Radical NBA Playoff and Draft Idea
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:31 pm
There are 30 teams in the NBA. Currently, 16 teams make the playoffs with all series being best 4 of 7. The draft is in reverse order of finish like the NFL but there is a modified lottery among the non-playoff teams. Here's the idea.
My Playoffs:
Everybody makes the playoffs. Yes - everybody.
The playoffs follow an NCAA Tournament style bracket.
The top two seeds get a first round bye.
The first 2 rounds are best 2 of 3.
Once it's down to 8 teams all series are best 4 of 7.
If all current series average about 6 games then the current playoffs consist of roughly 90 games. In my format, even if all series in the first 2 rounds were sweeps, there would be 46 games in those rounds plus roughly 42 more in the final 3 rounds for a total of 88 games. In other words, the NBA wouldn't lose any games. Also, I think more people would watch the early rounds.
My Draft:
No lottery.
The draft order is as follows:
16, 15, 17, 14, 18, 13, 19, 12, 20, 11, 21, 10, 22, 9, 23, 8, 24, 7, 25, 6, 26, 5, 27, 4, 28, 3, 29, 2, 30, 1.
In other words, 16 through 30 (not the other way around) and 15 through 1 alternating.
Right now there is tremendous incentive to tank the last month if a team is not playoff bound. In my format there is a strong incentive not to tank that last month.
It's not perfect but whattayathink?
My Playoffs:
Everybody makes the playoffs. Yes - everybody.
The playoffs follow an NCAA Tournament style bracket.
The top two seeds get a first round bye.
The first 2 rounds are best 2 of 3.
Once it's down to 8 teams all series are best 4 of 7.
If all current series average about 6 games then the current playoffs consist of roughly 90 games. In my format, even if all series in the first 2 rounds were sweeps, there would be 46 games in those rounds plus roughly 42 more in the final 3 rounds for a total of 88 games. In other words, the NBA wouldn't lose any games. Also, I think more people would watch the early rounds.
My Draft:
No lottery.
The draft order is as follows:
16, 15, 17, 14, 18, 13, 19, 12, 20, 11, 21, 10, 22, 9, 23, 8, 24, 7, 25, 6, 26, 5, 27, 4, 28, 3, 29, 2, 30, 1.
In other words, 16 through 30 (not the other way around) and 15 through 1 alternating.
Right now there is tremendous incentive to tank the last month if a team is not playoff bound. In my format there is a strong incentive not to tank that last month.
It's not perfect but whattayathink?