Good afternoon, Adam.
Hope you are having a nice time filling out your NCAA bracket. I imagine you have Duke winning, since you got your undergrad degree there. A word of caution: Beware Larry Brown’s SMU Mustangs in the South Regional final.
It’s fun filling out an NCAA bracket, isn’t it, Adam? So many games between teams that almost never play each other. That’s what makes it so special.
Which brings us to the upcoming NBA playoffs, which are not going to be special in the same sort of way. In the Eastern Conference, your league may be putting out a product that will make the folks at Oreck and Hoover jealous. There will be five, count ’em, five, bad teams in the Eastern Conference playoffs. And there will be one and perhaps two very good teams from the Western Conference sitting it out and watching from their sofas because your predecessor, David Stern, never embraced the idea of making a drastic change to the playoff format to avoid the type of lackluster first round that will begin in a month, making everyone East of the Mississippi River tune out the NBA until the Cavs and Hawks/Bulls inevitably meet in the Eastern Conference finals.
I mean, c’mon. If we just look at the top six teams in the East.
We have a Toronto Raptors team that has lost 10 of 12; we have a Washington Wizards team that recently lost nine out of 12, and we have a Milwaukee Bucks team that has dropped nine out of 12. These are bad teams, Adam, and we haven’t even touched on the seventh and eighth seeds. Why do we have to get stuck with four first-round series in the East that will all be lemons? Isn’t there a better way?
It is time for a change, and I have a proposal that I think makes a lot of sense. Here it is.
Each division winner is awarded one of the top six seeds, and then seeds 7 through 16 are given to the teams with the 10 best remaining records.
If this format was in place for this season, here is what the playoffs would look like (based on the standings through Sunday’s games).
No. 1 Golden State Warriors vs No. 16 Phoenix Suns.
No. 2 Atlanta Hawks vs. No. 15 Milwaukee Bucks
No. 3 Memphis Grizzlies vs. No. 14 New Orleans Pelicans.
No. 4 Portland Trail Blazers vs. No. 13 Oklahoma City Thunder
No. 5 Cleveland Cavaliers vs. No. 12. Washington Wizards
No. 6 Toronto Raptors vs. No. 11 Chicago Bulls
No. 7 Houston Rockets vs. No. 10 Dallas Mavericks
No. 8 San Antonio Spurs vs. No. 9 Los Angeles Clippers.
Yes, it just so happens that we would have four East vs. East series and four West vs. West series. But in the second round (under a traditional bracket format) we would have three of the four series pitting teams from the East vs. teams from the West. There could be a Gasol vs. Gasol matchup if the Grizzlies and Bulls both got out of the first round. There could be a Kyrie Irving vs. Russell Westbrook series if the Cavs and Thunder made it out of the first round. (And yes, LeBron James and Kevin Durant would battle each other in that series, too).
The “conference finals” would become known as the “third round,” and then the two teams that survived would play for the title. Maybe it would be an East team vs. a West team, maybe it would be East-East or West-West. But who cares? The road to the Finals would be so much more interesting, and the first round would never, ever feature two bad teams playing each other. Try to keep that in mind when you are falling asleep during Game 2 of the Toronto-Washington series. Or trying to stay interested as the Hawks are beating down the Celtics/Heat/Hornets the following night.
Look, I like coffee as much as the next guy, but I do not want to add it to my diet each and every weeknight just so I can make it to 9:30 or 10:30 when the Western Conference games tip off.
You are going to have a serious problem on your hands one month from now, Adam, and it is time to put the weight of your office behind a dramatic change to the playoff format. Remember, change is good. I’m sure they taught that to you at Duke, or perhaps at University of Chicago Law School.
Do yourself a favor and embrace a change before this embarrassment of a first round even begins.
It is time to make things a little more interesting. Like that bracket you have on your desk.
Just a little advice. Hope you heed it.
Best regards,
CS
Chris Sheridan is publisher and editor in chief of SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.
I think before there is a change to the playoff format the league has make sure every the teams play each other evenly (or close to it). The schedule would look like this:
1. Every team plays each team at least twice (58 gms).
2. Each team (depending on conference) plays each conference member an additional time (14 gms).
3. The remaining 10 gms will be played against 2 of the 3 divisions in the opposite conference. For example, the Wizards will play all teams in the Northwest & Pacific one additional time to equal 82 games.
4. #3 set up will rotate yearly for every team/division to include the 3rd game against opposite conference division didn’t play the previous year.
Not perfect, but it will address tie-breakers within the conference for division winners and also address tie-breakers for the playoffs (in some cases) for seeding since every team will play each other 3 times a year (except were noted).
This is long-winded and I probably could have condensed this…but….yeah.
Thoughts?