so how about this...
Over the last few months here on ISH i have read here and the posters say things like "the seasons too long" or "the regular season doesn't mean anything" another thing i have read here and there and heard on sports radio is there are no real rivalries in the NBA anymore... so i have been thinking about how the NBA can make the regular season have a value, can increase the interest build rivalries...
and here is what i have come up with.... it's nothing gigantic or earth shattering but a little tweak that would raise the interest of the regular season, and thus add more meaning to the playoffs
ok the NBA plays 82 games as we all know, there are 30 teams divided into two conferences of 15 and each conference is made up of 3 divisions, each with 5 teams
Step one:
increase inner divisional games to 8 from 4..imagine the lakers playing the suns 8 times instead of 4, this would go along way to creating a rivalry, baseball and football both place great value on games against teams in your own division over games out of division
8x4=32 leaving 50 games
2 games against all other teams in the same conference
2x10=20 leaving 30 games
2 games against each team in the conference other than yours
2x15=30
82 games still but now rivalries will begin to take place as each team faces 32games within it's own division
playoff format
8 teams from each conference will be in the playoffs just as it is now but they will be chosen differently in that
the number 1 and 2 team from each division are automaticlly in the playoffs the 7th and 8th teams are wild cards chosen by overall W-L record, in case of ties the usual tie breaker formats would apply... all series are 7 games
the first round of the playoffs will not be 1 vs 8 format but instead be a divisional playoff with the number 1 team playing the number 2 team of their own division. the two wild card teams in the conference would play each other...
round one of this seasons playoffs were
Dallas vs. GoldenState
Jazz vs Houston
Spurs vs Nuggets and
Suns vs. Lakers
under the new format it would have been
Utah vs. Denver
Suns vs. Golden State
Dallas vs. Spurs
Houston vs Lakers in the wildcard matchup
the second round the format would revert to traditional system of overall regualr season records, where the best record left in the conference playoffs would play the team with the worst record
the third round would pit the teams coming out of the second round into the conference finals and the winners movong on to the finals
over all the new system would create inner divsion raivalries that would not only have a great effect on who's in the playoffs but that rivalry would carry though into the first round of the playoffs
Last edited by gts : 05-21-2007 at 04:33 PM.
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