I would love to see a "both..and" solution.
1 - Keep the current playoff seeding method, but reduce the first round to a best of 5 to allow for better rested play in the latter rounds
2 - Reduce the number of regular season games slightly (maybe 70? games)
3- Add a playoff system for all the lottery teams. The team that wins the lottery playoff gets the #1 pick. (and all other teams get picks in order of finish as well).
Adding the lottery playoff has several benefits:
- Every fan base gets a playoff game
- More games means more ticket revenue for the league
- Less incentive for bad teams to go into full tank mode. If you jettison all your good players, you end up with the lowest lottery pick
1- I think the first round should go back to best-of-5. No need to be seven and better chances at upsets in a shorter series, makes it quicker and more interesting.
2- I don’t see how a shorter season makes the playoff stustem any better. They moved up the start of the season to address rest issues. If the season were to be shortened, the only think that makes sense is 76 games (4 vs division, 3 vs conference, 2 vs other conference). Still don’t think it’s an issue that needs fixing.
And 3- this is not a good idea at all. You will see teams tanking to get in to the lottery playoffs instead of the actual playoffs. Would you rather get blasted by Golden State in 4 or nab a top 3 pick? The truly terrible teams can’t get better because they will routinely pick 10+. Who would even watch a battle of the worst and when? Same time as the real playoffs? Terrible product.