http://www.usatoday.com/longform/spo...rity/24844365/Fixing the playoff problem is easier said than done, but this dialogue isn't going away. And, somewhat surprisingly, one of the advocates for change is someone who has flourished with the ways of the old world: Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.
"I just think it would be more interesting, because you'd have more good teams or teams that performed better, and I think it's more fair," said Popovich, whose Spurs have won five championships since 1999. "If you can take the top 16 teams, you just do it. It's better compe ion for the fans. It's the best teams. It's fair. … It's a good enough notion that it should definitely be talked about."
the spurs have been dominant and won 5 les playing in the west which has been stacked since 99 imo. can you imagine if they played in the east? 7 les easily imo. lebron played teams (early rounds) with LOSING records on his way to 2 les. come on man.
Cavs would not get to finals in west
Yeah that would be crazy seeing the Spurs out East man. They would be in the finals almost every single year on end.I agree fully.
to make the ecf this year the cavs have to play the powerhouse pacers in the 1st and either the bucks or raps in the 2nd.
*if everything stays the same
Record wise**
They were robbed the first time against the Cheat so that would be 6 which is a loooootttt of championships, Spurs in the Least Conference could have 9 les... Im serious that conference is pure evil weak shiat.
Why not try reshuffling the conferences first? Instead of having geographical conferences like hockey, maybe we'd be better off just having a basketball equivalent to the AL/NL or AFC/NFC where it's more arbitrary.
The NFL and MLB are starting to have the same issue too tho. The NFC has become extremely stacked and the NL has been pretty strong for a while now too.
Obviously way past due. The fact that the celtics might make the playoffs make is such a farce. The Cavs get to sleepwalk to the finals while every west matchup is ridiculously tough.
I like everything on this list, but particularly the one bolded. As the season comes to a close, and the playoff teams are all but decided, I always get the impression teams tank for position. IMO lower seeds should NEVER have any influence (by tanking) on who they meet in the playoffs. If you are the higher seed, you should be able to pick who you want to face of the lower seeds. That's your reward for winning. I also think by top seeds picking their opponent you could fuel some rivalries. Can you imagine if the Warriors/OkC finished 1/8, but the Warriors chose to face the 7 seeded Clippers instead?
it would be more rewarding to do away with conferences. Now home court counts even more since all your hard work all season to get there practically gets you a first round bye playing a legitimate last place playoff team
My thoughts on how to deal with this:
1. Play everyone in your conference 3 times (42 games).
2. On a rotating schedule play 2 of the remaining divisions 3 times (30 games) and the final division 2 times (10 games).
3. Division winners plus the top 10 remaining teams all make the playoffs.
4. Playoff teams get to pick their opponent every round by order of record.
5. Non-playoff teams and teams that lose in the first round get 1 ping pong ball per loss in the regular season.
This idea would keep rivalries somewhat important and would make winning every game even more important. It would also de-emphasize losing as your odds to win the lottery are only 2-3 times higher than the best team that lost in the first round of the playoffs.
If we use last year as a rough example, Atlanta does not make the playoffs and Phoenix gets in instead. Milwaukee gets 67 ping pong balls while Houston gets 28. San Antonio might still pick Dallas in round 1 (it was a really easy series travel wise plus it tested them) or they could go the easy route and pick Charlotte or maybe Phoenix(that might have been just as fun as Dallas). In round 2, having the best record we pick Dallas, Portland or maybe someone else.
like a mets vs yankees world series?
I've thought about this for years. that would be perfect.
Biggest issue with PO seeding system is the fact that teams with significant negative records are in when teams with better records are out... it is dumb
yep, seeding to top 16 teams only, independent of conference
Cleveland (2nd in the East) would be 8th if they were in the West. Enough said.
i've always thought two games against everybody is the most fair but i don't see the league cutting out two dozen games.
Actually, seriously clean up the rulebook and call traveling, palming/carrying, the Harden kick...all of that crap needs to be cleaned up. Get back to fundamentals...
Or let the top 8 in each conference into the playoffs as normal, but then let the best 7 records in the league choose their first-round opponents from the 9th-16th group (8th gets whoever is left). Give division winners a guaranteed playoff spot but no guaranteed seed.
If the season ended today (before tonight's games), it might look like this:
#1 Warriors choose #16 Nets
#2 Hawks choose #15 Heat
#3 Rockets choose #14 Bucks
#4 Grizzlies choose #12 Thunder
#5 Clippers choose #13 Wizards
#6 Blazers choose #10 Mavs
#7 Spurs choose #11 Raptors
#8 Cavs play #9 Bulls
The opponent choice thing would be awesome, but there are three ways to continue the playoffs after that, and I'm not sure which is the best:
1) set the brackets before the playoffs start, the way things are now
2) reseed by record each round but no choosing opponents after the first round
3) choose opponents every round, ordered by regular season record (then tiebreakers) of remaining teams
got to keep it East vs West. it's fun to have the geographic rivalry. I wish the NFL would go East/West.
This would make most of the 1st matches boring as .
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