NBA Official: League announces new rules for Playoff seeding
NBA’s new rule on Playoff seeding
The 2016 Playoffs will be the first ever in the history of the NBA where the teams will be seeded solely based on their regular season records. No more will the division champions be assured of a top 4 spot in the Playoffs. The much talked about change was unanimously approved by the League’s Board of Governors. Also changed by the League in the meeting was the tiebreaker procedure that is followed when two teams have identical win-loss records.
The new rule makes head to head meetings the first tiebreaker for Playoff seeding followed by whether any of the teams won their respective division. Previously, the division winners were assured of home court advantage in the Playoffs (a top-4 seed) irrespective of their win-loss record.
Although the league announced this change officially on Tuesday, the new rule was expected by many after it came under a lot of criticism during the Playoffs when the Portland Trailblazers finished 4th on the back of the North-West division title, despite having the sixth best record on the basis of win-loss in the powerful Western Conference. More importantly we ended up having two possible title contenders the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Clippers facing each other in the first round instead of the second round.
Positive first step
| Without New Rule | After New Rule | |
| 1 | Golden State Warriors | Golden State Warriors |
| 2 | Houston Rockets | Houston Rockets |
| 3 | Los Angeles Clippers | Los Angeles Clippers |
| 4 | Portland Trailblazers | Memphis Grizzlies |
| 5 | Memphis Grizzlies | San Antonio Spurs |
| 6 | San Antonio Spurs | Portland Trailblazers |
| 7 | Dallas Mavericks | Dallas Mavericks |
| 8 | New Orleans Pelicans | New Orleans Pelicans |
Making Playoffs seeding totally based on team’s win-loss record during the regular season is a huge step towards making the Playoffs more fair and competitive. While there are still many ideas out there suggesting to just push the top 16 teams into the Playoffs irrespective of the Conferences, the League’s decision speaks volumes of its openess to change if implementing it is necessary.
A huge topic still up for debate is the disparity in talent between the East and West. Last year’s eight seed the New Orleans Pelicans (45-37) made it to the Playoffs beating San Antonio Spurs on the final day of the regular season and then beating the Oklahoma City Thunder courtesy of their tiebreaker. So while the Pelicans had to remain focused till the final day to make it to the Playoffs from the West, they would have breezed into the post-season as sixth seed had they been in the East.