The talk of MLS going to 5 divisions for me thinking that the NBA should do the same to tighten their regional rivalries and travel:

Pacific: adds Portland
Southwest: Utah, Denver, OKC, Dallas, SA, Houston (rename it to Central)
Central: adds Minnesota (rename this one Midwest)
Atlantic: adds Washington
Southeast: loses Washington, gains Memphis and NO

Basketball’s wonkiest division goes away and there’s no more complaints about the West being stronger than the East if there isn’t an East/West split.

Give the division winners the top 5 playoff seeds and then everyone else based on record.

Too much East-West tradition for this to happen.

The playoffs would be a nightmare with the possibility of cross country travel in every round. It's a little different when you play one game a week in soccer versus up to seven games in 14-16 days like you would in the NBA playoffs.

(12-21-2025 10:03 AM)chargeradio Wrote:  The playoffs would be a nightmare with the possibility of cross country travel in every round. It's a little different when you play one game a week in soccer versus up to seven games in 14-16 days like you would in the NBA playoffs.

Better travel during the regular season seems like an acceptable trade off to compensate for the national bracket created in the new playoff format:

5 division opponents 7x — 35 games
24 non-division opponents 2x — 48 games

Total — 83 games

(12-21-2025 12:48 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Better travel during the regular season seems like an acceptable trade off to compensate for the national bracket created in the new playoff format:

5 division opponents 7x — 35 games
24 non-division opponents 2x — 48 games

Total — 83 games

I think we would see a 6/2 split, which would make for 78 games. This would then allow for the NBA Cup to add 4 games in the knockout stage, where you have multiple options:

1) 16 teams playing single elimination. The downside is that this only makes for 39 guaranteed home games for a team (down from 41 pre-NBA Cup and the current 40).

2) Two-legged quarterfinals and semifinals, while keeping the neutral site championship game. This allows everyone to have 41 home games every year. In the event of an aggregate tie, play an overtime period to determine who advances.

3) If the Cup itself uses five groups (which could very well be the divisions), you play a single round robin (four games) which could also be balanced home-and-away. The championship game could still be held, which maintains the status quo of 2 teams playing 83 games.

The teams that don't advance would have additional regular season games against each other.

The playoffs could theoretically be over 1/4 of the season (up to 28 of the maximum 111 regular and post-season games). Travel for that simply will not be glossed over for minimal travel improvements during the regular season.