The best 16 teams

The 2018-19 season of the National Basketball Association has entered Week 21 and that means in the next two weeks or so the playoffs are set to be played.
And as has been the case during this time of the season in the past few years, talk has been circulating that maybe the league should consider changing the format of the postseason, making it a battle of the best 16 teams regardless of the conference they are playing in instead of the traditional East and West brackets.
The premise is primarily the same — the Western Conference is very deep compared to its Eastern counterpart and winning should be paid accordingly with a spot in the playoffs.
While the setup right now has marked improvement with the ratio of the top 16 at 9:7 for the West, with the top two (Milwaukee and Toronto) coming from the East, this space still believes that the playoffs should be tweaked as a battle of the best 16 teams.
As it is, the current format of eight from each conference is fine but changing it to the best 16 teams would add a whole new dynamic to it all and keep it more interesting if you are to ask me.
For one, fans can be assured that the teams playing in the playoffs are actually the best and deserving, no free passes for teams which are games behind the .500 mark after the regular season which was the case in years past.
I don’t know about you, but for me a playoff team should at the very least have a .500 record to earn its keep and advance.
At the moment, only the Brooklyn Nets of the top teams have a losing record at 32-33 (.492) at 16^th, but with the way they are playing they can still potentially win over 50% of their games heading into the playoffs which fits well for the best 16 teams format.
With the current setup, if the regular season ended today, the Orlando Magic at 30-35 make it to the playoffs in the East as the eighth team with the Los Angeles Lakers at 30-33 out of the postseason picture.
Another upside of changing the playoff format is the fresh look it brings and the unpredictability that goes with.
No more usual suspects in familiar positions, making the competition more wide open.
A Toronto Raptors-Sacramento Kings first-round playoff matchup, or Golden State Warriors versus Detroit Pistons, or Indiana Pacers against Utah Jazz, we have not seen something like that, right?
And the possibility of upsets is bigger since those qualifying are winning and deserving teams which will be out to make things happen regardless of their position in the seedings.
In the end, too, will be crowned the best team in the NBA in the truest sense.
Whether The Association would change the playoff format remains to be seen. But it seems open to adapting various ways especially if it is for the improvement of the league; just look at the All-Star Weekend festivities. A change in postseason setup would surely enhance the NBA we have grown to like and love throughout the years, hopefully it considers it.
 
Michael Angelo S. Murillo has been a columnist since 2003. He is a BusinessWorld reporter covering the Sports beat.
msmurillo@bworldonline.com