The NBA playoffs are just around the corner, meaning it's that time of year when discussions about tweaks to the postseason format ramp up.
The current playoff format, which has been in place for decades, is pretty straight forward:
*16 teams
*Eight from each conference
*Seeded 1 through 8
*First round matchups 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, 4 vs. 5 in best-of-seven series
*Winners of each conference meet in the best-of-seven NBA Finals
The most popular alteration floated over recent years has been to taking the best 16 teams, regardless of conference and seed the playoffs 1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, 3 vs. 14, etc.
For example, if the playoffs started today, the No. 1 Houston Rockets (44-13) would face No. 16 LA Clippers (30-27), No. 2 Golden State Warriors (45-14) would face No. 15 New Orleans Pelicans (31-36), No. 3 Toronto Raptors (41-16) vs. No. 14 Portland Trail Blazers (32-26), and so on.
In this proposal, the Miami Heat, currently eighth in the Eastern Conference at 30-28, would just miss out the playoffs, while the Clippers, currently ninth in the Western Conference standings, would slide in. The obvious obstacle in this postseason design would be the increased travel necessary to make it work, a factor not too popular with players or teams.
"It's cool to mess around with the All-Star Game -- we proved you can do that -- but let's not get too crazy about the playoffs," Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James told reporters Wednesday (via ESPN). "You have Eastern Conference and you have Western Conference. You have Eastern Conference champions, you have guys from the Eastern Conference that win the big dance and sometimes you have it from the West as well."
But as ESPN's Zach Lowe reports, the NBA is looking at a different tweak that would be much less of an overhaul and involve teams at the bottom of the playoff picture:
[S]ources say there is also some behind-the-scenes momentum for the idea of a play-in tournament determining the last two seeds in each conference -- to the point that two specific proposals are circulating at the highest levels within teams and the league office.
The play-in proposal that has generated the most discussion, according to several sources: two four-team tournaments featuring the seventh, eighth, ninth, and 10th seeds in each conference. The seventh seed would host the eighth seed, with the winner of that single game nabbing the seventh spot, sources say. Meanwhile, the ninth seed would host the 10th seed, with the winner of that game facing the loser of the 7-versus-8 matchup for the final playoff spot.
Under this proposal, the already tight Western Conference playoff race would theoretically add another layer of drama for teams battling to secure the final two seeds.
If the season ended today, the Blazers would host the Pelicans, with the winner earning the seven seed; the Clippers would host the Utah Jazz, with the winner of this matchup playing the loser of the Blazers-Pelicans matchup for the eight seed in the West.
The goal of such a change, according to Lowe: "It fits within the NBA's broader goals of reducing the incentive for teams to tank, and maintaining peak fan interest across the full NBA calendar."
Lowe stresses that implementation of such a format change is not imminent, may never even happen, and if it did would still be years away. Though he does expect the conversations around this idea to intensify over the next few seasons.
What do you think? Do you like the idea of a play-in for the final two playoff spots in each conference? Or is the NBA trying to fix what's not broken?
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