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Will The 16 Best Teams In The League Compete In The Playoffs Soon?
It’s no secret that the Western Conference has dominated the Eastern Conference for the better part of this Millennium.
For 19 straight seasons, the Western Conference has had more players on All-NBA Teams than the Eastern Conference. This trend is likely to continue.
The NBA has a parity problem. The West gets stronger and stronger, and the East gets weaker and weaker. This isn’t just a feeling, it is a fact.
This offseason All-Stars Paul George, Paul Millsap, Carmelo Anthony and Jimmy Butler went West, making the conferences even more uneven.
Last season the Western Conference had three 55+ wins teams or more wins, the Eastern Conference number one seeded Celtics had 53, which would have been the No. 4 seed in the West.
Should the NBA change to a simple, and fair format with the 16 best regular season teams competing in the playoffs? NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is continuing to look at possibly reformatting the playoffs, but also says the change would be a lot more complicated.
Silver on if the NBA should just put the 16 best teams in the playoffs and not deal with conferences: "That is something that's gotten serious attention." Of course, there are travel concerns
— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) February 18, 2018
While the NBA won’t change or revolutionize the conferences and playoffs over night, it still is satisfying to hear that they indeed are thinking about options to make the NBA a fairer league. In the 2014-15 season for example, the Thunder missed the playoffs with a regular season record of 45-37, while the Nets made it with a record of 38-44.
