The NBA seems destined to expand from 30 teams to 32 in the coming years, and when it does happen, the league may make a radical change coinciding with the pair of teams’ arrivals.
Currently, the league has two conferences — Eastern and Western — of 15 teams each. Teams from opposite conferences only play each other twice in the regular season and not at all in the playoffs unless they win their conference title and make it to the NBA Finals.
That has become a point of conversation over the years, particularly in regards to how competitive the Western Conference typically is in comparison to the Eastern Conference, which is often considered top-heavy. The talks have only grown louder this year, though, as only four teams in the Eastern Conference boast winning records nearly a fifth of the way through the season. Contrastly, only three of the 15 Western Conference teams have losing records, and the Portland Trail Blazers (6-9), the 13th seed in the West, would be tied for eighth in the East.
So when the NBA inevitably decides to expand, the league could, instead of having to decide which teams would go into which conferences, consider getting rid of conferences altogether and allowing the teams with the 16 best records to qualify for the playoffs.
“…West executives told ESPN they believe both issues can be corrected by dropping conferences altogether and seeding teams 1 through 16 regardless of geography,” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst wrote. “The concept has been raised before. But expansion, the thinking goes, would create a reason to take a fresh look.
“‘It would be the right thing to do for the health of the league,’ one West general manager said. ‘It’s not just about fairness, it’s about giving the fans the best playoff product.’”
Would NBA really get rid of conferences upon expansion?
ESPN reporter Tim Bontemps raised a valid point, however, in saying that it seems unlikely that 23 of the league’s owners (the required number to make a change) would agree to such a proposal considering half of them seemingly benefit from the Eastern Conference’s playoff threshold being lower.
If the NBA decides to keep conferences, it will have some difficult decisions to make, the most important of which centers on which team will move to the Eastern Conference if the rumored Las Vegas and Seattle expansion franchises become realities.
Vegas and Seattle would both logically slot into the Western Conference, leaving one team currently in the West to move to the Eastern Conference. The Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans are teams that would seem to be under consideration considering how far east they are compared to most other Western Conference teams, but it would seem like the Minnesota Timberwolves would and should be the first option.
The Wolves are much closer to each of the Eastern Conference’s five Central Division teams than they are to their current Northwest Division rivals, the closest of which is the Oklahoma City Thunder.
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