Playoff Home Court Rules

[Mr Charisma 0]

On my way to work this morning, I was thinking about how home court in the playoffs is determined by the regular season record.

 

An alternative came to my mind and, quite frankly, I can't decide myself if I like it or not.

 

So I will simply describe the alternate plan, and let you comment and vote as to which method is best.

 

Seeding is done just as it is currently done. But once each match-up is determined, the team that gets home court in that series is first determined by head-to-head record during the regular season. If it's tied, then revert to overall regular season record. An example where this might have come into play is if the Magic had matched up against the Hawks in the playoffs last year. In this system, the Hawks would have had a home court advantage over the Magic, even though the Magic had a better regular season record. Remember, this does not affect the seeding rules; only who has home court advantage once the match-up is determined.

 

The initial impetus behind that thought was that it might make some otherwise meaningless regular season games more significant, and might result in better intensity of play during the regular season. But I'm not sure that would be the case.

 

Again, it was only a thought that came to my mind, so I am not necessarily in favor of it.

 

Pros and cons, please.

[Mr Charisma 0]

On my way to work this morning, I was thinking about how home court in the playoffs is determined by the regular season record.

 

An alternative came to my mind and, quite frankly, I can't decide myself if I like it or not.

 

So I will simply describe the alternate plan, and let you comment and vote as to which method is best.

 

Seeding is done just as it is currently done. But once each match-up is determined, the team that gets home court in that series is first determined by head-to-head record during the regular season. If it's tied, then revert to overall regular season record. An example where this might have come into play is if the Magic had matched up against the Hawks in the playoffs last year. In this system, the Hawks would have had a home court advantage over the Magic, even though the Magic had a better regular season record. Remember, this does not affect the seeding rules; only who has home court advantage once the match-up is determined.

 

The initial impetus behind that thought was that it might make some otherwise meaningless regular season games more significant, and might result in better intensity of play during the regular season. But I'm not sure that would be the case.

 

Again, it was only a thought that came to my mind, so I am not necessarily in favor of it.

 

Pros and cons, please.

[The Seventh Seal 0]

It makes a lot of sense in terms of the long season being a lot more interesting and meaningful, I like it, it would put more intensity in the upper teams to try to beat the lower teams and not just cruise at the end of the season, like most 50+ teams do. Cons: the league would be against it, because God forbid would lose in the first round!!

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

The biggest problem is that it puts bigger emphasis on individual games rather than the entire season.

 

Lets say for the sake of example that Orlando were to play a team, lets say New Jersey, 3 times in the season, with two of those games being within a week of each other. Now lets say that in the 2 games that are within a week of each other, the Magic are without Dwight and Rashard. As a result, the Magic lose both games, while blowing the Nets out in the third. The Magic also prove to be a better team throughout the season, finishing 20 games better overall.

 

By your rules, the Nets would get home court against Orlando, because of 2 games, which would essentially ignore the other 80. I'm not sure that's especially fair; it's like looking for a reason to punish good teams for matching up poorly to individual teams.

[Luke_FfS 251]

Agree with DoM and, using the same example you've made, Atlanta is always a bad matchup for us, but that doesn't mean that they're better than us.

Last year they won something like 10/12 games less than Orlando, so it would be a little unfair to any team to lose home court only for a bad matchup.

 

Overall, I'm with you thinking that something must be done to have a more competitive regular season, but for me the major problem is teams that "play to lose" only for have a better pick in the draft. And they would still not be affected by your idea.