The Blueprint For Restructuring The NBA Playoffs
Adam Silver has suggested fixing what we have all noticed about the conferences and the playoffs.
Although the records of teams in the Western Conference are better than those of the East, both conferences share the same intriguing story when it comes to the race for the playoffs. Particularly, the race for the 8th seed in the west is literally a toss up between the Oklahoma City Westbrooks, I mean Thunder, and the New Orleans Eyebrows, I mean Pelicans.
On March 15th, Pelican franchise player — Anthony Davis had arguably the best stat line in over a decade as he flirted with a near quadruple-double. “The Brow” managed to achieve 36 Pts, 14 Rebs, 7 Asts, 1 Stl, 9 Blks. No typo. It’s a travesty to think someone of his caliber will not play during the playoffs. But on the contrary, it’s either he or Russell Westbrook over at OKC, and we know how I feel about the rising MVP candidate. This leads me to believe, it may be time for a change.
Restructuring The NBA Playoffs
There has been great debate regarding the supposed superiority of the Western Conference over the Eastern Conference. New NBA commissioner Adam Silver also believes a change should be discussed. In an interview with Adam Katz for a segment on “Outside The Lines,” Silver states “Ultimately we want to see your best teams in the playoffs. And there (currently) is an imbalance and a certain unfairness. … A lot of owners have strong feelings on it, but I think it is an area where we need to make a change.”
This has to be music to the ear of every avid hoops fan who simply wants to witness the best talent perform in a playoff atmosphere. What would this year’s playoffs look like if Kevin Durant, the reigning MVP and quite arguably the world’s 2nd best basketball player, was not in the postseason? Not only that, but it would also mean that the potential MVP of THIS year, who the world can’t seem to keep their eyes off of, Russell Westbrook, wouldn’t be in the postseason?
That’s simply blasphemy. Silver suggested the top seeds in each of the 6 divisions would clinch a playoff birth, leaving the remaining 10 teams reliant on their overall record, which sounds more than logical to me. The naysayers would probably say that daily travel from east to west is concerning, but let’s be real, these guys are getting paid millions of dollars to play basketball every night and every team has its own plane for crying out loud. It’s more than manageable. Let’s see how this develops.
