What If the NBA removes the West and East conference but kept the 6 divisions in the NBA.

Since the 2000s, The West has been superior over the East. But fortunately, The East has gotten better but it still lacks depth compared to the West. Last season, The West had 11 teams that had 41 wins or more while East only had 8. And the West is going to get more competitive once Memphis is healthy and the Rockets improve.

I’ve seen People say that the NBA should remove conferences but the NBA would never do that because of scheduling and geography/location.

But What If the NBA abolishes it and just kept their divisions: Pacific, Northwest, Southwest, Central, Southeast and Atlantic.

For scheduling, Each team would only have to play 32 division games (8 games against each opponent in their division, 4 home games and 4 away games) and another 50 games against non-division opponents (2 games against each opponent, one home and one away)

For the Postseason: The Play-Ins will exist but should exist as round-robin tournament. 8 teams (13th-20th seed) will compete for the 13th-16th seed and the Top 4 teams in the tournament will receive it.

So that means 16 teams still make the Playoffs.

This is just intended to be an interesting concept.

  • Weary_Cheetah6103BEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    Honestly I think everyone should play everyone else, top 8, 12, or 16 move into the playoffs. It won’t happen of course but it would be fun to watch.

  • IMovedYourCheeseBEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    32 games a season with the same 4 teams is wayyyy too much. Especially if it’s a dud division. No one’s going to be watching those games.

  • nba2k11erBEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    More division games would reduce travel which is nice. But I think without playoff benefits for winning the division, it’s not enough to stoke rivalries. Even the “Why is Portland the 4 seed” days were not known for rivalries.

    Plus you get the whole… beat up on your poverty division thing. The bottom 2 teams in the Southeast went 36-128. The bottom 2 teams in the Pacific went 92-72. Giving the Magic 16 games against the Hornets and Wizards, then seeding 1-20 would be very unfair.

    But yeah, interesting concept. It makes me realize how much the play-in’s existence (shameless money grab) gets in the way of the 16-team playoff idea (fair competition).