True Regular Season Seeds - By Record

[heyheymymy]

In this day and age, I think it's a worthy idea. I don't necessarily buy the argument that the league shouldn't consider this just because the East/West disparity was so big this year -- it seems to me that going to a global tournament rather than a conference-based tournament would ensure that when there are disparate years, you get the 16 best teams in the playoffs and when there's more balance, you likely get something closer to an 8-8 split in participation.

The other part of this that I like is that you introduce the possibility for playoff matchups (and perhaps rivalries) that are highly unlikely in the current structure. Over the course of the Duncan era, the Spurs (an extreme example, given the sheer number of playoff series they've participated in over that span) have played Phoenix and the Lakers 7 times and have played Dallas 6 times. Certainly, the familiarity breeds contempt, but one wonders if a mini-rivalry might have been born if the Spurs had to play the Pacers, the Bulls, or the Celtics (for example) at some point during that run. Rivalries often need a playoff series to gain some traction and in cross-conference matchups, that currently requires each team to reach the Finals, which means that the chances of getting too many of those rivalries is really small.

Still, I think the fundamental problem with the idea is that you either have to live with the fact that the schedules will be imbalanced or you have to re-work the schedule to try to balance it and ignore the conference distinctions, likely without reducing the number of regular season games.

great points! love your posting style

[100%duncan]

Same finals tbh. But it would be great so that Miami would stop coasting in the RS and the Pacers wouldn't be considered as "contenders".

[mudyez]

I'm against it as I like rivalrys beeing built and les like "Western Conference Champion" having some history that should be continued.
Furthermore I think there will be a time, when things finally even out (yeah, a lot of people said the same thing 5 years ago, but looking at this years top 6 draft picks, there is reason to believe in a change).

Just for fun, I' like to predict the outcomes of the series.

SA over CHA in 4
MEM over GS in 7
PHO over IND in 6
HOU over CHI in 7
LAC over WAS in 6
MIA over TOR in 5
OKC over BKN in 5
DAL over POR in 7

SA over MEM in 6
HOU over PHO in 5
MIA over LAC in 7
OKC over DAL in 6

SA over HOU in 5
MIA over OKC in 6

The road might be easier for the Spurs, but after inhaling Charlotte, Memphis may have very well also killed us. Rockets are not a great test run if you face Miami a round later. Our road was one of the hardest, but Dallas got us prepared for Portland, while OKC does the same regarding Miami.
As for Miami, it would have been a rocky road playing TOR, Clips and OKC. Might as well not have made it through. But right now I rather play a Miami team that needs to figure out its on/off-switch, than a team that went through tough rounds like that. If OKC makes it to the finals and Ibaka isn't sitting out games, it's probably not easier than our current Miami scenario.

[mudyez]

The other part of this that I like is that you introduce the possibility for playoff matchups (and perhaps rivalries) that are highly unlikely in the current structure. Over the course of the Duncan era, the Spurs (an extreme example, given the sheer number of playoff series they've participated in over that span) have played Phoenix and the Lakers 7 times and have played Dallas 6 times. Certainly, the familiarity breeds contempt, but one wonders if a mini-rivalry might have been born if the Spurs had to play the Pacers, the Bulls, or the Celtics (for example) at some point during that run. Rivalries often need a playoff series to gain some traction and in cross-conference matchups, that currently requires each team to reach the Finals, which means that the chances of getting too many of those rivalries is really small.

The chance two teams are meeting in an open seeting process is about half as hight than with 8 teams. That said, we would have meat PHO, LAK, DAL about only 3-4 times in the span of 16 years. A real rivalry isn't built on a playoff meeting between teams every 5 years!
Yeah, there might have been 3 other teams (lets say DET, MIA, ORL) with such "mini-rivalrys" but don't we have such a thing with MIA anyway (and had it with DET)?

[Spurs 4 The Win]

How would this end up playing out? Miami would definitely have a much tougher road to go through... Clippers, then OKC before even getting to the finals . Should divisions/conferences be scrapped completely for a system like this because the East sucks so bad? I could see the final 4 being spurs vs rockets and heat vs okc.

In this format, Spurs are in the finals vs the Mavs for a classic 7-game series highlighted by a DeJuan Blair kick and a game 7 blowout.