Silver expects changes to playoff seeding next season
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| Will Playoffs Change? |
It's not the most prestigious accomplishment as it is, once the postseason revs up and conference championships feeding The Finals render forgettable those modest crowns of the Atlantic, the Central, the Southwest and so on.
But if a recommendation out of the Board of Governors meeting Tuesday in Las Vegas gets enacted as soon as this autumn, division titles would lose more than cachet. They wouldn't carry the guarantee of a Top 4 berth in the Eastern or Western conference playoffs.
Instead, the qualifying teams in the East and West would be seeded 1 through 8 according to regular-season records. That is the likely outcome, based on NBA commissioner Adam Silver's comments after the annual summer meeting of the league's owners.
"It wasn't voted on yet," Silver said, "because we wanted all the owners to have an opportunity to go back and discuss that recommendation with their general managers and their coaches, and we'll vote on it before the beginning of the season. It's my expectation that that change will be adopted."
Under the current system, the three division winners in each conference are assured of a Top 4 spot in the seedings, regardless of record. Last season, for example, that put Portland at No. 4 even though the Trailblazers' 51-31 record ranked sixth-best in the West.
The Blazers didn't get homecourt advantage in the first round -- that went to No. 5 seed Memphis, with the Grizzlies beating Portland in five games. But the format didn't seem to reward Memphis' 55-27 performance, it dropped San Antonio to No. 6 despite an identical 55-27 record and it might not even have served the Blazers or their fans.
In winning its first division title in 16 years, Portland clinched the Northwest with two weeks left in the regular season thanks partly to the absence of other threats. Oklahoma City was the only other team in the division to top .500 and the Thunder were hampered by injuries in missing the postseason for the first time in six years.
Silver didn't offer any specifics beyond the general goal of 1-through-8 seeding. There apparently still is enough sentiment among the owners that the divisions be retained -- an Atlantic banner hanging in the rafters or at a practice facility might not mean much to Boston or New York, but it still might matter in Toronto, for instance.
It isn't clear, either, if a new format might result in a division winner -- in theory, at least -- finishing ninth in the conference and not qualifying for the playoffs at all. Embarrassing as that likely would be, you might expect the division crown to at least guarantee that much, if the division is worth keeping at all.
Among other rules or competition topics discussed at length, Silver said, one issue focused on player safety: Escape lanes next to the basketball support would be widened, creating room for players to run beyond the baseline without contact with photographers or other workers. Also, the possibility of adding a similar lane on each side, midway between the basket and the sideline, is being considered.
Another potential addition next season: Countdown clocks for timeouts to assure consistency throughout the league.
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