The NBA has agreed to seed conference playoff teams by record, the league announced Tuesday evening. The NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved the changes, as the modifications will essentially eliminate division leaders.
Previously, division leaders from each conference were guaranteed a top four seed regardless of their record. However, effective this upcoming season, each conference will now be seeded in order of their respective regular-season win-loss record.
As a result, the NBA has also changed the tiebreak standards for the 2015-2016 season. Previously, division leaders would automatically win a tiebreaker, but now head-to-head results will become the first deciding factor to break ties for playoff seeding and home-court advantage. Winning a division is now the second deciding factor that will break ties between two teams with identical records.
Of course this new rule will change the outlook of playoff seeding since there have been teams in the past that were rewarded with the fourth seed despite having a worse record than teams seeded lower.
For instance, last season the Portland Trail Blazers were seeded fourth with a record of 51-31. The Memphis Grizzlies (55-27) and San Antonio Spurs (55-27) both had a better record than the Blazers, but they were seeded fifth and sixth respectively due to Portland being a division leader.
If the new rule existed last year, Portland would have been seeded sixth while the Grizzlies would be fourth and Spurs fifth, which could have completely changed the results of the playoffs. Perhaps the Spurs wouldn’t have been eliminated in the first round and could have gone further in the playoffs.
With the rule change, teams will get the seed they deserve rather than moving up in the standings despite owning an inferior record. The new rule should certainly please many basketball fans, as first-round playoff matchups will now be more suiting.
