BREAKING NEWS - NBA to seed conference playoff teams by record

[phxspurfan]

http://www.nba.com/2015/news/09/08/nba-to-seed-conference-playoff-teams-by-record/index.html


NEW YORK — The NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved changes to playoff seeding and qualification procedures effective with the 2015-16 season, the league announced Tuesday.
As part of the modifications, the eight playoff teams in each conference will be seeded in order of their regular-season record. Most recently, every division winner was guaranteed a top four seed in its respective conference regardless of its record but did not receive home-court advantage if its playoff opponent had a better record.

[Kawhitstorm]

That's not breaking news......the press release if just a formality.

[CGD]

Great, now take it to the next level and get rid of conferences.

[weeks]

Great, now take it to the next level and get rid of conferences.
nah man this is still a huge fucking country. we need conferences

[ismael-robert]

Just get rid of inactive players n let them all suit up

[RD2191]

First 2 rounds need to go to best 3 out of 5, 4 out of 7 is too long.

[ElNono]

about time, tbh

[Galileo]

This is not enough reform.

[boutons_deux]

conferences are ok, but playoff seeding goes to top 16 records, not top 8 records per conference.

[UNT Eagles 2016]

Agree with this, division-entitled seeding is stupid when you have more than 2 divisions per conference. This really needed to happen in the NFL more badly, though. I'm going to kill a puppy the next time a mediocre 8–8 team makes it over an 11–5 team or a strong 10–6 fringe contender.


But lol at the moron mountaineers ITT who want to do away with conference seeding altogether... I'm going to put the next dipshit to suggest this in a mega blender, seriously.

Conference seeding exists in every major sport. It exists for a reason and promotes healthy rivalries and great TV. And this is coming from a West supporter and someone who dislikes LeBron James.

[Mr. Body]

The division thing was idiotic to begin with.

[GSH]

Conference rivalries are good for the game, and good for the ratings that pay for all this. Divisions do the same thing, plus they make sure that each geographic region is represented in the playoffs, at least for the first round. Make those irrelevant, and it will start dragging playoff revenues down, which is where a lot of the profit is made after the regular season pays the bills. Don't be surprised to see this change abandoned like the "new improved" basketballs.

[Sean Cagney]

First 2 rounds need to go to best 3 out of 5, 4 out of 7 is too long.
First round agreed on, remember in 03 when they moved it to 7. The only way you would want to keep it that way is if your team is down 3-2 but even then I agree shorten it to 5 games again (I liked that a LOT better). More bball is not bad necessarily though.

[TrainOfThought5]

Theyll never give up the money of a 7 game first round series.

Related, i miss the 5 game series due to the higher odds of upsets.

[BanditHiro]

as long as every western team plays every other western conference team 4x a year then it's a good change.

[Eddy from Austin]

This would have helped San Antonio last year because Portland was the fourth seed with 51 wins and The Spurs were the sixth with 55. But Portland won the Division.

[100%duncan]

Thanks for nothing last year jackasses.

[Eddy from Austin]

We would have played Portland in the first round

[exstatic]

That's not breaking news......the press release if just a formality.

The press release was for the owners vote today, which I assure you is NOT a formality.

[exstatic]

We would have played Portland in the first round

We would have played Memphis. Portland would have been 6, we would have been 5 and Memphis would have been 4.

[exstatic]

as long as every western team plays every other western conference team 4x a year then it's a good change.

Can't happen. NBA really wants every team to cross match east and west twice per year, home and home. That leaves interconference play a little short. They do annually rotate the teams that you don't play 4 times.

2 X 15 interconference = 30
4 X 14 other teams in your conference = 56

There are only 82 games

[AFBlue]

First 2 rounds need to go to best 3 out of 5, 4 out of 7 is too long.

That's less revenue for players/owners to share. Now that they've set the precedent, I don't think you'll see it revert to Best-of-5 in any series.

[therealtruth]

We would have played Memphis. Portland would have been 6, we would have been 5 and Memphis would have been 4.

That bracket might have been more favorable to the Spurs. They could probably get out of a first round with the Grizzlies. That would have set up a matchup with the Warriors who they matched up pretty well with. At that point the team would have been rolling enough to deal with a more worn down Clippers/Rockets team. Then the injured Cavs shouldn't have been an issue in the Finals.

This sort of reminds me of 'when they decided to allow division winners to be top 4 after we lost to the Mavs in the second round. A little to late to make a difference.

[Mikeanaro]

Good news.

[BanditHiro]

Can't happen. NBA really wants every team to cross match east and west twice per year, home and home. That leaves interconference play a little short. They do annually rotate the teams that you don't play 4 times.

2 X 15 interconference = 30
4 X 14 other teams in your conference = 56

There are only 82 games

that is why you just lower the number of interconference games. since Divisions no longer matter it simply isn't fair for a team that plays in a tougher division to have to face all of those opponents in their division 4x while others might only have to play them 3x

[ceperez]

sigh... one year too late!!!!

[ceperez]

that is why you just lower the number of interconference games. since Divisions no longer matter it simply isn't fair for a team that plays in a tougher division to have to face all of those opponents in their division 4x while others might only have to play them 3x

There are only 2 interconference games. I think you can't lower that. Everyone wants to have a chance to watch their favorite team live even if that team is in a different conference.

[milkyway21]

Better late than never.

Resting of player from weak division winners won't happen anymore before playoffs..each W is crucial

.

[exstatic]

that is why you just lower the number of interconference games. since Divisions no longer matter it simply isn't fair for a team that plays in a tougher division to have to face all of those opponents in their division 4x while others might only have to play them 3x

That's a bad idea, imo. Every team in the NBA should have at least a home and home against every other team. It's still an unbalanced schedule, too. What if GS only plays Cleveland once, and we play them twice?

[Seventyniner]

The second time the league has corrected a stupid rule right after it screwed the Spurs.

[Kuestmaster]

Now they just need to ban apalisoc ass from any meaningful basketball discussion.

[Gladney to see you]

The opposite will happen this year.

[21209]

Both times the Spurs got the short end of the stick, the league restructures the way seedings are determined.

[buttsR4rebounding]

There is really no reason to have divisions then. Hypothetically, if a division winner had the 9th best record they would not make the playoffs, right? So then why have divisions at all. Since the Spurs are in the toughest division in professional American sports IMO any dilution of their current division schedule will be beneficial.

[Horry Hipcheck]

There is really no reason to have divisions then. Hypothetically, if a division winner had the 9th best record they would not make the playoffs, right? So then why have divisions at all. Since the Spurs are in the toughest division in professional American sports IMO any dilution of their current division schedule will be beneficial.

Because something something divisions are the only way people know who their team's rival is

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

About time. I wish they'd gone further though - top 16 teams by record make the playoffs regardless of conference.

[Slippy]

Glad they finally got around to it.

[maverick1948]

[QUOTE=exstatic;8184935]Can't happen. NBA really wants every team to cross match east and west twice per year, home and home. That leaves interconference play a little short. They do annually rotate the teams that you don't play 4 times.

2 X 15 interconference = 30
4 X 14 other teams in your conference = 56


I think you missed a good idea. Why not play 86 regular season games? Then play 1st round best of 5 series.
86 games is not a huge difference than 82. Also, it places more pressure on round 1 games. An early loss in a 5 games series is far harder to overcome than in a 7 game series.

Revenue for teams would be up for regular season and not a big difference in the playoffs.

[Chillen]

Well it only makes sense to seed teams by record, that is the point of playing an 82 game regular season. If a team wins their division it is just that, it shouldn't help them cheat another team with more wins. Applause to the league for doing the right thing!