NBA Playoffs: Why The NBA's Postseason Needs To Be More Like Soccer

NBA Playoffs: It’s time for the NBA to take a page out of the way soccer handles its postseason

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There’s no question, the NBA Playoffs needs some change. Potentially, a huge one.

Whether it be removing divisions or conferences all together, one thing is for sure. It needs work. So I took the liberty of re-working the NBA playoffs using a random draw method. Similar to soccer — whether it be the UEFA Champions League, the English FA Cup or the World Cup — all major soccer tournaments are organized through draws and seeds.

So for this, I took the top-4 teams from the West, the top 4 teams from the East and organized those teams by record (I.E. Golden State is a one seed so they draw their opponent first, then Atlanta, then so on) and took the rest of the teams and threw them in a hat, and came up with some interesting results.

(1) Golden State Warriors vs Milwaukee Bucks

Now the top-8 teams that have their opponents drawn have the homecourt advantage, and the first opponent drawn for the Warriors are the Bucks. This would be interesting, as it puts an East team vs a West team — and a young team in the Bucks vs a ready-to-explode team in the Warriors, both coached by first-year coaches.

(2) Atlanta Hawks vs Memphis Grizzlies

Another great matchup that features another conference vs conference pairing, as it is also a battle of two really well coached teams. No true superstars in this matchup, but great players on both sides.

(3) Houston Rockets vs Boston Celtics

James Harden, Dwight Howard and the Rockets vs the very young Boston Celtics would prove to be another intriguing matchup. Would still have Houston winning this, though.

(4) Los Angeles Clippers vs Washington Wizards

This would be fun. Watching John Wall vs Chris Paul, Blake Griffin vs Marcin Gortat — this might be the most competitive matchup so far.

(5) Cleveland Cavaliers vs New Orleans Pelicans

Finally the No. 2 seed in the East gets their opponent, and it’s the New Orleans Pelicans. Another fun matchup as Anthony Davis would be taking on King James himself.

(6) Portland Trail Blazers vs San Antonio Spurs

Finally a Western Conference duel as the defending NBA champs take on the Portland Trail Blazers. The Spurs would probably take this series easily, considering how the hobbled Blazers are playing currently.

(7) Chicago Bulls vs Brooklyn Nets

Eastern Conference matchup here, with the Bulls taking on the Nets. This is a matchup that probably goes to Derrick Rose and the Bulls, though.

(8) Toronto Raptors vs Dallas Mavericks

Finally we have Dallas having to go all the way to Canada to take on the Raptors. Another competitive matchup between two very similar teams, in opposite conferences. It’s hard to pick a favorite on this one, though. Somewhat of a push.

This would be what the NBA playoffs would look like if randomly drawn. In terms of the rest of the playoff matchups, you can easily re-seed teams by record and draw from there all the way to the NBA finals. It would add a lot of intrigue and matchups you never thought you would see, maybe even an NBA Finals with two teams from one conference.

Either way, this might be one of the better ways to crown a true champion.

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NBA Playoffs: Why The NBA’s Postseason Needs To Be More Like Soccer

By Joe McQuiston | Apr 24, 2015