Adam Silver has been commissioner of the NBA for 14 months now. He has been forceful on one issue — the lifetime suspension of Donald Sterling, which led to the sale of the Los Angeles Clippers to billionaire Steve Ballmer.
It is time for Silver to stand a stand again, and this time it has to do with reformatting the playoffs.
I wrote an open letter to Silver about this very issue less than a month ago, and it is certain to come up at the NBA Board of Governors meeting in New York next week. My suggestion: Take the six division winners, seed then 1 through 6, and then take the remaining teams with the 10 best records and bracket them so that 1 plays 16, 2 plays 15, and so on.
That was one of the topics I discussed today on the Eric Hasseltine Show on ESPN Radio in Memphis, along with plenty of talk about the flatlining Grizzlies, the surging Spurs and a few other NBA topics. Enjoy.
The problem is that the current scheduling is based on teams playing their Division rivals, 4 times, remaining conference teams 3 or 4 times and the opposite conference 2 times. The current formula is consistent with the scheduling.
And even with your idea, there would then be complaints by Western Conference teams, that they have a tougher schedule and would have a better record if in the East.
Also, note that although there is inequity, the races in the East are exciting for the teams involved. The only team really getting screwed this season is the loser between OKC and New Orleans, as Phoenix may not even be at 500 at season’s end.
The 7th and 8th place teams in the East may end up being only 3 & 5 games below 500, but playing competitively.
There is also Mark Cuban’s idea of swapping 5 teams, including all 3 Texas teams and New Orleans to the East and Detroit, IND, Chi, MIlwaukee among the teams going to the West. It would retain rivalries.