The Western Conference has built up the reputation of the dominant conference over the last couple of years, so it should come as no surprise that Commissioner Adam Silver wants to look at reformatting the playoffs.
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Silver said that the restructure could see the abandonment of the current conference seeding, and would see the top 16 teams regardless of conference face off.
"Reformatting the playoffs is something we'll continue to look at," the Commish told ESPN's Nick Friedell.
To reformat the playoffs, Silver knows that they will have to take a look at balancing the schedule. Under the current format NBA teams only play the opposite Conference twice (one home, one away). They also play their divisional foes a total of four times every season (Two at home, two away).
That will have to change if the league goes to a top 16 playoff-tree.
"As I've said before, we don't play a balanced schedule now," Silver said.
"Our feeling is, if we were going to seed 1-16, we would need to play a balanced schedule to make it fair for everyone if we were going to seed 1-16 in the playoffs.
"It may be that as we continue to experiment with the number of days over which we can schedule 82 games that it will create more of an opportunity for a balanced schedule."
The toughest pill to swallow for teams would be the potential for the added travel that may arise with the new changes. You could have a scenario where the first round of the playoffs would feature a west coast team like the Lakers or Clippers making cross-country trips to Boston or Chicago for a seven-game series.
"If we took the existing format, the existing schedule and then we seeded playoffs 1-16, we'd be adding additional travel," Silver continued.
"You would have teams crisscrossing the country in the first round."
Silver has shown the willingness to make changes to the current league rules, schedule and format. This is just another potential tweak that could end up being a plus for fans who want to be guaranteed competitive balance in the league.
