Great post. I like the idea of playing with the playoff format as well. You're right on when talking about the two conference just being there and that's why we continue to think we need an East and West conference. The reason for this of course, was travel and timezone constraints from decades ago. In the present day those shouldn't be as much of an issue. Seeding the teams 1-16 does make sense though, especially in this season. However, one counterpoint to that is, had this format been in place, the Cavs upset of the Warriors 2yrs ago may not have happened - as the Spurs were far and away better than the Cavs in 2015-16 (by 10 games). We may not have had the LeBron and Kyrie drama in the Finals and the trilogy between the Cavs and Warriors. Not to mention, the East vs West does to an extent guarantee the Finals will be more spread out over the entire country. Meaning, if the Celtics and Warriors are in the Finals, you have the entire East Coast market, the West Coast market, etc. If the Warriors are playing the Clippers in the Finals, not many people from the rest of the country are going to care much about it.
I love the ideas you put forth, those are just a couple of counterpoints that I can see being brought up. But I like where you're going with this.
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Who's to say that there wouldn't have been just as much drama with some other matchups? I don't think it's fair to say that we wouldn't have had something in the past with the new format since there's no way of knowing what we missed in the past because of the format we had put in place then.
As for the idea of markets being shut out, I don't think that's really a fair point to bring up. The NBA is so international and there are fans of teams everywhere. It's possible that we end up with small geographical market issues, but I don't think that would really hurt as much as people think.
Fair enough. And you are correct, the NBA is much more of a global product now than it used to be. I understand your counterpoint about the market issue, and you do make good points, but I do think its fair to bring up. I'm not saying that I agree with the sentiment - its something I've heard and seen debated, I just know its going to come up in debates. The former commissioner David Stern, made a point of maximizing market potential. Despite the game being more international, the big bucks are still at home in the United States. All of that being said, I'm still with you on this, I would like to see changes to NBA playoffs as well, just playing devil's advocate and presenting some of the counterpoints I've heard out there. Thanks again for the good info
I completely get it. It wasn't necessarily directed at you, but at people who use that argument as a reason to hold back the league from change.