<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">PHOENIX ? There's a chance the playoff format will change. But not in time to help the Mavericks. Commissioner David Stern and deputy commissioner Russ Granik discussed the NBA's seeding process in a conference call with the media Thursday. Stern said he wasn't sure "we can find a good reason for any change to be made," then conceded there might be a better way to do it for next season. Granik said that response among the people he has talked to has been mixed but acknowledged, "we can clear the issue up of the team with the second-best record being seeded fourth." The Mavericks hold the fourth seed in the Western Conference despite a significantly better record than No. 2 seed Phoenix and No. 3 Denver. Granik likes the idea of taking the three division winners in each conference along with the runner-up with the best record and seeding those teams one through four according to record. Said Mark Cuban: "It's too strong a possibility that a team could win a division with a record under .500, and a single division could have three 50-win teams, which would create a big mess." </div> Source <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Spurs and Mavericks now are locked into either the first or fourth seed in the Western Conference playoffs, meaning one or the other will be eliminated no later than the second round. NBA commissioner David Stern does not regard the situation as a major problem. "I think we're a little bit over-concerned on that subject, in my view," Stern said during a teleconference with media representatives Thursday. "The players say, 'You've got to play through to get to where you have to get to if you want to get into the Finals.' "There are always going to be some statistical inequalities when you have any seeding system, but I'm not terribly troubled by the notion that somebody is going to play someone else out of what would be a perfect order. What's the big deal?" Spurs coach Gregg Popovich believes the seeding system that rewards the division winners with the top four, and which produced the situation that faces the Spurs and Mavericks, is flawed, and so do the majority of NBA head coaches. "Not only are we concerned about it," Popovich said, "but we have relayed those concerns, through (Coaches' Association president) Rick Carlisle, to the NBA. "So I would have to disagree with (Stern's) assessment." Deputy Commissioner Russ Granik said the seeding system is being thoroughly examined, and that a change is likely. "I think we can clear the issue up of the team with the second-best record seeded fourth," Granik said. </div> Source This has become a real hot topic this season because either the Mavericks or Spurs are going to be hurt by the format. No matter which team wins the division, they have to face each other in the second round instead of potentially playing in the WCF. Should the format stay the same, or should it be tweaked?
it's hard, cause weith 3 divisions you kind of have to do it the way they do it. They could try to make it so that the three division winners are still in the top 4, but if the 4 is in the same division as the 1 they become the 3....similiar to baseball. It's rough, that's the one change i would want.
The only format I would want to change, is the 7 game format. I liked it when there were best of 5 games an stuff like that, ala Miami vs. the Knicks. 5 games series makes it more intense, everyone is on pins and needles because, one game means that much more. As for changing the way the division champs are top 3, the way it is set up now, you don't always get two powerhouses in the final necessarily. This way, the strong aren't especially favored to win. I don't know, it keeps people interested.
It should be tweaked so that the top four are each division winner and the runner up but the order is decided by record. If that were the case, right now it'd be 1. Spurs, 2. Mavs, 3. Suns, 4. Nuggets and the bottom four are arranged by record. The fist round matchups would be Spurs-Kings, Mavs-Lakers, Suns-Clippers, Denver-Memphis. Second round, assuming all the higher seeds win would be Spurs-Denver and Mavs-Suns, then in the WCF it'd be Spurs-Mavs.
I agree, I prefer the first round being a best of 5 series. The league really milks the NBA playoffs to get as much TV coverage as possible. I just don't like the downtime which seems to happen every season. One team will sweep their opponent in Round 1 and then wait two weeks to play again because their round 2 opponent gets into a 7 game series. What's been interesting this season, is the fact we don't even know who's playing who in any of the matchups and there's only 3 games left for most teams.
Whoever thought up the playoff format are a bunch of morons. There are sensible alternatives that give weight to division winners, like Run BJM's example.
Doesn't really matter. You have to beat the best to be the best. Wether you play them in the first round or the conference finals doesn't really matter. If you're gonna win it all you have to face them anyways.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Fever:</div><div class="quote_post">Doesn't really matter. You have to beat the best to be the best. Wether you play them in the first round or the conference finals doesn't really matter. If you're gonna win it all you have to face them anyways.</div> Thats pretty much true but its more of a principle matter than anything. Its just absurd to have one of the top 3 teams in the league fall off in the second round of the playoffs, totally anticlimatic, the longer a team stays alive the tougher the competition should get. It'd be better to have the first few rounds of the playoffs to be sweeps, get them over with and eliminate the non-contending teams than to allow some team that has no shot at the championship to get into the conference finals. Theoretically, you should have the best matchups of contending teams in the last 2 rounds of the playoffs, I'm sure Stern would rather keep it the way it is because now hes going to get higher ratings in the second round and still have the same high ratings in the conference finals and finals, potentially more money.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Fever:</div><div class="quote_post">Doesn't really matter. You have to beat the best to be the best. Wether you play them in the first round or the conference finals doesn't really matter. If you're gonna win it all you have to face them anyways.</div> Not really. First of all, a playoff team always wants to advance as far as possible. You'd rather get elminated in the conference finals than the second round, obviously. Additionally, there's a chance that the rival might get eliminated in the second round by a lesser team (the "best team" doesn't always advance in a playoff series, regardless of what the cliche says). That increases the chances of advancing even further.
