Report: NBA planning to seed playoff teams regardless of division winners
The NBA is moving closer to changing the playoff format, with a proposed plan to seed teams regardless of which wins their division, reportsUSA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt.
According to the report, the league’s competition committee and owners plan to address the matter later this summer.
Calls for playoff seeding reform grew louder in this year’s playoffs as the Portland Trail Blazers won the Northwest Division with a record of 51-31 and were seeded fourth. The Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio each finished with 55 wins, but were slotted in the fifth and sixth playoff spots in the Western Conference.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said that the division system might not make sense going forward.
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“We are very focused on the divisional seeding process, and I think we are going to take a very close look at whether we should seed at least 1 through 8 by conference as opposed to giving the division winner that higher seed," Silver said before the NBA finals. "So that is something we are taking a close look at that, and we may change that fairly quickly.”
As a result of the current playoff setup, Portland faced off against Memphis in the first round and San Antonio took on the Los Angeles Clippers, the conference’s third seed. The Grizzlies took care of the Trail Blazers, beating them in five games before losing to the Golden State Warriors in the Conference Semifinals. San Antonio lost in seven games to the Clippers.
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