NBA Rumors: Playoff Seeding Change Coming For 2015-16 NBA Season
NBA rumors indicate that a shift in playoff seeding could take place. The 2015-16 NBA season could see the elimination of division records playing into the formula for the postseason seeding. A report from ABC News on Tuesday (July 14) quotes NBA commissioner Adam Silver as stating there could be several changes adopted before the beginning of next season. The proposal would be placed in front of the league’s Board of Governors to officially put it in place.
At issue is the current rule that guarantees each of the six division winners are placed in the top four seeds of their respective conference. It came into play for the Western Conference this past season, when the Portland Trail Blazers won the NorthWest Division and got awarded the fourth seed. Two teams with better overall record (the Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs) were then seeded behind them, giving the Spurs a much tougher first round opponent (LA Clippers). A lot of discussion about the topic took place Tuesday, but an official vote hasn’t been taken yet. Silver commented on that and other NBA rumors following the meeting.
“It’s my expectation that that change will be adopted before the beginning of this coming season. We wanted all the owners to have an opportunity to go back and discuss that recommendation with their general managers and their coaches. [sic]”
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, the Clippers beat the Spurs in seven games to advance to the second-round of the playoffs. It was argued by many NBA analysts that the Clippers should not have had to play the Spurs, and that the Spurs shouldn’t have been seeded at No. 6. There were a lot of debates about how things could have turned out had the teams actually been seeded by overall record, almost forcing commissioner Adam Silver to address it during the offseason. Now they are looking at taking away some of the power that used to go to the division winners.
With the NBA standings getting shifted in value a bit, it almost seems like wasted time to actually have separate divisions. If teams don’t get any advantage for winning a division, yet still have to play the most games against those same opponents, it is going to heavily favor teams in weaker divisions even further. In addition to addressing how the 2015-16 postseason will look, other NBA rumors point to the board discussing how the offseason moratorium goes each year. The DeAndre Jordan situation may lead to the league altering how that works as well.
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