I didn’t say that my idea for re-seeding the teams after every round in the playoffs would be a winner of an idea with everybody. I’m just saying what I would do.

And when it comes to the divisions and conferences, I don’t see how anybody could consider a division championship worth much if they only play 16 of their 82 regular season games against division opponents. I thought that by integrating six divisions into three conferences, this arrangement would help.

Although we would be treated to Hornets vs. Spurs or Suns vs. Lakers or Pistons vs. Cavaliers 8 times during the regular season if we doubled the number of division games while keeping the current divisional alignment, we would also be saddled with 8 games of Bobcats vs. Heat, and Timberwolves vs. Sonics. And, I’m pretty sure that nobody wants to play the same 2 teams play each other 8 times during the regular season in the NBA, especially if one or both teams are losing and playing poorly. It’s likely that they don’t want to face the same team more than 4 times per regular season. Another advantage under my divisional alignment and scheduling system would be the fact that you would see more interesting rivalries between the best teams such as Celtics vs. Lakers and they would meet 4 times per regular season, while meetings between cellar-dwellers such as Knicks vs. Grizzlies would be limited to 4 times per season (although, I would like to see even less of that). I’ m willing to bet that more people would rather pay good money to see Celtics vs. Lakers as they are now.

You are out of control Tommy, haha. We have went from “tweaking” the playoff structure to changing and reorganizing the entire NBA. That is a whole other post and discussion.

Another thing I wanted to do was bring about more rivalries between the best teams in the league. Some great non-conference rivalries would include the ones I just mentioned, plus Celtics vs. Suns, Celtics vs. Spurs, as other examples. These types of rivalries with these teams as they are would bring in bigger attendance figures, better ratings for television and radio, and more merchandise purchases. Namely, more money for the league.

Re-aligning the divisions:
Merge the Atlantic and Central divisions into one conference (Eastern or Northern).
Merge the Southeast and Southwest divisions into one conference (Southern).
Merge the Northwest and Pacific divisions into one conference (Western).

Altering the schedule:
Have each team play 4 games against each of their 9 conference rivals, totaling 36 conference games.
And have each team play 2-4 games against each of their non-conference opponents. The number of games they play would be determined by their finish from the previous season.
If you finish in the top two in your conference, you would play 4 games against the top two teams from each of the other conferences, totaling 16 games. And they would play 2 games against each of the other 16 non-conference opponents, totaling 32. That’s a grand total of 48 non-conference games.
Under my formula, the Lakers (for example) would play the following:
Conference:
4 vs. Minnesota, 4 vs. Seattle, 4 vs. Clippers,
4 vs. Sacramento, 4 vs. Portland, 4 vs. Denver,
4 vs. Utah, 4 vs. Golden State, and 4 vs. Phoenix.
Non-conference:
4 vs. San Antonio, 4 vs. New Orleans, 4 vs. Detroit,
4 vs. Boston, and 2 against each of their other non-conference opponents next season.

Fix the 1st-round of the playoffs:
To make up for the 84-game schedule, reduce the 1st-round to a best-of-5 or a best-of-3 series.

For the same reason the NFL does it with their playoffs: to reward the highest-seeded playoff teams remaining by giving them weaker opponents.

1.) I just never think the league would adopt that system because of equal representation – obviously I could be wrong on that thought.

2.) More weaker teams will be inclined to quit on the season earlier. For example my Philadelphia 76ers are in the hunt for a 6-8 playoff spot in the East. Under your and related top 16 systems the current 7-9 teams in the East have essentially no chance which begs the question – why keep competing. This will basically foster more tanking at the end of the year. I think this is a MAJOR point that is getting overlooked, even by me. Which I might expand on in another post. It took enlightening by my gf to focus me on that thought.

I do have to ask, why all the reseeding?

(a) Boston – (Atlantic)
(b) Detroit – (Central)
(c) San Antonio – (Southwest)
(d) L.A. Lakers – (Pacific)
(e) Utah – (Northwest)
(f) Orlando – (Southeast)

However, win-loss records would still hold more weight than division championships.