The last two playoffs have been a pure treat for WNBA fans. Both were compelling potseasons culminating in classic five-game Finals between the W’s two top teams – the Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks.
The NBA may be taking some notes from what the women have done the last two seasons.
In his Saturday press conference prior to All-Star Saturday Night, Commissioner Adam Silver dropped some hints that the future of the NBA’s playoffs could be a simple one-through-16 regardless of East or West.
When we get to the playoffs, should we be taking either the best 16 teams, or even if we go eight from the West, eight from the East, seeding one through 16 going into the playoffs? That is something that has gotten serious attention, not just recently but over the last few years at the league office.
–NBA Commissioner Adam Silver
Having said that, you would have like to have a format where your two best teams are ultimately going to meet in the Finals.
–NBA Commissioner Adam Silver
He appears to be making it crystal clear he desires to change the NBA’s playoff format. Silver mentioned that his primary concern is travel in terms of the possibility of the playoffs starting with a team on the East coast, such as the Charlotte Hornets or New York Knicks facing a team out West such as the Golden State Warriors or Los Angeles Lakers.
That, of course, is not a problem with the WNBA’s format with the first two rounds being contested under single-elimination or “sudden death” rules. The top two seeds earn automatic byes into the semifinals and it seeds the top eight teams based on record, not Eastern or Western Conference.
In a hypothetical scenario where the WNBA did use conference seeding for its playoffs, last season the New York Liberty would have been the top Eastern seed, followed by the Connecticut Sun, Washington Mystics, and Chicago Sky (who finished with a 12-22 record).
The Lynx and Sparks would have been the top Western seeds followed by the Phoenix Mercury and Dallas Wings. Meaning Chicago would be in and the Seattle Storm, which had a 15-19 record (three games better than the Sky) would have been out.
In the season prior to that, the first year of the Lynx-Sparks WNBA Finals (2016), under a hypothetical playoff format that used conference seeding, the four teams that eventually did make the playoffs would have also made it under this format.
In the East, the Liberty would have been the top seed followed by the Sky, Indiana Fever, and Atlanta Dream. The West would have sent the Lynx, Sparks, Storm, and Mercury.
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
