The 2017 NBA playoffs have been nothing but blow-out after blow-out. The Warriors and Cavaliers have made laughing stocks of teams and it’s very concerning. The lack of competitiveness in the East is more concerning than in the West. The West has a slew of teams that were very strong this year compared to the lackluster Eastern Conference. The NBA should realign the conferences just to make everything a bit more balanced and not so skewed. The West and The East would both get a lot better and it could make for a much more entertaining playoffs.
The realignment
The realignment would help to make the conferences a bit more balanced and not so top-heavy, especially in the Eastern Conference. It’s the Cavaliers and then a bunch of mediocre teams that don’t stand a chance. It may not require an entire overhaul, perhaps just the swapping of a few teams.
The East should get rid of The Orlando Magic, Charlotte Hornets, Milwaukee Bucks, and the Atlanta Hawks. The West should move the Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder and the Houston Rockets. The upside to this realignment is that the West would still have the Warriors, Spurs, Clippers, Jazz, and Trail Blazers.
The East would also benefit from this, getting quality teams in the Grizzlies, Thunder, and Rockets.
This would allow both conferences to be a bit more balanced, and lead to more competition in the playoffs.
This is just an idea
Obviously this realignment is not perfect for various reasons, but if the NBA were to do something similar to this idea it could make things a little bit more interesting. The whole reason for this shake up is to make the conferences a bit more balanced.
The West has dominated the East over the last couple of years, and it feels like there is really no one in the East that can compete with the Cavaliers.
The same could be said about the Warriors but they have had a much tougher road than the Cavaliers. The 2017 Western and Eastern Conference standings should indicate why this move would be good.
5 teams in the West finished with over 50 wins while the East only had 3 teams match that mark.
Of course, that stat isn’t incredibly telling, but one has to agree that a realignment of some sort would be good for not only the game but the fans also. This realignment could be a problem because of the locations of the teams. It could be the reason why such an idea has not been explored before. It might cause problems with travel, but in the long run it could benefit the NBA.
