Posted by Andrew:

What kind of format changes do you have in mind?

I think there was a lot of expectations in the West series since you had top quality teams competing against each other. Those series have been one sided (although there have been exiting games) and the high expectation of closer series has caused disappointment.

Posted by Andrew:

True....those suggestions probably make sense, but they wouldn't make the first round any more exiting. Seeding the entire league instead of the conference would have made this years playoff 1st round even more lopsided.

That's why I said switch the first round to a 2-3-2 plus you have less trash teams in the playoffs. Which means no ATL, Philly. First Round matchups would have went accordingly

1.Boston
2.Detroit
3.Lakers
4.New Orleans
5.San Antonio
6.Houston
7.Pheonix
8.Utah
9.Orlando
10. Dallas
11.Denver
12.Golden State
13. Cleveland
14.Washington

First Round 2-3-2 format
1. Boston vs Washington(Boston Home Court)
2. Detroit vs Cleveland(Detroit Home Court)
3. Lakers vs Golden State(Lakers Home Court)
4. New Orleans vs Denver(Hornets Home Court)
5. San Antonio vs Dallas(San Antonio Home Court)
6. Houston vs Orlando(Houston Home Court)
7. Phoenix vs Utah(Phoenix Home Court)

The only problem is there is uneven pairing so you have to figure out who would play who in the next round. You could stagger the matchups and give the Top seeded matchup(Boston) the most lag

[Edited by - TrueBlue on 04-28-2008 12:01 PM]

Posted by Killa4luv:

Posted by Andrew:

True....those suggestions probably make sense, but they wouldn't make the first round any more exiting. Seeding the entire league instead of the conference would have made this years playoff 1st round even more lopsided.

Perhaps, but the first round should only be best of 5 games anyway. 7 games is too much.
Get it over with, round 2 would be really interesting.

I third that. I think the five game series are more exciting in the early rounds.

Besides, there's such a thing as too much basketball. The NBA is way over-exposed.


[Edited by - basketballjones on 04-28-2008 13:39]

Posted by TrueBlue:

The only competitive series is Philly and Det. All the other series are either 3-0 or 3-1.

The Western Conference playoffs have probably been the most disappointing. Stern can't be too thrilled I think the format must be looked into with strong consideration to change the format.

I will say the outcomes should be very telling what other teams do in the off-season. Some teams probably need to blow it up.

Posted by PresIke:

I don't think the playoffs have been bad. The series may not all be knotted up, but the play has been exciting in quite a few games.

Posted by PresIke:

the thing for me is that even in some games that have been blowouts, they weren't blowouts for the entire game, and there has still been entertaining ball to watch in some of those games, in my view.

In other words, the Suns are down 3-1 to the Spurs but the Spurs didn't dominate in all 4 games. For the first game and a half the Suns looked very strong, for the most part. If you look at them down 3-0 going into game 4 it seemed "lopsided" but it wasn't.

Game 1 was great. Game 2 was competitive for the first half and then the Spurs broke the game open in the 3rd quarter and you never thought the Suns would come back. Games 3 and 4 were done in the first quarter.

That's just a huge letdown for what should have been a more entertaining series. It still could be though if the Suns can win game 5 or at the very least make it interesting.