will only get stronger. The best young point guards are in the West (Chris Paul, Derron Williams, Parker), most of the best young bigs (Stoudemire, Ming, Jefferson, Bynum, Boozer, Biedrins, Odom), and both current and rising stars that will be around for a long time (Kobe, McGrady, Roy, Durant, Ellis, Davis, Nowitzki, Anthony, Aldridge, etc.)

The west is a beast and it is unfair that we will likely see a repeat of this year's playoff race dilemma for years to come.

It's time for a change, David Stern. Revamp the existing playoff season in favor of one that will allow the best of the NBA to compete for the title. Warriors telecast man, Bob Fitzgerald put together a brilliant plan that not only fixes the current playoff system, but also addresses the current conference alignment and how to make it more schedule/travel friendly for all NBA teams.....


http://mindofmullin.blogspot.com/2008/03/50-wins-and-no-playoffs-case-for.html

[Dark Star]

start it next season...what are they waiting for

[nbenmargi]

I'm all for it. I will be truly sad if a 50 win team is denied a chance to compete for a title in the playoffs.

[Sid the Squid]

Fitz put together an moronic plan that's been brought up for years and years by others....You would have to play a balanced regular season schedule to make it fair for all the team's...That means the lakers would play just as many road games in Toronto as in Phoenix..It's not going to happen...Look at the travel schedules already...The plan makes no sense..

It's fine the way it is..Look at the great race going on right now...The NBA IS THE NUTS BABY...Stern is the best commish ever..Sit down..Shut up..Just enjoy the race.

[BROWN]

I'm with LF on this one.
Scheduling, flights, game times, everything will be messed up.
LEAVE everything the way it is... this been the most entertainment month of basketball... for me in a while.. leave it to be .

[Chris Cohan]

This is only being brought up because we might be the team left out.
If we make it, we'll never hear about this on this thread again.

There are great reasons to realign the divisions to put more competition in some small market divisions and take a big market team or two out of stacked population center divisions once another team or two move to their likely destinations, but that's about it.

[mistatwo mayn]

It's fine as is; the only change they need to make is that top 4 gurantee BS for divisional leaders. You shouldn't be rewarded for being in a crappy division.

They need to get rid of that all together.

Conference.... blah. It's fine. West has been strong for a long time. You had the Bulls in the East... and a bunch of West teams.

[Dark Star]

if george costanza can be the assistant to the traveling secretary for the yankess then the travel schedules and home/road game skematics(sp?) can certainly be worked out...it would be very cool if the best teams had the opportunity to win though dont you think---i remember the giants missed the playoffs and they won like 103 games a few years back---they were definitely one of the top 4-5 teams in the league and didnt get a chance--kinda screwy--nothing is perfect but an ncaa/bracket type setup would be cool---best of 3-5-7 and 7--conferences dont really matter in basketball anyways, its not like they play outdoors or recruit locally

[dirkforpres]

I always felt the bracket should be brought up into the NBA playoff system, but I dont see it happening unfortunately.

[floppymoose]

You don't have to have a balanced season to take the best 16. Sure it's unfair. The way it is now is also unfair. So saying the new system is unfair isn't a deadly criticism.

[Sid the Squid]

You don't have to have a balanced season to take the best 16. Sure it's unfair. The way it is now is also unfair. So saying the new system is unfair isn't a deadly criticism.

An unbalanced schedule is unacceptable..Even playing field is critical..Can you imagine next year it comes down to the warriors or Hawks on the last game of the season, with the hawks having played twice as many games vs the heat, nets, knicks, bucks, pacers, wizards and bobcats while the warriors played 4 games vs the suns, lakers, mavs, rockets, jazz, spurs and nuggets? That's not unfair..That insane...

Imagine the hawks-warriors tied heading to the final game of the season, Atlanta plays on the road vs Miami while the W's play at Utah...Great idea guys..Way to make it fair

[sanddude909]

The inherent, structural, problem of any 'field of 16' playoff system is that a field of 16 is needed in order to reduce from 16 - 8 - 4 - 2 - 1. That means that either some teams can be left our (see: the 9th seed in the west) and some teams that should be left out won't be (see: Hawks, some 9 games below .500).

I have no real objection to Boston getting a bye by playing the Hawks in the first round of the East, so having bad teams make the playoffs is not a real concern for me.

The way to solve the problem of good teams getting squeezed out can be solved on the basis of a 'pre-playoff-play-in' game. Establish some minimum number of wins to make the playoffs, say 46 or 47. If, as in this year, there are 9 teams with 47+ wins, then on the Monday before the playoffs start 9 visits 8 and the winner gets to play the number 1 seed when the playoffs start. If there are 10 teams, then 9 visits 8 and 10 visits 7,

That's an extra game of revenue for the league and would not detract from the race itself because you'd definitely want to finish 7th to avoid the playin game, and then if you can't finish 7th you'd want to finish 8th in order to have home court advantage.

I see nothing wrong with this approach and everything to gain.

[Sleepy51]

Whatever scheduling format changes need to be made for it to be fair, get it done.

The inherent problem for the league isn't even so much about a 50 win team being left out. It's about multiple 45 loss teams getting in.

#1 there is no national interest in seeing those teams play. At 42-42, we were only a story because of the "we believe" hype and Nellie Cohan subplots. No one outside of Oakland would have watched our playoff games if our front office hadn't done an excellent job of marketing the product long before it became competitive. Atl, NJ, Phil have not done that. There's no story and no reason to watch.

#2 These are BAD teams. I mean REALLY bad teams. They need lotto picks. If you moved any of the bottom feeder Eastern teams to the west, they'd probably be looking at 50 loss seasons. Dropping a 45 loss team from the lotto cripples their progress. It's like putting Kevin Mchale in charge of 4 franchises at once.

For us, I know there's the two man tank brigade who feel we need another lotto pick to be credible, but what if Denver gets the boot? Or dallas? are those teams that are in desperate need of a top 16 draft pick over Philly and Jersey?

The current situation is bad for the league even if it's weren't bad for us. Bad basketball in the playoffs = more sweeps, less airtime, less viewers and less ad revenue. Isn't that what we're really all here for?

[floppymoose]

An unbalanced schedule is unacceptable..Even playing field is critical..Can you imagine next year it comes down to the warriors or Hawks on the last game of the season, with the hawks having played twice as many games vs the heat, nets, knicks, bucks, pacers, wizards and bobcats while the warriors played 4 games vs the suns, lakers, mavs, rockets, jazz, spurs and nuggets? That's not unfair..That insane...

I totally get this. I just don't see it as any more unfair than the current system. In the proposed system, Hawks get in because they faced easier competition. In the current system, they get in with 15 fewer wins. I understand the pint you make, I just don't understand why anyone thinks it's worse than what we have now.

[enderboy]

if you want to blame anything on the state of affairs today, put it on free agency and owners with no conscience. or perhaps attribute it to better organizational leadership in the west. one free agent summer can change the balance of the whole thing & it'd just be more people wanting change again.

if anything, this huge imbalance could possibly serve the east very well. free agents have more opportunities to shine & possibly win & get into the playoffs in the east than they do in the big bad west. i'd think, aside from money of course, that the chance to actually win would be desirable. imagine a free agent in a situation like the gs/den/dall thing. if they play below .500 ball in the east, they'd be shoe-ins.

leave the system alone. it'll even out someday & even tip the balance the other way.

[Sid the Squid]

If east teams land both Lopez twins I would think you would see a quick shift in the balance of powers...Yi, Robin, Troy and Brooke all in one conference? Wow

[enderboy]

lopez twins to utah & new jersey. there is precedence.

[marthafokker]

Let the BCS computer work. It was designed perfectly to solve this NBA playoff matchup seeding mess.

Unfortunely, the BCS application is used incorrectly for bowl games instead of playoff system. I say it should/could have been used in March Madness too (think Stanford in Women NCAA BB, Maryland number 1 my butt).

[pointman]

if you want to blame anything on the state of affairs today, put it on free agency and owners with no conscience. or perhaps attribute it to better organizational leadership in the west. one free agent summer can change the balance of the whole thing & it'd just be more people wanting change again.

if anything, this huge imbalance could possibly serve the east very well. free agents have more opportunities to shine & possibly win & get into the playoffs in the east than they do in the big bad west. i'd think, aside from money of course, that the chance to actually win would be desirable. imagine a free agent in a situation like the gs/den/dall thing. if they play below .500 ball in the east, they'd be shoe-ins.

leave the system alone. it'll even out someday & even tip the balance the other way.

9 years of West pwnage and counting
Now an article from ESPN about the best players 23 and under comes out. Guess what....8 of the 10 are from the West.
When will the East get it's act together?

[Sleepy51]

-= original quote snipped =-



9 years of West pwnage and counting
Now an article from ESPN about the best players 23 and under comes out. Guess what....8 of the 10 are from the West.
When will the East get it's act together?

Missing out on draft pick by accidentally only losing 45 games sure isn't going to help.

This year's playoffs are going to majorly screw up the draft balance. That has impact for years down the road, and will only accelerate as weak drafts keep the Eastern playoff bottom bracket teams weak.

Next year you will probably see some tank strategies hitting thte floor by Christmas. Someone in the east will run Snatchtrus out there at PG until Stern makes them stop.