No more playoff guarantee for division winners...

[LogGrad98]

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-l...uarantee-division-winners-185239340--nba.html

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- A division title might soon mean a banner but no assurance of a playoff spot in the NBA.

Commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday the league is leaning toward not guaranteeing a postseason berth to a team that wins its division, forcing clubs to finish in the top eight of their conference if they want a shot at the title.

Silver had already said he expected a change from the current format that guarantees division winners no worse than the No. 4 seed. But after discussions with both the competition committee and board of governors, he believes the change will go further than that.

''First of all, it's never happened before that a division winner did not finish within the top eight, and our basketball analytics folks calculate that there's less than a 5 percent chance that it would happen,'' he said before taking part in a panel discussion at the ''Beyond Sport United'' program.

''Where we are leaning right now is that we would not guarantee a spot for a division winner in part because it's so unlikely to happen, and No. 2 if it does happen it would be potentially confusing to fans. No. 3, you would be displacing a team that did have a top-eight record.''

Portland got the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference last season by winning the Northwest Division, but the Trail Blazers would have been seeded sixth by win-loss record. That sparked new calls to throw out the protection for division winners, and Silver said after the owners' annual summer meeting in Las Vegas that change was coming, though they wanted more time before voting on it.

Good change imo. I think the guarantee thing was something of a joke. Technically a lottery team could end up in the playoffs pushing an otherwise playoff team into the lottery.

Next step they need to eliminate eastern vs western and use a single bracket for playoff teams. No reason the 2 best teams shouldn't play each other in the finals, even if they are in the same conference.

 

[gregbroncs]

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-l...uarantee-division-winners-185239340--nba.html



Good change imo. I think the guarantee thing was something of a joke. Technically a lottery team could end up in the playoffs pushing an otherwise playoff team into the lottery.

Next step they need to eliminate eastern vs western and use a single bracket for playoff teams. No reason the 2 best teams shouldn't play each other in the finals, even if they are in the same conference.

To do that they would need to even the schedules up. If it's one league with one playoff then having the unbalanced schedule is not really relevant anymore. 2 games against the opposite conference and 3-4 against your own makes it unfair to seed the entire league.
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A lot of work to make that work therefore I doubt it ever happens.
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Other potential problems more cost in travel for both regular season and playoffs and a completely unbalanced league would be some drawbacks. If 12 of the 16 teams are from the west they would also have some serious ratings concerns for playoff basketball, not too mention the lack of a team from each side of the country in the finals could destroy ratings as well.

 

[Gameface]

How about a hybrid system? Top 6 seeds in each conference are from that conference, bottom 2 spots (4 total) are filled out by w/l record regardless of conference.

Haven't really thought it through, just throwing out an idea.

 

[fishonjazz]

How about a hybrid system? Top 6 seeds in each conference are from that conference, bottom 2 spots (4 total) are filled out by w/l record regardless of conference.

Haven't really thought it through, just throwing out an idea.

I like it

 

[gregbroncs]

How about a hybrid system? Top 6 seeds in each conference are from that conference, bottom 2 spots (4 total) are filled out by w/l record regardless of conference.

Haven't really thought it through, just throwing out an idea.

Solves most of the issues I brought up. It has a few of it's own but they seem far less likely and far less than the concerns for the whole league seed idea.

 

[Stoked]

Good change. Only one more is needed. Take top 16 teams by record regardless of conference and seed them 1-16. Divisions already mean nothing within a conference.