http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24523845/adam-silver-says-nba-will-take-a-fresh-look-at-changing-playoff-format

Silver says NBA will 'take a fresh look' at changing playoff format

April 12, 2014 3:47 pm ET

Peavy (USATSI) Adam Silver is open to changing the playoff format. (USATSI)

Adam Silver has been open to change in the NBA so far in his young tenure as commissioner. One of which might include the postseason format.

This season, while tanking has dominated a lot of the conversation, another talking point has been how miserable the Eastern Conference has been, with the possibility to have two sub-.500 teams in the postseason. While on the other hand, there will be a Western team with possibly 50 wins to miss the postseason, and another over .500 that is guaranteed to be out.

Because of it, Silver said recently he's open to take a "fresh look" at restructuring the playoff format to make sure the best teams are included.

Via the San Antonio-Express News:

Conducting an in-game interview with Spurs broadcasters Bill Land and Sean Elliott during the telecast of Friday's Spurs-Suns game at AT&T Center, Silver said the league needs to consider changes to the format that puts the top eight teams in each conference in the playoffs.

“I don't know that there will be movement,” Silver said about changing the format. “My initial thought is we will take a fresh look at it. When these conferences were designed it was in the day of commercial (air) travel. It was very different moving teams around the country.

“In this day and age when every team is flying charter it changes everything. It's one of the reasons we moved back to the 2-2-1-1-1 format for this year's Finals.”

Making the change might be easier said than done, as conferences and divisions are pretty engrained into the NBA format. To just take the 16 best records seems like an easy fix, but that would require eliminating conferences, or at least completely readjusting them.

For instance, if you just scrapped the conferences, you could potentially eliminate the possibility of a LeBron-Durant NBA Finals. East versus West is an institution in the NBA, so there would have to be a way to still have that while making sure the best teams make the postseason.

Still, Silver has maintained he's open to looking at every league issue and he's definitely a big idea kind of person. So maybe he'll have a bright one.

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Okay, if conferences were eliminated right today, this is what the NBA playoffs would look like:

(1)Spurs vs (16)Bobcats
(8)Warriors vs (9)Mavs

(4)Pacers vs (12)Suns
(5)Heat vs (13)Bulls

(2)Thunder vs (15)Wiz
(7)Blazers vs (11)Griz

(3)Clippers vs (14)Nets
(6)Rockets vs (12)Raptors

Spurs/Bobs winner would play the Warriors/Mavs winner and so on.

This format pits Bulls/Heat then possibly Heat/Pacers, then possibly Heat/Spurs BEFORE the finals.

Would this be better for the NBA? More fun for you as a fan?

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Conferences are important to build rivalries... and rivalries are built in the playoffs in long series year after year...

As unfair as things can be for a team like Phoenix, it's just the way the ball bounces sometimes.... win more games

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might be later next week because i'm heading home for easter. sorry about the timing.

-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.

-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.

As for the links, just tell me what you want in the email and I'll make it work.

The audio is the important part.

I wanted to create it for the off-season post and I was gonna do payouts once I did all of that.

So...

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out of necessity? If Phoenix and Minnesota were in the East it's likely that their records would be worse because of the lessened competition for a playoff slot.

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People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.

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i still blame hip-hop.

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-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.

they wanna take it from us.

i still blame hip-hop.

conf make the playoffs. That's more than fair imo.

And yes, the playoffs foster rivalries...which breeds excitement.

-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.

I wouldn't mind a stipulation like:

"All playoff teams have to finish above .500 in order to garner an unchallenged playoff spot. If a team finishes below .500 in either conference, a team from the opposite conference, currently above .500 but sitting outside of their conferences playoffs, can challenge the below .500 team for their playoff spot in the opposing conference. The challenging team must be in the 9th spot in the conference standings to qualify for challenge. Challenges will be resolved by one sudden death game. Winner will be the playoff team in the designated conference at the corresponding seed. If there is more than one team below .500 in a conferences playoff standings, all teams out of the playoffs in the opposite conference may challenge in order of record so long as they are above .500."

So this year Phx could challenge ATL to a 1 game playoff for their #8 seed. If they won, they'd be the #8 seed in the east and would face Indy in the first round.

LOL

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The idea that the championship has to "go through" a city is a big deal.

https://digife.com

Rivalries are built on a series of hard fought games
The playoffs tends to make more rivalries itself than conferences

Hence the rivalries. If playoffs were seed 1-16, indy and Miami wouldn't have seen each other each of the last 3? years and we wouldn't be waiting for them to match up again this year.

-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.

ie: double round robin 58 game schedule.

i still blame hip-hop.

eliminate the conferences for playoff pairings. However, I doubt most teams can afford to lose that many games so more than likely we'd see a triple round robin (87 games).


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<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

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that's funny, i stole the double round robin from marc stein, and the 87 game triple round robin was my first thought as well.

i still blame hip-hop.

If every team plays every team exactly twice, home & away, the team with the best record at the end is the best team in the league, no argument. You need a playoff when you don't face the same teams.

Phoenix lost 34 games... they had to win 2 or 3 more..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

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Ditch the paper, save the trees, and go mobile! Text bizcard to 32462!

And this isn't the first time in the NBA that this has happened...tough luck

In the NFL Arizona went 11-5 and missed the playoffs...is that fair?
I think Seattle 2 years ago went 7-9 and HOSTED a playoff game (they beat NO)

When this happens people get all up in arms...some people need to stop whinin'

a wild card team can win the SB if you used the best record criteria to seed the playoff teams. As much as I think Phoenix is a good young team, cmon.. they're not winning the chip. It's not the greatest travesty of justice that they missed the playoffs..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

=======================================

Ditch the paper, save the trees, and go mobile! Text bizcard to 32462!

as bad as I feel for Phoenix, they ain't winning shit anyway, when we are talking about 7 or 8 seeds, they aren't going to win the title regardless so I don't like we need to change the whole system for them...

it's like bubble teams in the ncaa's... although some really got fucked, if you couldnt get one of 30 whatever at large bids, you have nobody to blame but yourself

but all this FIX THE NBA blather of late is just a product of there being way too many bloggers now.

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it is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. - sherlock holmes

a lot of the east teams have just been poorly run. the market will correct itself.

i personally hate the idea of eliminating divisions/conferences. aside for diminishing rivalries, the idea of there being one "winner" every year, with every other team's season being a failure, is problematic for me.

fanbases need to feel engaged. organizations like to hang banners, even if it's "just" for winning a division. it's an accomplishment.

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it is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. - sherlock holmes

2013: 8. Milwaukee 38-44 Lotto: Utah 43-39
2012: 8. Philadelphia 35-31 Lotto: Houston 34-32
2011: 8. Indiana 37-45 Lotto: Houston 43-49
2010: 8. Chicago 41-41 Lotto: Houston 42-40
2009: 8. Detroit 39-43 Lotto: Phoenix 46-36
2008: 8. Atlanta 37-45 Lotto: Golden State 48-34
2007: 8. Orlando 40-42 Lotto: Los Angeles Clippers 40-42
2006: 8. Milwaukee 40-42 Lotto: Utah 41-41
2005: 8. New Jersey 42-40 Lotto: Minnesota 44-38
2004: 8. Boston 36-46 Lotto: Utah 42-40

Including the 66 game schedule over the last 10 years the East 8 seed has 38.5 wins; the West "9 seed" has 42.3 wins over that same time.

That margin will widen even more if you factor in Phoenix and Atlanta this year.

The East 8 seed has been over .500 twice in the last 10 years, and one of those was the lockout shortened season.

i still blame hip-hop.

And they never do. Do they just need to realign? Is it something about the weather that keeps the West better and more balanced top to bottom? Or is it just the Knicks fault?

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I don't really care about breaking up the conferences, I think these things always self-correct at some point (the west used to be as famously terrible as the east is now) but I wouldn't mind an NBA-level week-long single elimination tournament the week after March Madness.
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with the NBA playoffs--and NFL since they're floating the same
idea--I care more about rivalries. I care more about the narrative
of a team coming out of their conference to go up against the best
from another conference. divisions, and to a lesser extent conferences,
typically lead to differing styles. I care more about seeing those matchups