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Jonathan Chen
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Let's be honest. Last years NBA playoffs were a dud. Unless your team was playing in a series, everyone knew that we would get a rematch of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. And even the finals didn't feel competitive.The best team in NBA history, in the Warriors, had added the second best player in the NBA, in Kevin Durant, and the Cavs were just no match for them. A couple of months ago, Commissioner Adam Silver has said that the NBA is mulling changing the playoff seeding to a 1-16 format and forgetting about the conferences because of the lackluster playoffs last year. However, just this week, Silver said, " [The NBA is] not ready to make a change yet." And this is the right decision for the NBA, the players and the fans.
The whole point of changing the playoff format is to even the playing field for fringe Western Conference playoff teams. For the past couple of years, there have been countless Eastern Conference teams who have made it to the playoffs with .500 or sub .500 records (i.e. the 38-win Brooklyn Nets in 2015) while Western Conference teams have won 42+ games and have just missed out. And while there is no disputing that the Western Conference is still more competitive than the Eastern Conference, that gap is narrowing as each year goes by. Currently, the 8 seed in the Western Conference is a 39 win New Orleans Pelicans team. In the Eastern Conference, it's the 37 win Miami Heat. With the Eastern Conference teams becoming more competitive, it would be a shortsighted decision to change the playoff format in the near future.
Even if the NBA were to change the playoff seeding to a 1-16 format and forget about the conferences, Western Conference teams would still be at a disadvantage if the regular season is not also changed. With an 82 game season, teams do not and will not play each other the same amount of times, giving unfair advantages to some NBA franchises. Currently, the NBA schedule is made so that teams play 4 games against division opponents, 4 against out of division (but in the same conference) teams, 3 against the rest of the conference, and 2 against teams in the opposing conferences. If you want to learn more about how the schedule is made, here is an insightful article about it. In order to combat this inequality and have fairness for all teams, the length of the regular season will have to be changed, which would be a disaster. If all teams play each other twice, the regular season would be shortened to 58 games, which would be a nightmare for the revenue generated by the whole league and would never be passed by the profit-driven NBA and its owners. If all teams were to play each other three times a year, the all ready tiring regular season would have 87 games, which would never be supported by the NBPA (National Basketball Players Association). And that's not the only problem with tinkering with the regular season. Historical records and statistics would become either impossible to beat or too easy to shatter. We would see multiple teams win more than 73 games, or have no team ever reach the 60 win plateau again. History, tradition and the culture of the NBA would be wiped out, which would be a crime to former NBA players, coaches and teams.
Another problem with changing the playoff format would be the increased travel and inconvenience for fans. Picture the Boston Celtics playing the Portland Trailblazers in a playoff series. The players would have to travel a grueling 3087 miles (4968 km) just to get to the opponent's arena. This taxing travel would lead to more fatigue potentially causing more injuries and less competitive playoff games. And it's not only bad news for the players, it will also be bad for the fans. Imagine you are a Celtics fan in the situation above. When your team is on the road, you would have to stay up until 10 p.m. just for the game to start. This might not seem too crazy for adults, but the younger demographic of fans would not be able to watch these playoff games. Likewise, if you were a Trailblazers fan, games would start at 4 p.m., when the majority of adults are still at work. The NBA would lose millions of dollars in TV revenue, which could also have ripple effects on the salary cap and player salaries.
Overall, there are just too many negatives that would come from changing the NBA playoff format that would be bad for players, owners, fans and the NBA itself. Silver should just forget about changing the playoff format and focus on more pressing matters, like an NBA development pipeline to replace the corrupt NCAA and potential NBA expansion.
The whole point of changing the playoff format is to even the playing field for fringe Western Conference playoff teams. For the past couple of years, there have been countless Eastern Conference teams who have made it to the playoffs with .500 or sub .500 records (i.e. the 38-win Brooklyn Nets in 2015) while Western Conference teams have won 42+ games and have just missed out. And while there is no disputing that the Western Conference is still more competitive than the Eastern Conference, that gap is narrowing as each year goes by. Currently, the 8 seed in the Western Conference is a 39 win New Orleans Pelicans team. In the Eastern Conference, it's the 37 win Miami Heat. With the Eastern Conference teams becoming more competitive, it would be a shortsighted decision to change the playoff format in the near future.
Even if the NBA were to change the playoff seeding to a 1-16 format and forget about the conferences, Western Conference teams would still be at a disadvantage if the regular season is not also changed. With an 82 game season, teams do not and will not play each other the same amount of times, giving unfair advantages to some NBA franchises. Currently, the NBA schedule is made so that teams play 4 games against division opponents, 4 against out of division (but in the same conference) teams, 3 against the rest of the conference, and 2 against teams in the opposing conferences. If you want to learn more about how the schedule is made, here is an insightful article about it. In order to combat this inequality and have fairness for all teams, the length of the regular season will have to be changed, which would be a disaster. If all teams play each other twice, the regular season would be shortened to 58 games, which would be a nightmare for the revenue generated by the whole league and would never be passed by the profit-driven NBA and its owners. If all teams were to play each other three times a year, the all ready tiring regular season would have 87 games, which would never be supported by the NBPA (National Basketball Players Association). And that's not the only problem with tinkering with the regular season. Historical records and statistics would become either impossible to beat or too easy to shatter. We would see multiple teams win more than 73 games, or have no team ever reach the 60 win plateau again. History, tradition and the culture of the NBA would be wiped out, which would be a crime to former NBA players, coaches and teams.
Another problem with changing the playoff format would be the increased travel and inconvenience for fans. Picture the Boston Celtics playing the Portland Trailblazers in a playoff series. The players would have to travel a grueling 3087 miles (4968 km) just to get to the opponent's arena. This taxing travel would lead to more fatigue potentially causing more injuries and less competitive playoff games. And it's not only bad news for the players, it will also be bad for the fans. Imagine you are a Celtics fan in the situation above. When your team is on the road, you would have to stay up until 10 p.m. just for the game to start. This might not seem too crazy for adults, but the younger demographic of fans would not be able to watch these playoff games. Likewise, if you were a Trailblazers fan, games would start at 4 p.m., when the majority of adults are still at work. The NBA would lose millions of dollars in TV revenue, which could also have ripple effects on the salary cap and player salaries.
Overall, there are just too many negatives that would come from changing the NBA playoff format that would be bad for players, owners, fans and the NBA itself. Silver should just forget about changing the playoff format and focus on more pressing matters, like an NBA development pipeline to replace the corrupt NCAA and potential NBA expansion.
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