On Tuesday, the NBA board of governors officially agreed to change their playoff format. According to thescore.com, the move was expected to happen sometime this summer after the Portland Trailblazers were given the fourth seed in last year`s playoffs despite having the sixth best record in the west.
NBA moving forward w/plan to seed conference playoff teams 1-8 regardless of division winner starting in 15-16, per high-ranking NBA exec.
— Jeff Zillgitt (@JeffZillgitt) June 25, 2015
The format will no longer have the divisional leaders automatically get a top four spot in their conference. It will now go by record regardless to where a team finishes in the divisional standings.
Changes coming in NBA Playoff Format
The NBA also changed it`s tie-breaker rules for home court advantage. It will now go by who won the season series between the two teams and not by which team won their division.
Commissioner Adam Silver had addressed this as a potential change during the postseason. It will go into effect immediately.
The NBA has not changed the fact that there will still be eight teams per conference in the playoffs. There had been some discussion of taking the top 16 teams by record regardless of conference, or instituting some type of cross-over system due to the fact that the ninth best team in one conference often has a better record than teams who make the playoffs in the other conference. However, the NBA was not prepared for so drastic a change this off-season.
The question now becomes why the NBA has divisions at all. Why not a pure 15 team conference with no divisions?
Main Photo via Getty Images Sport / NBA Collection.
