There has been a ton of talk over the years from sports fans and analysts on whether or not NBA commissioner David Stern should/will switch the league’s playoff format from 8 teams per conference getting in to 6. I, for one, am all for the latter proposal, and here’s why.
Poor lower seeded teams
First and foremost, and most importantly, the reason why I’m in favor of switching the format again, this time filing it down a bit from eight teams to six, is because most of the time the 7 and 8 seeds in each conference are horrible teams with below .500 records. Thus, due to their win-loss records, team rosters and the way their team is constructed, they’re not realistically a playoff team in any sense of the term. When I think of an NBA playoff team, I think of at least 42/43 wins, at worst, with a balanced lineup, or at least one superstar on the team. Most teams either have a Lebron, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Kobe or Tim Duncan on their team, but some have more well balanced lineups with or without a superstar at the helm, like Portland. Of course, there’s one problem/flaw that presents itself logically within my first point, and that’s conference depth.
Some years, in any sport- but especially within the NBA (at least currently), one conference/league within a sport is significantly better on and off paper than the other league. This year thus far, for the NBA, is a perfect example of that. To shed some more light on that, for example, if the playoffs started today (with my ideal format in mind, not under the current one), in the West, Phoenix with a 24-18 record, and Dallas with a 25-20 record, respectively, would miss the playoffs as #7 and 8 seeds. Compare that to the bottom two teams in the East, and it’s drastically different. Among the conference standings, the Nets are the seventh best team at just 19-22, even though they’ve been hot as of late, while Charlotte rounds out the top eight with a record of 19-27. Two winning teams in the West wouldn’t, and the same outcome would occur for the East, except with two teams under .500 at the moment. To give you an idea of the West’s dominance this season, overall this season, the Western Conference has an incredible 74 more total wins (363 to 289) than the East does (as of Sunday, Jan. 27th), in four more total games played (654 to 650).
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Tags: analysis, david stern, eastern conference, Kyle Lutz, NBA, Philly Sports News, Philly Sports Talk, playoffs, TalkSportsPhilly.com, western conference
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