Six NBA divisions

[elindholm]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1638863

So how will the West be split up? Here's my guess (ignore the division names, which I just made up):

Northwest

Seattle
Golden State
Portland
Sacramento
Minnesota

Southwest

L.A. Lakers
L.A. Clippers
Phoenix
Denver
Utah

Gulf

San Antonio
Dallas
Houston
New Orleans
Memphis

Minnesota isn't exactly "Northwest," but it they get put anywhere else, it seems like the Texas teams have to get split up. And I imagine the league would like to keep the Texas teams all in the same division.

Here's another idea:

Northwest

Seattle
Portland
Utah
Denver
Minnesota

Southwest

L.A. Lakers
L.A. Clippers
Sacramento
Golden State
Phoenix

Gulf (same)

San Antonio
Dallas
Houston
New Orleans
Memphis

This scenario has the "advantage" that all four California teams are in the same division, but I'm not sure that's really an advantage after all. Basically it becomes the "California Division," with Phoenix thrown in as an afterthought.

 

[Dback Jon]

It would seem the only real questions would involve:
Golden State
Sacramento
Utah
Denver
Minnesota

And you've pretty much hit the two likely ones - with number #1 the most likely, to me.

 

[fordronken]

The Caliphoenix division.

 

[F-Dog]

This is not a guess, I'm just fooling around looking for alternatives.


Coastal

Seattle
Portland
Golden State
LA Lakers
LA Clippers

Mexican

Phoenix
San Antonio
Houston
Dallas
New Orleans

Midwest

Sacramento
Utah
Denver
Minnesota
Memphis

Memphis is the odd team out in that grouping, but I like Sacramento in the Midwest because of their history.


Coastal

Seattle
Portland
Golden State
Sacramento
LA Lakers

Mexican

LA Clippers
Phoenix
San Antonio
Houston
Dallas

Midwest

Denver
Utah
Minnesota
New Orleans
Memphis

This is a good distribution for Memphis, and splits up the Lakers and Clippers. (Not that anybody in the NBA seems to be interested in splitting those teams.)

The 'Mexican' division looks like a killer in both scenarios, but these things have a way of changing over time.

 

[devilalum]

This really isn't that important in basketball. They should just do away with the division crap and have 2 conferences.

16 teams make the playoffs anyway, the division winner doesn't even get home court advantage for winning their division. The only team it effects is the 2 seed.

If teams play more games against teams in their own division it could give an unfair advantage to a team playing in a weak division.

If they gave a gaurenteed spot to division winners you could create a situation where a team with a better record might miss the playoffs to make room for a "Division Winner" with a lower winning pct.

 

[schutd]

Originally posted by devilalum

If they gave a gaurenteed spot to division winners you could create a situation where a team with a better record might miss the playoffs to make room for a "Division Winner" with a lower winning pct.

Thats the plan. 3 division winners go, then next 5 best records. I think that kind of blows. I like the 8 best records set up.

 

[elindholm]

If they gave a gaurenteed spot to division winners you could create a situation where a team with a better record might miss the playoffs to make room for a "Division Winner" with a lower winning pct.

That's extremely unlikely. Since more than half the teams make the playoffs, usually anyone better than .500 gets in. (I know that hasn't been true in the West the last few years, but it's still usually the case.) So you'd need a division winner with a record below .500, or maybe just a little above, to be in any danger.

Baseball has only one wild card per conference and football only three. But even in those sports, it's relatively uncommon for a division winner to have a W-L record that's inferior to that of a non-playoff team. If you're taking five wild cards, I think the risk is negligible.

 

[elindholm]

From HoopsHype:

"...(T)he Wolves are likely to end up in a group that includes Denver, Utah, Seattle and Portland." So that looks like the "Northwest" division in the second alignment I hypothesized, probably meaning that the "Caliphoenix" (heh fordronken) and "Gulf" divisions will be the same too.