Proposed NBA Changes for 2021-2022

[AnPheitseog]

Division winners+ Best non division winner make the playoffs in each conference. That's it.

 

Shortens the overall season by up to 14 games, and makes the games matter.

[JayMac]

17 hours ago, DG_Now said:

I propose a geographic alignment, probably based on East and West geographic divisions because that makes the most sense. Then I would subdivide those two conferences into smaller geographic divisons for ease of travel and regional rivalries.

 

I'd then focus a schedule that prioritized inter-conference games first, though allows for each conference team a home-and-home opportunity with the other conference.

 

For playoffs, I'd choose the top teams in each conference, about the top 8 or so, and have them play best of seven series to choose two conference winners. Then the champions of each conference would play each other in a championship series.

 

82 regular season games seems about the reasonable amount to make this all work. Plus playoffs. Simple and elegant. Everything else is just Calvinball.

This is brilliant! How come they haven't thought of this??

[_DietDrPepper_]

Keep conferences to the regular season only. Best record in the conference at the end of the season wins conference championship. Then for the playoffs have the best 16 teams by record regardless of conference play a 1-16 seeded bracket

[MilSox]

I love the idea of a mid-season tournament, but I think the idea is at least a few decades too late.  It works for soccer because there's enough tradition behind it that winning your competition's cup is as prestigious as winning the league.  But even if these cup tournaments were proposed now, I doubt they'd ever actually happen for the reason it won't in the NBA.  Players make too much money to want to risk injury.

The only way I could see it working is if they made the tournament games part of the season and found a way for the teams that lost to play the same number of games.  It happens in a number of college tournaments.  But that works because these tournaments are usually played at a single neutral site.  It'd be a lot tougher with the NBA's logistical concerns.

[packerfan21396]

I feel like to make a mid-season tournament relevant, the NBA could pull a page from their eSports league, the 2K League, and give the tournament winner a locked spot in the Playoffs.

 

Otherwise, I'm not the biggest fan of complicating the season to generate more revenue.

[pepis21]

I've got an idea. if you really want changes, try to make double round-robin system with 58 games. Best eight teams will go to playoffs (or best sixteen, but this gonna be harder to seed), last team might be relegate to G-League and G-League champion promote to NBA.

Instead of league tournament try to reach an arrangement with FIBA and EuroLeague and do something similar to FIFA Club World Cup with BCL, CLA, AAC, BAL and EuroLeague winners.

[Hat Boy]

On ‎12‎/‎3‎/‎2019 at 12:09 AM, packerfan21396 said:

I feel like to make a mid-season tournament relevant, the NBA could pull a page from their eSports league, the 2K League, and give the tournament winner a locked spot in the Playoffs.

 

I was thinking of something like that too---but that would back-fire on the NBA if a team went into full "load management" mode as a result of locking up a playoff spot in December.  Now they are exacerbating the very problem they are trying to solve.

[Guest]

On 11/30/2019 at 6:09 PM, DG_Now said:

The smallest amount you could reasonably do is 70. That's a home and home against every team in the league (58 games), plus a total of four home-and-homes against each team in your division (12 additional).

 

I like basketball, so I don't mind the 12 additional games.

 

How would this affect expansion, i.e., how would expansion affect your proposal?

[Guest]

On 12/2/2019 at 6:40 PM, NicDB said:

I love the idea of a mid-season tournament, but I think the idea is at least a few decades too late.  It works for soccer because there's enough tradition behind it that winning your competition's cup is as prestigious as winning the league.  But even if these cup tournaments were proposed now, I doubt they'd ever actually happen for the reason it won't in the NBA.  Players make too much money to want to risk injury.

The only way I could see it working is if they made the tournament games part of the season and found a way for the teams that lost to play the same number of games.  It happens in a number of college tournaments.  But that works because these tournaments are usually played at a single neutral site.  It'd be a lot tougher with the NBA's logistical concerns.

 

Memphis is supposedly the central-most location in the US, which is why FedEx set up their original hub there.  So to make travel plans the most equitable each year, Memphis should host the Finals or midseason tournament.  I mean, how many timea have the Grizzlies been to the playoffs anyways?

[mcj882000]

This mid-season tournament proposal reminds me so much of the gimmicks that NASCAR has introduced in the past decade-and-a-half to drive interest, and I fear that this is gonna go the same way: not will it fail to bring in new fans, it will actually drive away some of their existing fanbase.

[MilSox]

44 minutes ago, sayahh said:

 

Memphis is supposedly the central-most location in the US, which is why FedEx set up their original hub there.  So to make travel plans the most equitable each year, Memphis should host the Finals or midseason tournament.  I mean, how many timea have the Grizzlies been to the playoffs anyways?

Memphis is relatively close to it, but the actual center is currently in south central Missouri.

Still, you raise an interesting idea of a neutral site.  But for a winter tournament, I think I'd prefer Las Vegas. Easy to travel to and several options for venues.

[MilSox]

On 12/3/2019 at 3:04 AM, pepis21 said:

Instead of league tournament try to reach an arrangement with FIBA and EuroLeague and do something similar to FIFA Club World Cup with BCL, CLA, AAC, BAL and EuroLeague winners.

This actually happened from 1987-1999 with the McDonald's Championship.  It was always won by a NBA team.

I would be thrilled if it were to come back somehow.  But I doubt it ever would.

[pepis21]

On 12/8/2019 at 10:43 PM, NicDB said:

This actually happened from 1987-1999 with the McDonald's Championship.  It was always won by a NBA team.

I would be thrilled if it were to come back somehow.  But I doubt it ever would.

 

True, but McDonald's Open mostly had teams from Europe and since 1999 Non-USA teams (especially European) are much better than then. I also would be thrilled to see that.

[dont care]

14 minutes ago, pepis21 said:

 

True, but McDonald's Open mostly had teams from Europe and since 1999 Non-USA teams (especially European) are much better than then. I also would be thrilled to see that.

They still would lose to G League teams

[pepis21]

@dont care, european teams? I'd argue with that.

[dont care]

4 hours ago, pepis21 said:

@dont care, european teams? I'd argue with that.

Yes there is a reason why only a small handful get drafted into the NBA from Europe, guys in G League get called up at roughly the same rate. Not saying it will be blow outs but they are roughly the same level of talent.

[pepis21]

@dont care There is a reason, money in Europe starts to become much larger than ever. Take Mirotić as a example, he could easily stay in NBA, but decided to come back to Spain and now he's the highest paid player in Europe. Another reason is clubs protect themselves with big buyout clauses, so there isn't that easy to take guy from Europe like in past. Also hottest prospect (Advija, Madelon) aren't eligible for draft yet. ;)

Guys from G-League might have talent, but versus Euroleague teams? I'd say They'll lose.

[dont care]

15 hours ago, pepis21 said:

@dont care There is a reason, money in Europe starts to become much larger than ever. Take Mirotić as a example, he could easily stay in NBA, but decided to come back to Spain and now he's the highest paid player in Europe. Another reason is clubs protect themselves with big buyout clauses, so there isn't that easy to take guy from Europe like in past. Also hottest prospect (Advija, Madelon) aren't eligible for draft yet.

Guys from G-League might have talent, but versus Euroleague teams? I'd say They'll lose.

You say this like Mirotić was a star, he was a bench player, and when he left the NBA to make 6.5 million a year in Spain and that to be the highest paid player in Europe says something. The G league is for guys who can easily be inserted into an NBA team and just need to develop some moves. Europe is for NBA rejects and a few players that skip college and a small number of home grown talent like luka, dirk, ginobli, the gasol’s ect. But even then they are the exception and not the rule.

[pepis21]

I didn't say Mirotić was a star (he was a pretty decent role player), I gave him as a example of money raising in Europe. Even if Europe is for NBA rejects (which is not true) they've got at least that NBA experience which G-League players are missing. You can also notice that every year there is more and more players from Europe/Outside the USA in draft.
Believe me World basketball move forward since 90's. USA ended last World Cup on 7th place, that says something and doesn't matter they roster wasn't a first, second or even third choice, with that amount of talent they should easily win that, but they didn't.

[McCall]

On 12/8/2019 at 3:36 PM, NicDB said:

Memphis is relatively close to it, but the actual center is currently in south central Missouri.

I used to play against Hartville in basketball and baseball.

 

I would just separate them into the four divisions, no conferences. Essentially, each division is it's own conference. Probably expand by 2 and then do 4 games against division (28) and 2 against all other teams (48). That would drop it to 76. I still always look towards 66 as the ideal, but that would only work with contracting 2 teams to lower it to 28 where the same breakdown (4 games division, 2 against all others) would equal 66. And I don't see that happening.

 

As for the playoffs, you can have a couple different ways. Divisional first, with the 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 and whoever wins goes to the NBA Semifinals where all are seeded by record. Or just the four division winners guaranteed and then the next 12, regardless of division, with all seeded by record.

 

No in-season tournaments.