Silver Addresses NBA Playoff Format

[Mr KLC]

Commissioner Adam Silver says travel concerns are the biggest obstacle to overhauling the NBA’s playoff format, relays Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post. Silver addressed the topic in his annual All-Star Weekend news conference, saying the league office has studied the possibility of eliminating East and West designations and throwing all the playoff teams into one 16-team field.

“I think, as I’ve said in the past, the obstacle is travel, and it’s not tradition in my mind, at least,” Silver explained. “Having said that, you also would like to have a format where your two best teams are ultimately going to meet in The Finals, and obviously, if it’s the top team in the East and top team in the West, I’m not saying this is the case this year, but you could have a situation where the top two teams in the league are meeting in the conference finals or somewhere else.”

It’s not a change Silver could make on his own, as any significant alterations to the playoff format have to be approved by at least 20 franchises. But it’s a topic the commissioner has addressed before, and his decision to devote so much time to it today could be a sign that it’s still being strongly considered.

[Mr KLC]

Rockets GM, Daryl Morey brought up an interesting idea. "I prefer where the 1 seed gets the first selection of 1st round opponent among the 9-14 seeds or play in winners." By play in winners he is answering a tweet from Bill Simmons that the 15th and 16th seeds should be determined by play-in games like MLB does with their wild card.

Would be interesting if the top 7 seeds got to pick their opponents in the first round from the pool of teams ranked 9-16. Could tone down on the jetlag problem you could have in round 1.

[magaman]

This is very interesting and I think I like it. The dynamic of choosing your opponent is really interesting. Yes as a top seed you can choose who you feel is the weakest target. But there are so many layers of things to consider... if there was a team across the country that was older you may choose them because the extra travel would be more difficult for the older team. Also I can guarantee in some series the dogs will bark loudly as there will be extra motivation in their locker room knowing they were chosen as the team most likely to be beat.

[jjgold]

I do not think it would work

It downplays regular season for the rest of the teams, too many teams would throw games

[TheMoneyShot]

Silver doing his best in regards to "lopsided divisions/conferences". This should of been done about 4-5 years ago.

It's an excellent move. Definitely the NBA would be more exciting from a PLAYOFFS standpoint.... now... what to do with a boring ass regular season???

[DOM-Ganador]

Silver doing his best in regards to "lopsided divisions/conferences". This should of been done about 4-5 years ago.

It's an excellent move. Definitely the NBA would be more exciting from a PLAYOFFS standpoint.... now... what to do with a boring ass regular season???

Split the league into 2 divisions. Champion/Whatever. Soccer does something like this.
Worst 4 from top go down.
Best 4 from bottom move up.
Never happen. BUT, imagine a 60 game schedule with this set up?
Games would be great.

[big joe 1212]

I have an even better idea. Let's get rid of the NBA altogether.

[lakerboy]

I have an even better idea. Let's get rid of the NBA altogether.

Why? Huge spot betting opportunities

[jjgold]

Silver’s has to watch not running the league too liberal it’ll crush it

Cannot worry about being liked by the players that’s a recipe for disaster

Good boss is not liked

[IBetYou]

Bad idea. I like the novelty of East meets West in the finals. To mix the two right off the bat would be wrong.

I like the pre-round or play in idea. WNBA did this last year and it was superb.

[t-wizzle]

I think it’s fine as is but I understand why they’re trying to improve it. This talk all started because the East has been so much weaker for so long.

[Mr KLC]

Some members of the Timberwolves believe that the new NBA schedule, implemented this season to reduce the number of back-to-back games and ensure teams now don’t play four games in five nights, is actually making the season feel longer, reports Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. “You can tell there’s a big difference,” says Taj Gibson. “A lot of guys are getting hurt. The fatigue is there.”

The Jazz, on the other hand, have one of the most favorable slates in the whole league going forward after drudging through a 5-10 December that saw them play the toughest schedule in the NBA. And Mike Sorensen of the Deseret News opines that the favorable schedule could see Utah, now 10th in the Western Conference standings, move as high as the No. 5 spot by the time the playoffs roll around.

[IBetYou]

Of course the T'Wolves are tired: they're playing for Thibs. He's trying to justify his worth by maximizing their workload. Somewhere Sam Mitchell is laughing.

[eidolon]

I say completely overhaul the game.
4 periods is ridiculous. The guys don't even try the 1st half.
I'd rather see a different format. Something like tennis: first to win 3 rounds out of 5, each round 5 minutes. I guarantee the games would be a lot more exciting.

[7deuceoff$uit]

considering they get 4-5 days off between games early, I don't think the travel is that big of an issue. What I'd rather see is once the season is over, there is a one and done tourney for all the teams who didn't make the playoffs. The team who wins the tourney gets the #1 pick, and the rest of the non playoff teams have their draft picks determined by how they finish in the tourney.

[jrgum3]

Its an interesting idea but one that I ultimately think won't be implemented. The thing that does make it intriguing is the West has so many strong teams while the East only has a few teams truly capable of winning a title. I don't think it will happen though because that seems like too radical a change and 20 teams probably won't sign off on it.

[jjgold]

Its an interesting idea but one that I ultimately think won't be implemented. The thing that does make it intriguing is the West has so many strong teams while the East only has a few teams truly capable of winning a title. I don't think it will happen though because that seems like too radical a change and 20 teams probably won't sign off on it.

yes its terrible

Cannot make it a joke and that is what it would be

[IBetYou]

Of course it wont happen it's a fkn terrible idea. The #1 pick in the draft has immense value, so good teams would deliberately miss the playoffs to play for the pick

[IBetYou]

They do need to make every team a part of the playoffs though. It's crazy that teams get eliminated in January -bad business all the way around.

[jjgold]

Silver's downfall is he is on his knees for black guys and like I said it will ruin league
Let blacks run the league and who shall see it end up in the gutter just like the ghettos are

He is like Pop trying to be liked by the blacks and that is a real bad idea

NBA getting closer and closer to a major decline once James leaves