Seeding this year 1 to 16

[Moranis]

There has been a lot of talk of doing away with conferences and just seeding the playoffs 1 to 16 (I am not a fan and actually think it is a terrible idea).  Doing that this year would yield 9 Eastern teams and 7 Western teams making the playoffs.  Some of the matchups are identical to what we actually saw i.e. Atlanta v. Boston, Miami v. Charlotte, San Antonio v. Memphis.  That said, playing it out probably doesn't yield a much different result at the end of the day (the only real question is would San Antonio beat Cleveland in the semis).

ROUND 1
1 - GS
16- CHI

8 - ATL
9 - BOS

4 - TOR
13- DET

5 - OKC
12 - POR

6 - LAC
11 - IND

3 - CLE
14 - DAL

7 - MIA
10 - CHA

2 - SAS
15 - MEM

ROUND 2
1 - GS
8 - ATL

4 - TOR
5 - OKC

6 - LAC or IND (if the injuries still hit LAC, either way Cleveland wins this round)
3 - CLE

7 - MIA
2 - SAS

SEMI-FINALS
1 - GS
4 - TOR or OKC (they split the season series though Toronto was deemed the 4 seed by ESPN, though I think most would expect OKC to win)

3 - CLE
2 - SAS

FINALS
1 - GS (since GS beat OKC and I don't see much doubt they would beat Toronto)
2 - SAS or CLE (they split the season series, give SAS the slight edge being the home team)

So probably not much difference in the playoffs other than a possible San Antonio instead of Cleveland in the Finals and a bunch of shuffling of the lower teams including the Bulls getting in and the Rockets staying at home.  And sure if they had 1 giant division the games played would work out differently, but I still think that is a pretty good gauge of where teams would have ended up.

[PhoSita]

I'd take a GS/OKC vs SAS Finals over the matchup we have, no doubt.


Also, I don't think it's at all a certainty that the Clips would lose to the Cavs if both sides were healthy.


Bottom line for me, there were probably five teams this year that had a shot at winning a title, given reasonably good luck and health: GSW, SAS, OKC, CLE, LAC.

Four of them were in the Western Conference.


I'm 100% in favor of seeding the playoffs.  Especially since I think it'd make the first two rounds more varied and interesting from year to year.