NBA commissioner Adam Silver announces the first overall pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the 2015 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. (Photo : Reuters)
A title as a division winner might soon imply a banner but no guarantee of a playoff chance in the NBA - clubs should work hard to complete in the top eight of their conference.
On July 22, Commissioner Adam Silver said that the NBA league is opting not to guarantee a postseason playoff to a club that wins its division, ESPN reported.
Silver had initially hinted that he expected a transformation from the current structure that assures division winners no worse than the fourth result. However, after dialogue with both the competition committee and the board of governors, Silver predicts the change will go beyond that.
"In the first place, it had never occurred before that a division champion failed to complete within the top eight, and our basketball analysts predict that there is less than 5 percent probability that it would occur," Silver said prior to panel discussion at the Beyond Sport United program.
Where the league is leaning currently is that there would be no assurance for a division champion to have a postseason shot because there are slim chances for the case to happen. In case it happens, it would likely confuse fans and at the same time, a team that qualified within the first eight might be displaced.
Portland received the number four seed during the Western Conference last season by winning the Northwest Division, but the Trail Blazers seeded sixth through a win-loss record, CBS Miami reported. The situation led to new calls to eliminate the protection for division champions, and Commissioner Silver said after the owners' annual summer meeting that reforms were eminent, though there was a need for voting on the matter.
