NBA Commissioner Adam Silver took to Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area and answered some pressing questions from fans on Facebook which included a very interesting question on the playoff format in the NBA. Silver was asked if the NBA should drop the current format of 8 teams from each conference and adopt a system where the top 16 teams make it in regardless of conference. Silver gave an interesting response.
Via NBA Sports,
“Ultimately we want to see your best teams in the playoffs. And there is an unbalance and a certain unfairness. There is a proposal (from one of the broadcasters)… where the division winners would all automatically go into the playoffs and then you’d seed the next 10 best teams. I think that’s the kind of proposal we need to look at. There are travel issues of course, but in this day in age every team of course has their own plane, travels charter. I don’t think the discussion should end there. And as I’ve said, my first year I was studying a lot of these issues and year 2 is time to take action. It’s something I’m going to look at closely with the competition committee. I do think it’s an area where we need to make a change.”
Silver is pretty much saying that he wants to do this change. It makes sense that the NBA would want to have the best teams in the playoffs, so Silver’s position is exactly what it should be. Best of the best is the name of the game after all. This would be a very big change to the format but one that I believe most fans and owners might be in favor of. The old seeding just doesn’t work. Every year really good (West) teams sit at home watching under-500 (East) teams compete in the playoffs and it’s just not fair for the players of the fans. If this happens, the East needs to really step their game up to represent or be left out in the cold sitting at home on their couch watching the playoffs with a big tub of ice cream.