Plan to save the NBA
- Thread starter Costanza
- Start date
tanks1 said:
This leads back to the plan I proposed above.
2007:
Over the past eight years, the Western record vs. Eastern teams is as follows:
This is all despite the fact that Eastern teams play 52 games against lesser competition and only 30 games against the West. While I don’t advocate relying on computer rankings, the Sagarin rankings (using won-loss record and strength of schedule) essentially show that 10 of the top 16 teams in the NBA are from the Western Conference. With Miami and Detroit aging, the Eastern Conference is heading for an even larger decline and it's likely that 12 of the best 16 teams in the league reside out West.
The point is not to eliminate Eastern teams from the playoffs, but rather identify the best 16 teams in the league and seed them accordingly in a 16-team bracket to best determine the true NBA champion. The current format is the equivalent of Western teams being required to run a marathon while teams from the East are running a 100-yard dash to win a title.
2017:
In a gutted NBA Eastern Conference, who's the second-best player after LeBron James?
Jimmy Butler and Paul George are no longer in the Eastern Conference. As if the East needed to get any worse.
Eight of the nine best players in the NBA already were in the Western Conference going into this year, and the West held a 246-204 edge on the East last season in head-to-head matchups. Since Michael Jordan retired from the Bulls, the West has won 13 of 19 championships.
Over the past eight years, the Western record vs. Eastern teams is as follows:
Season West Record Vs. East
2006-07 257-193
2005-06 252-198
2004-05 256-194
2003-04 266-154
2002-03 250-170
2001-02 232-188
2000-01 259-161
1999-2000 227-193
That totals for a 1,999-1,451 record for the Western Conference, a .579 winning percentage. Additionally, the Western Champion has won the NBA Championship 7 of the past 9 years, with many of the series not very competitive. This is not a cycle or a trend that is going to change any time soon (particularly with this year’s lottery results). During the 2006-07 regular season, five of the best six records in the NBA belonged to the West. The entire starting five of the First Team All-NBA were all Western Conference players. At the All-Star Break, the five best records in the league were in the West. This had NEVER happened in NBA history. In fact, no conference had ever had the top four records in the league at the All-Star Break. 2006-07 257-193
2005-06 252-198
2004-05 256-194
2003-04 266-154
2002-03 250-170
2001-02 232-188
2000-01 259-161
1999-2000 227-193
This is all despite the fact that Eastern teams play 52 games against lesser competition and only 30 games against the West. While I don’t advocate relying on computer rankings, the Sagarin rankings (using won-loss record and strength of schedule) essentially show that 10 of the top 16 teams in the NBA are from the Western Conference. With Miami and Detroit aging, the Eastern Conference is heading for an even larger decline and it's likely that 12 of the best 16 teams in the league reside out West.
The point is not to eliminate Eastern teams from the playoffs, but rather identify the best 16 teams in the league and seed them accordingly in a 16-team bracket to best determine the true NBA champion. The current format is the equivalent of Western teams being required to run a marathon while teams from the East are running a 100-yard dash to win a title.
2017:
In a gutted NBA Eastern Conference, who's the second-best player after LeBron James?
Jimmy Butler and Paul George are no longer in the Eastern Conference. As if the East needed to get any worse.
Eight of the nine best players in the NBA already were in the Western Conference going into this year, and the West held a 246-204 edge on the East last season in head-to-head matchups. Since Michael Jordan retired from the Bulls, the West has won 13 of 19 championships.
Similar threads
