Shifting power back to the East
Mark Cuban is always outspoken, but his latest proposal actually makes some sense.
The Dallas Mavericks owner is throwing around an idea around the NBA that would send a few Western Conference powerhouses to the Eastern Conference to shift the balance, make things even and not make the West so stacked like it is now. In the current landscape, 8th seeded teams in the West would be a Top 5 contender out east, as seen last year with his Mavericks squad, who ended the season with a 49-33 record. That same record would have given them the #3 seed in the East if they were in that conference.
In Cuban’s plan, the Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks would move to the West — while the Mavs, San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets and New Orleans Pelicans would move to the East.
“It’s not like it’d be the first time we’ve ever realigned. It’s happened many times before, so there’s precedent and I just think it shakes things up and makes things interesting. It’s not like you’re reducing competition. You keep Cleveland, Washington and other good teams in the East. It kind of shakes things up in terms of not just interest but also in terms of how people rebuild. It just changes things up and it changes the thought process of a lot of teams. It makes both conferences very competitive, at least for the short term and I think, based on the history of the teams, for the long term as well.”
Adam Silver has been a very proactive new commissioner and the least we could see is him considering this. Maybe all the teams in Cuban’s proposal don’t make the cut or the owners think of a better way to change the way teams make the playoffs, but at least change can be discussed.
With the Western Conference being superior and any of 10-11 teams in the race for the playoffs, do you agree with Mark Cuban’s plan for NBA realignment?
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