A Sensible Realignment Plan

[JoeTait75]

This post is in response to the constant bitching and complaining about the power imbalance between the East and West. Let’s see what you all think.

Eliminate conferences and create five divisions of six teams apiece:

PACIFIC: Portland, Golden State, Sacramento, L.A. Lakers, L.A. Clippers, Phoenix

MIDWEST: Utah, Denver, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio

CENTRAL: Cleveland, Detroit, Indiana, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minnesota

SOUTH: Charlotte, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Memphis, New Orleans

ATLANTIC: Boston, New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Washington, Toronto

- With no conferences, seed the playoffs 1-16.

- The five division winners are automatically seeded 1-5 for the first round only; afterwards, seeds go by overall record. As long as you have divisions there should be at least some reward for winning them.

- Reseed After each playoff round (like the NFL and NHL do.)

Thoughts?

[Dex]

Dat Atlantic tho...

Suddenly Lebron would want to go to New York or Brooklyn.

[Trainwreck2100]

Switch the southeast and the northwest, make it north vs south problem solved.

[LkrFan]

Minnesota sucks. Trying to get LeHype 2 more easy wins/year? :lol

[Thread]

"Thoughts?"

Yeah, I got a thought:::quit looking for the side fuckin' door & follow Blatt out the front::: "The situation as it is is what it is, and we're going to come out and play and play to win. Request no quarter and no sympathy. We've got to come out and play and play to win. That's it."

[JamStone]

At least part of the rationale for regional conferencing would appear to be travel consideration earlier in the playoffs. If there's just overall seeding 1-16, there could be a first round match up hypothetically between say the Clippers and the Celtics. You're talking about possible multiple flights of 6 hours for each team just for the first round. And there could be multiple match ups in the first round like that. Regionalizing teams into conferences still makes sense from that standpoint so that the quality of basketball isn't negatively affected by that kind of travel schedule.