Playoff seedings...

[adidas11]

Just wanted to start a thread to verify something. I'm watching the Cavs-Pistons game right now, and they mentioned seedings according the the current records right now in the Eastern Conference.

Aren't the seedings done with the first 3 seeds going to the division champions? So in the western conference, Dallas would get the first seed, Phoenix the second, and Utah the third? And then for the remaining 4 - 8 seeds, its done by conference record?

And having the better record determines who has home court advantage?

Because the way that ABC was laying it out, they got it all wrong.

[bonesinaz]

It changed since last year and now goes by conference record.

[adidas11]

Ahhh...I wasn't aware that they changed it. Sort of makes having three divisions in each conference worthless.

[exstatic]

Top 4 in each conference are seeded strictly by record this year, so in the West, it's DAL, PHO, SAS, UTH. They wanted to avoid having the top 2 teams meet in the second round again like DAL/SAS last year.

There was also the appearance that the LAC tanked some games to draw Denver in the 3/6 matchup last year. Seedings are only for matchups, so the better record (LAC) got HCA for that series.

[FromWayDowntown]

Ahhh...I wasn't aware that they changed it. Sort of makes having three divisions in each conference worthless.

That's not entirely true. The 3 division champions are each guaranteed a top-4 seed. That makes the divisions important, but just not as important as they were (perhaps) when the division champions were assured a top-3 seed.

Suppose, for instance, that the Jazz end up with a worse record than Houston. The Jazz will technically be the #4 seed, though they won't have HCA in the first round.

The real difference is that a team that finishes 2nd in its division but has an exceptional record -- like Dallas last year or the Spurs this year -- isn't automatically dropped into that 4/5 matchup and forced to play the #1 seed in the 2nd round. The new system does a better job of power-protecting the #1 record in these kinds of situations and goes a greater distance to assuring that the teams with the best records in each conference will meet in the Conference Finals.

[adidas11]

That's not entirely true. The 3 division champions are each guaranteed a top-4 seed. That makes the divisions important, but just not as important as they were (perhaps) when the division champions were assured a top-3 seed.

Suppose, for instance, that the Jazz end up with a worse record than Houston. The Jazz will technically be the #4 seed, though they won't have HCA in the first round.

The real difference is that a team that finishes 2nd in its division but has an exceptional record -- like Dallas last year or the Spurs this year -- isn't automatically dropped into that 4/5 matchup and forced to play the #1 seed in the 2nd round. The new system does a better job of power-protecting the #1 record in these kinds of situations and goes a greater distance to assuring that the teams with the best records in each conference will meet in the Conference Finals.

Ok, so now I'm a little confused again. So in the eastern conference, Toronto and Miami would be guaranteed at least seeding in the Top 4, right? (Assuming that Miami holds on to win their division)

[ShoogarBear]

Ok, so now I'm a little confused again. So in the eastern conference, Toronto and Miami would be guaranteed at least seeding in the Top 4, right? (Assuming that Miami holds on to win their division)Correct.

To put it another way, Cleveland and Chicago are fighting to see which one gets the #2 seed and which one gets the #5, since both Toronto and (presumably) Miami are guaranteed no lower than #4.

[adidas11]

I understand now. Also went to NBA.com and looked at the playoff standings, and the picture is a lot clearer to me now. They did this to avoid punishing a high performing team (like the Mavericks last year or the Spurs this year) with a lower seeding. Makes sense, but also still gives proper weight to winning the division.