Playoff Preliminaries?

[SpeedyG]

With talks of how the conferences are unbalanced, the current playoff format is being looked at and possibly revised. From seeding 1 to 16 regardless of conference, to keeping 8 and 8 but allowing them to face cross-conference seeds. But what about expanding the playoffs and having preliminaries?

Obviously, changes will have to be made to get the regular season schedule to work out, but if that can be done, I think it can work. Most fans want a shorter regular season, while owners want it to remain the same for revenue purposes. In this scenario, both would get what they want (with some give and take, which are reasonable IMO).

Let's say, instead of the current 82 game schedule, we shorten it to say 60 games (this number is not important and can be increased or decreased depending on what the players and owners can agree upon). You then expand the "playoff" teams to 12 from within conference. Allowing more teams to get in the playoffs, coupled with the shortened season, will hopefully encourage teams from tanking.

Each conference will hold the first part of the playoffs exclusively, the preliminary part of it, if you will. Meaning, #1 seed in the East vs. #12 seed in the East, #2 vs #11, and so on and so forth on a best of 7 series. Same with the West. The winner of these 6 matches will advance to the next round, which will again be within the conference (giving teams in the prelims a minimum of 4 games and maximum of 14 games after the regular season is over) Once that is done, and each conference is left with their top 3 teams, that's when the next round and possibly "true" playoffs start.

#1 seed vs #6 seed, #2 vs #5, #3 vs 4 (based on record, which can be either regular season only, or regular season + prelims). The smaller number of "playoff" teams will help ease travel time in cases where a team from say Boston has to play a team in LA.

The 6 teams who didn't qualify for the "prelims" will then get equal chances for the #1 pick, then 2nd, and so on and so forth. The remaining teams who did make the prelims but were eliminated will pick based on record.

IMO, something like this will prevent teams from tanking (since only 6 get true lottery chances), and even if they tank, getting the worst record gives them no benefit from having the 6th worst record. They might as well try and go for the prelims.

Fans get a shorter regular season, owners get less regular season games but more "playoff games", and it gives more players a chance to win, or at least participate in the tournament.

[D-Wags#13]

so u have #1 play against #6, #2 vs #5 and #3 vs #4...
which leads to three teams in the finals?

[GreenWithEnvy]

lets stop with this tournament talk. i thought we left that behind in college.

[MrDollarBills]

IMO, seeding all playoff teams from each conference 1-16 and doing away with interconference playoffs is a better idea. Just make the NBA Playoffs one grand tournament designed in the same fashion as the NCAA regional brackets are.