The NBA is finally taking action with respect to playoff seeding.
Beginning next season, playoff seeding will no longer be impacted by divisional standings, reports Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. Seeding will be sorted one-through-eight by conference, regardless of division winners.
Under the current system, division winners are granted a top-four seed regardless of rank within their conference.
This came into play for the Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference playoffs. Portland finished with a worse record than both the Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs, but by virtue of winning the Northwest Division, Portland ranked as the fourth seed, pushing Memphis and San Antonio to fifth and sixth, respectively.
The push resulted in an unusually tough first-round matchup between two championship hopefuls in the Los Angeles Clippers and Spurs. That series ran seven games.
| Seed | East - No Change | West - Old Format | West - New Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Atlanta | Golden State | Golden State |
| 2 | Cleveland | Houston | Houston |
| 3 | Chicago | L.A. Clippers | L.A. Clippers |
| 4 | Toronto | Portland | Memphis |
| 5 | Washington | Memphis | San Antonio |
| 6 | Milwaukee | San Antonio | Portland |
| 7 | Boston | Dallas | Dallas |
| 8 | Brooklyn | New Orleans | New Orleans |
Commissioner Adam Silver was open on the eve of the NBA Finals that most interested parties realized that a change needed to be made. Silver had said the league would make a change "fairly quickly," though the changes will not ditch conferences in favor of the top-16 teams overall making the playoffs as some had suggested.
The league is pushing for the changes to be implemented for the 2015-16 season.
