ESPN hoops writer John Hollinger makes an interesting argument for changing the NBA playoffs.
The folks at ESPN now make all stories "Insider" after a few days, so to summarize, Hollinger's main suggestions are to eliminate the East-West brackets and shorten all series.
He proposes to either seed the teams 1-16 based on record, or match up the No. 1 seed from the West against the No. 8 seed from the East, and set it up so that if the top seeds win, it would always be an East vs. West matchup the next round.
Instead of having best-of-seven, he proposes the first round should be a best-of-three while the remaining are all best-of-five.
He makes a valid point with shortening the series. There's just way too many days between games, the playoffs last forever and it loses the casual fan. I'm not sure how I feel about completely changing the format just because the East is a bit weaker, but for argument's sake, here is what the 2007 NBA playoffs would have looked like with this theory. Just pretend like it's one big bracket.
(1W) Dallas
(8E) Orlando
(4E) Miami
(5W) Houston
(3W) San Antonio
(6E) New Jersey
(2E) Cleveland
(7W) LA. Lakers
(1E) Detroit
(8W) Golden State
(4W) Utah
(5E) Chicago
(3E) Toronto
(6W) Denver
(2W) Phoenix
(7E) Washington
That would probably lead to the following second-round matchups: Dallas-Houston, San Antonio-Cleveland, Detroit-Utah and Denver-Phoenix.
The "semifinals" would then likely consist of: Dallas-San Antonio, and Phoenix vs. either Detroit or Utah (which would have been a great series).
These matchups look wonderfully intriguing on paper, but I wouldn't expect it to happen in the NBA any time soon.
Any Finals or playoff thoughts in general from you guys?
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2 comments:
I think a playoff match up between Clevland and LA Lakers would be fun to watch. Two superstars in Bryant and James playing each other, plus the likes of two up and down supporting casts could make for game with Bryant and James putting up ridiculous numbers.
I also would like to see the NBA playoffs mix it up as far as Eastern conference teams playing Western conference teams. It could make for great match ups like the up and down, great offense of Phoenix against the slow, all defensive play from Detroit. I think Dallas would've gotten out of the first round too. Oh, and I still think, at least this season, a Western conference team would win the championship.
With that sort of format, the first-round and second-round matchups become much better.
New Jersey was not a team that should have been playing in the second round of the playoffs.
You're right about the Western Conference team, no question. The only real drama, at least from the East, would be whether Detroit or Cleveland would make it to the third round, or if the final four teams remaining would be all Western.
I do think, however, that if the NBA were to ever adopt a re-shift of the playoffs, there would still have to be some sort of reward for winning your conference. That's the reason I don't agree with just seeding the teams 1-16 based on record, because conference winners like New Jersey are suddenly going on the road for the first playoff game.
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