I wish that the NBA would realign to these divisions.

[pappyman]

Northern Conference

Northwest Division
Denver Nuggets
Golden State Warriors
Portland Trailblazers
Sacramento Kings
Utah Jazz

Great Lakes Division
Chicago Bulls
Cleveland Cavaliers
Detroit Pistons
Milwaukee Bucks
Minnesota Timberwolves

Northeast Division
Boston Celtics
Brooklyn Nets
New York Knicks
Philadelphia 76ers
Toronto Raptors

Southern Conference

Southwest Division
Dallas Mavericks
Los Angeles Clippers (of Anaheim)
Los Angeles Lakers
Oklahoma City Thunder
Phoenix Suns

Gulf Coast Division
Houston Rockets
Miami Heat
New Orleans Hornets
Orlando Magic
San Antonio Spurs

Southeast Division
Atlanta Hawks
Charlotte Bobcats
Indiana Pacers
Memphis Grizzlies
Washington Wizards

This would make the NBA more of a "nation-wide" league and it would allow for cross-conference playoff match ups to balance each side of the bracket. Division Winners would also earn "automatic" bids, meaning that they would replace non-division winners in their conference if said Division Winner did not finish in the top 8 of the standings. The playoffs would look like this:

Northern Bracket
#1 N vs. #8 S
#2 S vs. #7 N
#3 N vs. #6 S
#4 S vs. #5 N

Southern Bracket
#1 S vs. #8 N
#2 N vs. #7 S
#3 S vs. #6 N
#4 N vs. #5 S

 

[Chad Feldheimer]

Might work for regular season but what about postseason.

You might get a #1Lakers vs. #8NYK
While #1Boston vs #8ORL

Travel would be kinda messed up for some of the teams.

 

[memo is money]

- Memphis being a western conf. team is just crazy.
- 82 games in a regular season is too much.
- Just divide the league to 2 regions, west and east, with each team playing 42 games against conference opponents and 30 games against non-conference opponents. Just like old days.
- Another possibility might be re-considering and re-arranging the existing divisions.

 

[LogGrad98]

Might work for regular season but what about postseason.

You might get a #1Lakers vs. #8NYK
While #1Boston vs #8ORL

Travel would be kinda messed up for some of the teams.

Travel is far less of an issue now than it was when the original formats were set, both for divisions and for the finals series. With most teams taking chartered flights everywhere it is not really an issue, other than long flights, which are going to happen almost no matter what. I think this kind of idea is worth considering. I also think the brackets could be adjusted so simply the top 16 teams are in one big bracket, regardless of division or whatever. It gets old watching teams from the west that are over .500 sitting out of the playoffs, while the east sends like 3 teams with sub-.500 records to the playoffs. Balance that bitch out.

 

[Chad Feldheimer]

Travel is far less of an issue now than it was when the original formats were set, both for divisions and for the finals series. With most teams taking chartered flights everywhere it is not really an issue, other than long flights, which are going to happen almost no matter what. I think this kind of idea is worth considering. I also think the brackets could be adjusted so simply the top 16 teams are in one big bracket, regardless of division or whatever. It gets old watching teams from the west that are over .500 sitting out of the playoffs, while the east sends like 3 teams with sub-.500 records to the playoffs. Balance that bitch out.

Probably not if you stretch the games out in the playoffs to play 2 games a week I guess. They can't travel from Miami to Golden State and expect to play every other night and not lose something. That's why they change the format to 2-3-2 in Finals already. Easier on travel for the teams and for the people covering the games.

 

[Hitman]

As a minimum, I would move Portland to the Pacific and move Phoenix to the Northwest, which I would rename back to the Midwest.