NBA commissioner Adam Silver relayed on Tuesday that the league’s competition Committee issued a recommendation that the six division winners no longer be awarded an automatic top-four seed in the playoffs. Instead, teams in each conference would be seeded based on their overall records. “The recommendation from the Competition Committee is that we should seed one through eight based on conference standings for the playoffs [and] eliminate the preference for a division,” Silver said. “That recommendation was discussed at the Board today.” To implement any changes to the current system the league’s owners would still need to vote on the matter, but Silver indicated that he expected the measure to pass and take effect in time for the 2015/16 campaign.
With the preamble out of the way, here’s today’s topic for discussion: Should the NBA alter the current playoff seeding structure?
The impetus for the seeding change was this year’s opening round series between the Clippers and Spurs, who squared off against each other because the Blazers, who owned a weaker record, won the Northwest Division crown. The idea behind reseeding is that teams would be rewarded for having the better overall record, and not because of their ranking within their division. A number of different scenarios have been floated out there in regards to revamping the current format. In addition to the proposal to eliminate division winners from automatically snagging a top four seed, Mavs owner Mark Cuban has championed the idea that the top 16 teams should make the playoffs regardless of conference or division. The disparity between the ultra-competitive Western Conference and the markedly weaker East was the primary reasoning behind Cuban’s push for change.
What are your thoughts on the current playoff system? Does a change need to be made, or will the disparity between the conferences eventually even out? Will removing the incentive to win one’s division negate some regular season drama, as well as negatively impact some longstanding divisional rivalries? If a change is in order, which proposal do you think would be in the league’s best interest? Or do you have a different plan in mind altogether? Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions. We look forward to what you have to say on the matter.
That is a good measure to achieve fairness. The problem is that winning your division will be meaningless. So what’s the point of having divisions at all?
Agreed about it removing relevance of divisions. For my money, I think re-alignment may be the best way to correct some of the imbalance between the two conferences.
What teams do u have switching divisions or conferences under your proposal
For starters I’d switch Memphis and New Orleans to the Eastern Conference and move the Bucks and Pistons to the West. I’d then bump the Wizards to the Central Division and put New Orleans in the Southeast. That just makes more sense geographically to me. The Thunder would also be a candidate to switch conferences…probably with either Indiana or Chicago.
Expand to 32 teams, 1 in Seattle (already shown to be a profitable and successful NBA city) and 1 in KC (ready made arena in the Sprint Center, a city that is hot for sports right now with the Royals, and history as well with the Kings). Move Memphis and New Orleans to the East. Re-align to 4 4-team Divisions. Winner of each Division is in automatically but the rest of the Playoffs spots and seedlings determined by overall record…