NBA to address playoff format problem

HOUSTON -- The two best teams in the Western Conference are on course to meet in the second round of the playoffs, which is a problem.

Even David Stern recognizes as much, which is why his league is taking a closer look at changing the postseason seeding format to prevent similar scenarios from unfolding in the future.

Under rules implemented when the league expanded from four divisions to six last season, the top three seeds go to each of the division leaders, with the fourth through eighth seeds going to the teams with the next best records in the conference.

The Dallas Mavericks (41-11) currently lead the Southwest Division by one game over the San Antonio Spurs (40-12), who have the second-best record in the conference but would drop into the fourth seed if they failed to win the division.

"I think the one thing there may be some interest in ... would be to maybe look at how you seed the top four teams," deputy commissioner Russ Granik said Saturday. "One thing that we have kicked around is whether you might say, all right, those same four teams are going to get the top four seeds, but maybe you do it in accordance with their records."

The issue will come up for further discussion when the league's competition committee meets in June.

Granik all but ruled out giving playoff berths to the top eight teams in each conference, saying the league wanted to keep an incentive for winning the division. He also said the league has no interest in re-seeding teams after each round of the playoffs.

i guess this is more fair.. so sucky teams won't be auto-locked at 3rd place while the loser of the mavs-spurs division won't be stuck at 4th..

Who r u callnig a sucky team? Denver or New Jersey, its not their problems they have weak divisions!

if denver division is weak why they not leading there division by 7+ games?
the whole Southwest division is better than them besides the rockets

the nuggz are good u just wait

Funny that the thing that popped out to me in the article was the mention of deputy commisioner Russ Granik. Who the fuck is he? I have never seen this guy.



Now that I think about it, I might have heard it somewhere before....not quite sure though.

Funny that the thing that popped out to me in the article was the mention of deputy commisioner Russ Granik. Who the fuck is he? I have never seen this guy.



Now that I think about it, I might have heard it somewhere before....not quite sure though.

Did you see him at the end of the ASG?

Funny that the thing that popped out to me in the article was the mention of deputy commisioner Russ Granik. Who the fuck is he? I have never seen this guy.



Now that I think about it, I might have heard it somewhere before....not quite sure though.

Did you see him at the end of the ASG?

I was too disgusted about the loss to stick around.

well, this current format sucks for the loser of the dallas/sas race. That team will have to play a 5th placed team instead of a 7th placed team. That's a huge difference in the West.

In the East, Miami & Detroit are scheduled to meet in the finals so that's good, and the rest of the conference is roughly equal.

Even though I'm a stickler for tradition, it's not a bad idea. It's a much fairer one, so long as the division winners continue to secure a playoff berth. Even if some divisions are weaker than others there still has to be some reward for taking the division title. A guaranteed playoff seed (subject to ranking by record) is still fair.

Even though I'm a stickler for tradition, it's not a bad idea. It's a much fairer one, so long as the division winners continue to secure a playoff berth. Even if some divisions are weaker than others there still has to be some reward for taking the division title. A guaranteed playoff seed (subject to ranking by record) is still fair.

yup the won the division they have to go to the playoffs
thats fair

I'm glad they are going to address this. No mavs vs spurs 2nd round, just wrecks it.

It leads to shenanigans where the 5th place team (say Clips) start to purposely lose games because nobody wants to get mauled by the Spurs (4th seed) the 1st round. If they lose enough games on purpose to drop to 6th place they would play Denver instead, and if the Hornets see that they might start losing games to not lose their 6th place, etc..

Overall it's kinda fubar, i agree.