The NBA has a serious problem with its current system of "awarding" teams to blatantly lose games, at paying fans expense. The Philadelphia 76ers, who now are benefiting from this charade are exhibit A for why teams are doing it. Never mind that for over three years, that team literally stole money from the fans in Philadelphia and around the country (television). Tanking is a problem and here is a possible solution to that problem.
1. There will need to be a more "balanced" schedule. I don't believe that it should be completely balanced, but I would add one more game each year vs teams of the opposite conference, alternating each year who gets two "home" games.
2. Playoff seeding should be done by overall record for the league, not just the conference. Appropriate tiebreakers can be put in place to dictate who the final spot goes to. This ensures the best 16 teams make the playoffs, regarding of down times for respective conferences.
3. The non-playoff teams will then be seeded as the playoff seeds and have a set of 3-game series in which the winning team advances to the next round. The team that has the higher seed gets the first two games of the series at their arena and if the series goes to a third game, it would only then go to the lower seeds arena. This would continue where all teams continue to play for "ping pong ball" seeding until a "winner" is had. This eliminates the incentive to "tank" because getting the home court advantage, even for a round or two, is valuable. The "winner" from this tourney would get 30 balls, second place would get 28 balls, third place would get 26 balls, down to the "last place" who would get only 2 balls.
This system would bring in more revenue for the teams (which would be split 50/50 with the players), while giving the teams something to play for in terms of making their teams better for the future. This entire "tournament" could be done in three weeks and not drug out for two months like the NBA playoffs are. Perfect system? No! Infinitely better than what is currently in place? Well, I'd like your thoughts.
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