NBA Commissioner Adam Silver hinted at a potential compromise to re-seed teams from 1-to-16 after fans clamored to have the best 16 teams vying for ultimate NBA glory in the postseason. Silver noted that while he would keep the best eight teams from each conference, he would seed them according to their overall record, which could set up a potential NBA Finals meeting from teams of the same conference.
“You also would like to have a format where your two best teams are ultimately going to meet in the Finals,” Silver said, according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst. “You could have a situation where the top two teams in the league are meeting in the conference finals or somewhere else. So we're going to continue to look at that. It's still my hope that we're going to figure out ways.”
While this could be a near-ideal scenario for fans of the game, it could set up logistic issues, if per se, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Philadelphia 76ers were to meet, creating a long travel schedule, meaning likely more days in between games to allow for rest.
The current 2-2-1-1-1 format would be be a complete travel nightmare for matchups like this one, where teams are at the far edge of the opposite coast — a caveat Silver would need to revisit if the league chooses to go through with this plan.
“Maybe ultimately you have to add even more days to the season to spread it out a little bit more to deal with the travel,” Silver said. “Maybe air travel will get better. All things we'll keep looking at.”
This idea is merely conceptual; with no plans for a vote — yet this could be Silver's most-aggressive change since taking over for David Stern and becoming commissioner of the league.
“That is something that's gotten serious attention — not just recently, but over the last few years at the league office,” Silver said.
As usual, Silver has remained committed to tackling the fans' outcries head-on, and this is another example of his efforts to fine-tune the NBA game and its process.
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