Post your way to fix the parity in the league/playoffs.

[Hey Yo]

People continue to biatch about the playoff matchups.

What's your solution?

TV ratings would plummet if Midwest and Eastern teams had to play 1st and 2nd round games that started 10:30pm on the West Coast. Then when the East Coast play at home during the series against the West, East games start at 7/7:30pm for the sake of being able to show a double header that night. West Coast folks gonna be happy that the games are starting at 4/4:30pm there?

The Midwest and East Coast are the bigger TV markets

No way the NBA goes to top 16. Too much risk of losing a lot of $$$$

Nothing needs changed. It's always going to be East vs. West so fans of both will have a rooting interest if their team is not playing.

[DMAVS41]

People continue to biatch about the playoff matchups.

What's your solution?

TV ratings would plummet if Midwest and Eastern teams had to play 1st and 2nd round games that started 10:30pm on the West Coast. Then when the East Coast play at home during the series against the West, East games start at 7/7:30pm for the sake of being able to show a double header that night. West Coast folks gonna be happy that the games are starting at 4/4:30pm there?

The Midwest and East Coast are the bigger TV markets

No way the NBA goes to top 16. Too much risk of losing a lot of $$$$

This is false. TV ratings are already bad for a lot of these East series throughout the years... And start times on the West are already very early and often very late on the East.

I'd argue that more people would watch because the Western teams would more often be playing during Eastern prime time... And the West teams are better and draw in bigger ratings.

Warriors Thunder game 1 pulled in 1.6x more viewers than Cavs Raptors.

[Hey Yo]

This is false. TV ratings are already bad for a lot of these East series throughout the years... And start times on the West are already very early and often very late on the East.

I'd argue that more people would watch because the Western teams would more often be playing during Eastern prime time... And the West teams are better and draw in bigger ratings.

Warriors Thunder game 1 pulled in 1.6x more viewers than Cavs Raptors.
You're specifying the CF only. I'm referring to the whole postseason. Boston or Toronto fans aren't going to stay up for an entire game in the first or second round against the LAC or SAC that started at 10:30pm EST.

[DukeDelonte13]

Only way to fix parity is a hard cap.

[DMAVS41]

You're specifying the CF only. I'm referring to the whole postseason. Boston or Toronto fans aren't going to stay up for an entire game in the first or second round against the LAC or SAC that started at 10:30pm EST.

It wouldn't start at 1030... It could be started at 10... And yes, fans would, casual fans would not.

But casual fans really don't matter here because they aren't watching East series anyway.

Hence why 1.6x people watched the WCF over the ECF and I'd argue the ECF had the better prime time starting time.

You are making abig deal out of games that aren't even played on national tv. Nobody cares about a bunch of NBA TV games anyway... Regardless of start times.

[jlip]

The only time the league ever saw parity was the 1970's, and that decade is considered the lowest point in league history.

[FKAri]

Remove conferences. Disband like 5-6 franchises. Top 8 teams in the league qualify for playoffs. 80% of 1st round series are pointless. This year was deceptive because 4 East playoff teams had the same record.

[tpols]

We already have had series between memphis and los angeles, houston and portland, etc. and there were never any problems w/ distance or time zone differences. The western conference is already spread across the United States for the most part, much more than the east is.. but regardless it wouldnt be a problem.

Nobody is watching raptors cavs anyway.. you think if Spurs Cavs was an hour off, ratings would plummet?

plummet from what?



lets be real.. the only reason you dont want a fair, symmetric competition put into place isnt because of ratings or money or any of that.. it is because you are a hardcore lebron fanatic and you dont want to see whatever team he happens to be on to have their odds at winning reduced.

Bottomline.

[DMAVS41]

We already have had series between memphis and los angeles, houston and portland, etc. and there were never any problems w/ distance or time zone differences. The western conference is already spread across the United States for the most part, much more than the east is.. but regardless it wouldnt be a problem.

Nobody is watching raptors cavs anyway.. you think if Spurs Cavs was an hour off, ratings would plummet?

plummet from what?



lets be real.. the only reason you dont want a fair, symmetric competition put into place isnt because of ratings or money or any of that.. it is because you are a hardcore lebron fanatic and you dont want to see whatever team he happens to be on to have their odds at winning reduced.

Bottomline.

Truth

[Hey Yo]

It wouldn't start at 1030... It could be started at 10... And yes, fans would, casual fans would not.
So the NBA and fans of the West team going to be happy that their game is starting at 4:00pm? Parents going to let kids stay up till 12:30/1am to watch their favorite player or team?


But casual fans really don't matter here because they aren't watching East series anyway.
To the NBA, every TV watching fan matters because of the $$$.


Hence why 1.6x people watched the WCF over the ECF and I'd argue the ECF had the better prime time starting time.
This ^^^^ is based on a 9:00pm start (not 10/10:30) where East Coast fans are still up and will prob. watch till halftime.

[DukeDelonte13]

Remove conferences. Disband like 5-6 franchises. Top 8 teams in the league qualify for playoffs. 80% of 1st round series are pointless. This year was deceptive because 4 East playoff teams had the same record.


:coleman: :coleman:


i hate that dumb argument.

There is an overabundance of talent in the league. Tons of good players get snubbed by the league and can't make it in. Lots of teams with multiple all stars on them.


If anything the NBA should expand. The talent pool keeps getting bigger and bigger and more and more money is coming into the league.

I guess contraction is the hipster or "cool" thing to say but reality says otherwise.

[konex]

East Playoffs have been pathetic and I'm sure the ratings aren't good right now. Start the late East/West games earlier (Say 9et).

The only way to have parity is to play a balanced schedule and seed 1-16 in the playoffs.

[Hizack]

TV ratings would plummet if Midwest and Eastern teams had to play 1st and 2nd round games that started 10:30pm on the West Coast. Then when the East Coast play at home during the series against the West, East games start at 7/7:30pm for the sake of being able to show a double header that night. West Coast folks gonna be happy that the games are starting at 4/4:30pm there?
Any evidence / actual figures to support this observation / phenomenon?

Blazers fans / fans in Oregon would only watch Blazers' games but barely watch (or don't watch at all) other games that Blazers are not involved?

Celtics fans / fans in Massachusetts would only watch Celtics' games but barely watch (or don't watch at all) other games that Celtics are not involved?

Or, to question in another way,

a Blazers-Celtics game would only / mostly be watched by Blazers fans and Celtics fans but barely / not at all by other teams' fans?

[Hey Yo]

We already have had series between memphis and los angeles, houston and portland, etc. and there were never any problems w/ distance or time zone differences. The western conference is already spread across the United States for the most part, much more than the east is.. but regardless it wouldnt be a problem.

Nobody is watching raptors cavs anyway.. you think if Spurs Cavs was an hour off, ratings would plummet?

plummet from what?



lets be real.. the only reason you dont want a fair, symmetric competition put into place isnt because of ratings or money or any of that.. it is because you are a hardcore lebron fanatic and you dont want to see whatever team he happens to be on to have their odds at winning reduced.

Bottomline.
You're talking about the CF's only. How is a double header going to played (in the first 2 rounds on 1 network) when the first game starts at 8:00pm in San Antonio?

[DMAVS41]

So the NBA and fans of the West team going to be happy that their game is starting at 4:00pm? Parents going to let kids stay up till 12:30/1am to watch their favorite player or team?


To the NBA, every TV watching fan matters because of the $$$.


This ^^^^ is based on a 9:00pm start (not 10/10:30) where East Coast fans are still up and will prob. watch till halftime.

You aren't following. You would not have to start the games that early on the West when the home team is playing on the East. Stop saying this... It's just not true. You'd probably have to shift game times by 30 minutes on some occasions...just not a big deal.

Again... The ratings already suck for most of these east games. Why would they get worse?

No. The start times were similar between the ECF and WCF and the WCF blew the ECF out of the water. So all things equal... More people are going to watch the better matchup. That was the point.

[DMAVS41]

You're talking about the CF's only. How is a double header going to played (in the first 2 rounds on 1 network) when the first game starts at 8:00pm in San Antonio?

Give me the 2 games in this scenario and I'll answer. Who are the Spurs playing and where is the 2nd game?

[Hey Yo]

Give me the 2 games in this scenario and I'll answer. Who are the Spurs playing and where is the 2nd game?
Spurs @ Sac

Thunder @ LAL



I'll be back later.

[DMAVS41]

Spurs @ Sac

Thunder @ LAL



I'll be back later.

First off, you would almost never schedule a double header like that. Given how spaced out the first two rounds are... This is very unlikely.

But if you had to do it...

Start the Sac game at 6 west coast time and the Lakers game at 830.

But you aren't doing that scheduling. You'd either move days or make the worst matchup the NBA TV game.

[coin24]

:coleman: :coleman:


i hate that dumb argument.

There is an overabundance of talent in the league. Tons of good players get snubbed by the league and can't make it in. Lots of teams with multiple all stars on them.


If anything the NBA should expand. The talent pool keeps getting bigger and bigger and more and more money is coming into the league.

I guess contraction is the hipster or "cool" thing to say but reality says otherwise.

:biggums: :biggums:

The nba should definitely not expand.. The product is already watered down enough

[Bosnian Sajo]

You're specifying the CF only. I'm referring to the whole postseason. Boston or Toronto fans aren't going to stay up for an entire game in the first or second round against the LAC or SAC that started at 10:30pm EST.


As if that's even late, us east coast fans consistently stay up to watch games AND inside the nba which starts at like 1am. No biggie lol, it's tradition.

[ArbitraryWater]

OP we had this a thousand times.. no divisions/conferences, 30 teams one league, 58 games (each twice, home/away), top 16

[bdreason]

Playoff ideas;

Get rid of the Conferences and keep the Divisions.

Winner of each Division gets a spot (6).

All remaining spots based on best record (4).

Reduce number of playoff teams to 10 (down from 16).

Top 2 teams get a 1st round BYE (see NFL).

Change 1st round back to 5 games.

Install a 'skunk' rule for 7 game series (win first 3 games it's over).

[90sgoat]

Start by moving some teams West and East.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e1/a1/05/e1a1052ef1e7dcebcee8df4a5bd1bbac.jpg

Memphis obviously belongs in the East.

Move Charlotte west, move Houston east. Or move Minny East and move Charlotte West.