NBADL announce new playoff format

The NBADL just announced their new playoff format. It is pretty wild, with the three division winners choosing their first opponent in the playoffs from the top 5 non-division-winning teams. The fourth seeded team plays the remaining unchosen team in the first round. Is this worth talking about on here?

If the Rainmen want to get into the D-League, maybe we should keep track of what that league is doing.

Here is the March 9 news release from the NBADL regarding their new playoff format:

“NEW YORK, March 9, 2009 - The NBA Development League announced today it has implemented an innovative new format for this year’s playoffs, which are set to begin as early as April 13.

For the first time, eight teams will qualify for the 2009 NBA D-League postseason, including the winners of the three divisions along with the five teams with the best regular season records, regardless of division.

New for the 2009 postseason, the three division winners will have the unique opportunity to select their first round opponent from the teams ranked five through eight. The top-seeded division winner will select its opponent first, with the second and third ranked division winners following in that order. The fourth seeded team will play the remaining team.

“One of our fundamental goals at the NBA D-League is to utilize our unique position to explore new and different ways to grow the game,” said Dan Reed, President of the NBA D-League. “We believe that these innovations will provide our fans with compelling matchups and action packed games.”

The first and second rounds of the 2009 NBA D-League playoffs will be one game each, while the Finals will be a best-of-three series. The first two rounds will be played on the higher seeds home floor, while the Finals will begin at the lower seed’s arena and finish at the higher seeds home court.

The 2008-09 NBA D-League regular seasons concludes on April 11.”

Thanks to http://www.ridiculousupside.com for the news.

My thoughts are:

- that it will most likely still fall into the top team picking #8, second team picking #7 and so on. However, if a high-ranked team knows that a lower-ranked team can beat them (like Quebec seems to be able to do at times - and us, for that matter) maybe they would choose a higher rank than the lowest remaining team to have a better chance of success.

- what about the factor of travel costs? Would you choose the lowest remaining team if it was the geographically farthest from your city (say Halifax or Wilmington), or would you pick a closer team that you may even have a rivalry with (like Vermont and Manchester)?

- speaking of rivalries, they may be even more important than rankings, since it is all about getting bums in the seats. Fans love to see the hometown team defeat their rivals. That may factor into the choice of team too: do we go for an easy win and fewer people show up, or do we take the chance and play a better team with more ticket sales?