NBA Postseason Change Ideas

[LoPo]

There has been a ton of speculation about the NBA changing the playoff format. There are even proposals for a play in tournament before the playoffs begin. They want to curb tanking as much as possible, make everything more relevant and of course make tons of money.

Here is my idea, take your shots.

#1 - keep 2 conferences. Scrap divisions.

#2 - cut preseason from 8 games to 2 games like they did the lockout year.

#3 - every team plays 2 home and 2 away games against the 14 teams in their conference (56 games). Every team also plays 1 home and 1 away game with the 14 teams from the other conference. So season actually goes to 84 games (not that big a deal since they cut 6 preseason games).

#4 - every team makes the playoffs. The first round of the playoffs is best of 3 and the second round is best of 5 (like it used to be). The last rounds are best of 7. #1 seed in each conference gets a bye for the first round.

The schedule makes more sense, every game matters towards seeding, and every team actually has a shot.

Thoughts?

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[Gameface]

I don't hate it but I really doubt they go to a every team makes the playoffs format.

 

[Ellipse]

Before we go mucking with the format, we first need to state the problem we are trying to fix.

 

[Thee Jazz Fan]

Before we go mucking with the format, we first need to state the problem we are trying to fix.

Wasn't that made clear, tanking?

 

[colton]

If they could combine the teams from east and west in a play-in tournament instead of having two separate play-in tournaments, then it could perhaps also address the east-west disparity.

Don't know if that's on the table though.

 

[elan_prodigy]

The issue is the number of 1 sided contests in the playoffs and the matchups being a little played out leading to less revenue for the league and owners.

Schedule stays the same, take 8 from West and 8 from East, Reseed 1-16.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

The playoff format is fine. I really dont understand the push to change it.

If anything, there should be a reshaping of divisions/conferences. I really like Locke's idea on this.

 

[Gameface]

The issue is the number of 1 sided contests in the playoffs and the matchups being a little played out leading to less revenue for the league and owners.

Schedule stays the same, take 8 from West and 8 from East, Reseed 1-16.

I say take the top 16 teams, period.

 

[Gameface]

The playoff format is fine. I really dont understand the push to change it.

If anything, there should be a reshaping of divisions/conferences. I really like Locke's idea on this.

What's Locke's idea?

 

[Et tu Brute]

The way to fix tanking is to fiddle with the draft.
Question is how. The draft is designed to provide a level of equalisation overtime (right?)...
Maybe you should have no lottery - and just have a system where all teams have an equal chance at picking #1 (and so on).
To provide bottom feeding teams some extra help, maybe increase their cap capacity a few % points to attract FA/RFA.

Surely the only real way to stop tanking is to make it pointless to do it?

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

What's Locke's idea?

I can't recite it from memory, but basically he calls for the NBA to get rid of conferences and stick to divisions (which he restructures). Teams play more divisional games, so it creates more of a rivalry aspect to the regular season like the NFL. It also cuts down significantly on travel.

 

[Rubashov]

Leave it as is, this is cyclical imbalance that will correct itself naturally in time. A wise man once said pulling out the rafters to find out which ones are important is an expensive way to fix your roof.

 

[Rubashov]

The way to fix tanking is to fiddle with the draft.
Question is how. The draft is designed to provide a level of equalisation overtime (right?)...
Maybe you should have no lottery - and just have a system where all teams have an equal chance at picking #1 (and so on).
To provide bottom feeding teams some extra help, maybe increase their cap capacity a few % points to attract FA/RFA.

Surely the only real way to stop tanking is to make it pointless to do it?

Maybe not making it equal but increasing the chance of the teams say 8 to 14 getting the number 1 pick would remove the incentive to lose

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

So let's say 6 division with 5 teams each. You play everyone in your division 8 times and the other 25 teams twice.

8x4 = 32 division games
25x2 = 50 non-division games

In the NFL you have 6 divisional games and 10 non division games.

So that's 38% of a NFL schedule being division games and 39% for the NBA under that change. It creates more rivalries in the NBA and makes divisions matter. You still get to see every other opponent once in your home arena too.

Top two teams get in from each conference, then the next 6 teams with the best record get in.

 

[akirac73]

If everyone makes the playoffs (bad idea) how does that curb tanking? No matter what, there will always be a "worst team in the NBA" every season. The only "true" way to prevent tanking is to disqualify teams with a losing record from receiving a draft pick, but then the teams that are truly bad, would never be able to improve their roster except through trades or free agency.

 

[Jazz Traveler]

There has been a ton of speculation about the NBA changing the playoff format. There are even proposals for a play in tournament before the playoffs begin. They want to curb tanking as much as possible, make everything more relevant and of course make tons of money.

Here is my idea, take your shots.

#1 - keep 2 conferences. Scrap divisions.

#2 - cut preseason from 8 games to 2 games like they did the lockout year.

#3 - every team plays 2 home and 2 away games against the 14 teams in their conference (56 games). Every team also plays 1 home and 1 away game with the 14 teams from the other conference. So season actually goes to 84 games (not that big a deal since they cut 6 preseason games).

#4 - every team makes the playoffs. The first round of the playoffs is best of 3 and the second round is best of 5 (like it used to be). The last rounds are best of 7. #1 seed in each conference gets a bye for the first round.

The schedule makes more sense, every game matters towards seeding, and every team actually has a shot.

Thoughts?

Sent from my VS995 using JazzFanz mobile app

Wouldn’t there be 86 games since there would be 15 teams, not 14, in the other conference?

 

[The Jazz Wonderbra]

First off... the term "Locke's Idea" is an OXYMORON... He doesn't have original ideas. Never has. Never will. He takes ideas from other people. Its kind of like saying 'dry water' or 'pretty ugly' or 'Jumbo Shrimp'.

David 'Figglehorn' Locke is the worst idea...



Next, I think that the best 16 teams should make the playoffs. 16 teams makes for most of the teams and the easiest round robin schedule. You could do the best 20 teams and give the top 4 teams a first round bye if you wanted to expand the playoffs to include losers... but again that doesn't really answer the tanking issue much. It only makes the lottery smaller to include 10 teams instead of 14.

The lottery question was already handled last year by changing the odds so the bottom 3 teams don't have massively different odds than the bottom 6 teams. So, I guess if you made the playoffs 20 teams deep with a 1st round bye to the top 4 teams it may be really beneficial to be a top 20 team and it would make at least another 4 teams fight it out for the chance at added playoff revenue with a chance to beat a solid team that isn't necessarily elite.

PS. I was about to punch my monitor last time I listened to David Locke. I felt the same irritation when listening to the 3rd minute of Figglehorn. It scratches at the chalkboard of the soul listening to these two!

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

First off... the term "Locke's Idea" is an OXYMORON... He doesn't have original ideas. Never has. Never will. He takes ideas from other people. Its kind of like saying 'dry water' or 'pretty ugly' or 'Jumbo Shrimp'.

David 'Figglehorn' Locke is the worst idea...



Next, I think that the best 16 teams should make the playoffs. 16 teams makes for most of the teams and the easiest round robin schedule. You could do the best 20 teams and give the top 4 teams a first round bye if you wanted to expand the playoffs to include losers... but again that doesn't really answer the tanking issue much. It only makes the lottery smaller to include 10 teams instead of 14.

The lottery question was already handled last year by changing the odds so the bottom 3 teams don't have massively different odds than the bottom 6 teams. So, I guess if you made the playoffs 20 teams deep with a 1st round bye to the top 4 teams it may be really beneficial to be a top 20 team and it would make at least another 4 teams fight it out for the chance at added playoff revenue with a chance to beat a solid team that isn't necessarily elite.

PS. I was about to punch my monitor last time I listened to David Locke. I felt the same irritation when listening to the 3rd minute of Figglehorn. It scratches at the chalkboard of the soul listening to these two!

Did David Locke **** your wife or something?

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Playoff format is fine, but I think taking the 16 best teams is better. The play in games kind of sounds fun. I wish they would abolish conferences for AS purposes. The game doesn't matter but the status clearly does. I think it is part of the reason Hayward left.

They want to do away with tanking, but no matter what they do 7-10 teams will have motivation to be bad. The new lotto format was supposed to fix it but I think it will may make it worse.

They should go to some sort of bidding system... you get allocated draft "space" based on where you finished in the standings and a bonus for making the playoffs. You can roll forward the "space" so if you are the worst team and the draft sucks you can choose not to bid your allocation for a terrible player. Could also trade the allocations to other teams (within a limit). Would help facilitate trades... a second round pick may not be valuable but getting some extra space would. This type of system would put more responsibility on good management and not luck. Would allow middle teams to get better by saving their space until they have enough to bid on a difference maker.

 

[franklin]

Realign the divisions by geography and don't let the East play the West until the championship. Or maybe even 3 zones. Have more b2b games but only at home, or even better have a team stay in a city for two games in 3 days. Anything to compress the schedule yet make it easier on the players and their families in-season, while giving them more of an off-season. The amount these people have to travel is pretty ridiculous and disrupting. It annoys me every time I hear announcers say something like "the players didn't arrive until 4 in the morning".