The NBA commissioner is considering changing the format of the playoffs in 2 possible ways. These are however more like concepts and are far from being implemented. Let me know what your thoughts are on the topic.
Source-http://www.slamonline.com/nba/adam-silver-nba-given-serious-attention-seeding-playoffs-1-16/
Top 16 teams qualify
In my opinion, this would be a great change. How it would work is that the 16 teams with the best record at the end of an NBA season would qualify for the playoffs essentially eliminating conferences. I think this would be a good thing for the overall competitiveness of the playoffs themselves as well as giving teams in the regular season a different motivation. What can stand in the way is that when the playoffs come around traveling may be difficult for some teams if, for example, the Lakers were to face off against the Celtics in a full 7 game series the travel would be a lot for the teams involved. Overall I think this is a great option and a shakeup can always make things interesting.
Play-in Tournament
This one I am not really a fan of as It would feature the 7-10 seeds in the standings at the end of the season going up against each other in a single games-tournament to make up the 7th and 8th seeds entering the playoffs. So, in theory, a team could secure the 7th spot in the standings but still end up missing the playoffs while it would be possible for the 10th seeded team to make the playoffs. This, in my opinion, would make the actual regular season a whole lot less exciting while also being unfair to teams that had to work an entire 82 game schedule just to be knocked out after a single game to a weaker team. The upsets and drama will make for good stories but overall I think it is a bad idea.
I think it's only a matter of time before we see option 1 implemented in the league, beacuse league has only 2 to 3 contenders or you could be harsh and say that nobody is beating the warriors. So option 1 will spice things up a bit.
Yeah, I think it would make things a lot more exciting in the regular season.
Option 2 is a no go for me. Basically for the same reasons you stated.
I like option 1 with some changes. best of 5 series with more time in between games. This helps with the travel problem.
If going to 5 game series it should be the Finals not the first round. The baseball models makes zero sense and always has. It's built to maximize luck which is tragic.
Yeah, I agree that would help the travel problem, but sadly I don't think the NBA will ever move away from the 7 game format as the profits they make off of it is just too much.
If they do play-in we would stop watching the regular season entirely and tune into the NBA in 2nd round of playoffs-- you know-- like we do now with NHL hockey.