This has been floated around a lot over the past few weeks and I think it is a great idea. There would need to be some tweaks but the overall idea is this:
- During the regular season, the teams still play in the West or the East more often based on where they are located.
- Once the playoffs start, teams are seeded 1-16 based on record no matter what conference they are in. Then you have the 1st ranked team playing the 16th, 2nd playing the 15th, etc. You have better matchups across the board because all of the sudden you have the 8th and 9th best teams in the league playing in the first round (the 7th and 10th best teams, etc) as opposed to the 1st and 10 best teams.
- This allows for the best 3-4 teams to actually get farther in the playoffs instead of having them play in the 2nd round - as San Antonio/Phoenix had to do this year. You want some exciting playoff action? How about Phoenix/San Antonio playing for the championship? Not only do you have 2 of the 3 best teams in the league in the championship series, you have bitter rivals playing each other. When was the last time you had bitter rivals playing each other in the championships? Los Angeles playing Boston?
I wish we had a way to give suggestions to the NBA head office. We're the ones who watch the games, pay to see the games and who advertisers pay to market to. It would only make sense that if we're interested in it, the league actually try doing it.
What do you guys think?