East vs West Imbalance

[ema]

It's getting ridiculous. If it weren't for the OKC's sucktitude and Toronto's rise, it would be even worse.

https://grantland.com/the-triangle/searching-for-balance-the-nbas-lopsided-conference-problem/

There are some suggestions to fix it, such as Cuban's team shifting between the conferences or OKC's unofficial proposal that suggests a non-conference top-16 playoff structure over the last six months of the season. I ask why not just combine the conferences whole together as the article below suggests as well. I don't know much about the practical obstacles to do it to be honest, but I believe that it would be much more fair at the very least.

https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/11/24/7274911/nba-conference-record-standings-imbalance

 

[The Midnight]

^^^

Isn't the main problem of combining the conferences together to do with travelling times, etc? If we have to play NY 4 times a year, that's a lot of time on the plane for players.

 

[BTP]

^^^

Isn't the main problem of combining the conferences together to do with travelling times, etc? If we have to play NY 4 times a year, that's a lot of time on the plane for players.

I dont think teams would play each other 4 times without conferences...
29*3 = 87. So basically you play every team 3 times and 5 teams only twice.

 

[The Midnight]

I dont think teams would play each other 4 times without conferences...
29*3 = 87. So basically you play every team 3 times and 5 teams only twice.

3 times is still a lot meaning all those east coast teams would have to travel to play the west coast team at least 2 a year per team (and vice versa). That's a lot of travelling.


And if you say "oh why not group all the travelling together" Well then that will lead to a lot of on the road time - there will be LONG stretches that the home crowd won't be able to see them play LIVE, and I dunno if that is a good thing. Also being on the road for that long can affect how your team play (for better or for worse).

 

[ema]

^^^

Isn't the main problem of combining the conferences together to do with travelling times, etc? If we have to play NY 4 times a year, that's a lot of time on the plane for players.

Like I said, I don't know much about the practical side of the issues, especially I can't say much about the traveling problems since I don't have comprehensive knowledge about the US geography.

However, this is from the second article I posted. The writer thinks that huge adjustments aren't needed.

...The most obvious, painless solution: end conferences. You can still organize the teams as they are now and the league doesn't need to change the regular season schedule. Teams can still visit teams from the other coast just once. (This could, however, be a gateway to future schedule reform to ease travel, decrease the number of back-to-backs and to generally let players rest more.)...