The Perfect NBA Playoffs | Simon Pruitt's NBA Part Three

This is the third article in a three part series on how I would fix the entity I love more than most humans: the NBA. Today, I’ll go over my ideal format for the NBA season including a shortened schedule and brand new televised events. You can check out Part 1 of this series about the changes to basic gameplay rules here and Part 2 of this series about the changes to the regular season here.

1. Due to the parity we’ve created from the 1-1 structure of the schedule as explained here, conferences will be disregarded in the playoffs. On May 16th, the 16 best teams in the league will be featured in a televised event where the top seeds will select their first round opponents. The event will be called the Simmons Draft after NBA writer and podcaster Bill Simmons who’s been vocal about this concept for years. Here’s my vision for this brilliant idea: Ernie Johnson welcomes us to the inaugural NBA Playoff Selection Saturday. We are shown a live feed of all 16 locker rooms with the entire team and coaching staff in them. The team with the first pick (Bucks for example) elects a representative (Giannis) to announce their choice of opponent for the first round. Giannis stands and explains that the team has decided to play the Orlando Magic in Round 1 of the playoffs. We then cut to the Magic locker room to see the immediate reactions to a perceived disrespectful action. While I don’t anticipate a bombastic response from such a mediocre team, I would look forward to the Patrick Beverleys of the world exploding after a pick. This format would fuel absolute chaos in the postseason with new rivalries emerging and individuals playing with a chip on their shoulder.

2. An interesting wrinkle I’ve added to the new postseason draft is the race for the #1 pick in the regular season. To me, the best way to ensure playoff intensity throughout the regular season is to incentivize winning early games by giving the most successful early season team an advantage in May. How do we do that? The team with the longest undefeated streak gets the 1st pick in the Simmons Draft. Just like that, instant drama in the first seconds of NBA basketball every year. This opens the door to a multitude of possibilities and storylines. What if Damian Lillard gets hot and the Blazers go 15-0 to screw everything up at the top of the bracket? What if the two remaining 10-0 teams face off for the #1 pick? Introducing the streak aspect of the regular season could also lead to the creation of stars akin to Linsanity and March Madness-esque Cinderella stories very easily. Imagine a 40ppg Trae Young leading a scrappy Hawks team to a quick 8-0 and taking out top tier squads in the process. The fan reaction would be huge! The first two nights of the season would be a complete bloodbath, the likes of which we don’t see outside of the aforementioned March Madness. Let’s say that all 30 teams play between Christmas Day and December 26th. It’s guaranteed that 15 teams will be eliminated from #1 pick contention in just 48 hours. How could you miss that?

3. My last change to the NBA Playoffs format is the elimination of the 7 game series in the first round. While that idea isn’t original in the slightest, it's a much needed alteration. My proposal for a first round series goes as follows. The series ends at a sweep if a team is up 3-0. However, if the other team wins a game before the 3-0 deficit, the series reverts back to the conventional best of 7 format. I feel this is the best way to maintain interest throughout the series while also giving each team a chance to win. It may not be as controversial as my previous ideas, however it may be the most likely to actually happen.