NBA and relegation

[Griffin]

I was thinking awhile back what NBA would be like if it adapted the more traditional league system where teams get promoted and relegated between higher and lower divisions based on performance. This is the system most frequently used in sports leagues around the world. Obviously in US none of the professional sports leagues have employed this approach. MLB comes closest with its minor league farm system, but only individual players and not teams are promoted/demoted.

With only 30 NBA teams, it would be impossible to have more than two division levels, but if you throw in the 14 NBDL teams, you could potentially have three levels. Here's a possible hierarchy:

• Division I: 16 teams (top 8 teams in playoffs for Championship, bottom 3 teams relegated)
• Division II: 14 teams (top 2 teams promoted, next 4 in playoffs - winner promoted, bottom 3 teams relegated)
• Division III: 14 teams (top 2 teams promoted, next 4 in playoffs - winner promoted)

If the league were to convert right now, Division I would be populated by all the playoff teams from last season, Division II would consist of all the lottery teams and Division III would be made up of the current NBDL teams. One would still have to figure out how the draft would work in this system.

Putting aside the various legal, economical, and other obstacles that would likely prevent the NBA from ever converting to such system, would anyone actually be in favor of it?

 

[YouJustGotSUNSD]

I think we should switch to the metric system before adding a tri-tiered league bracket to American sports.


To add to discussion, I think fans would significantly stop following teams that sunk past the first division. It goes against how the fairweather fan operates.

 

[azirish]

I think we should switch to the metric system before adding a tri-tiered league bracket to American sports.


To add to discussion, I think fans would significantly stop following teams that sunk past the first division. It goes against how the fairweather fan operates.

The truth is that there have been a lot of huge turnarounds such as the Suns 2003-04 to 2004-05 to give every fan hope.

The big difference with European leagues is that they have a vast number of teams. I'm guessing that they permit the addition to teams in a way that is just not done in the US.

 

[mathbzh]

I am not sure the sytsem would translate well:
- In Europe we don't have completely separated Pro league. The professional teams are local team that grew up. There are thousands of small local team playing in divisions that can climb up the steps one by one (In my hometown the team went in 15 years from a small local team in the 5th divsion to a top team in the 2nd division). IMO This is a great situation for fans (last year they won a game against Le Mans, and Euroleague team... it was a great moment for that little town).

- We don't have the draft and we don't have salary caps. So top european teams can concentrate insane amount of talent (compared to other team in their league). Like if an NBA had a roster of Nash, Kobe, Marion, Duncan, Amare and the best role players and prospects to surround them).

The best thing is that you could have GREAT teams... and no tanking anymore.