Realigned NBA

If I realigned the NBA before this season, the 1st rd matchups would've been:

ATL/NO
HOU/WASH
TOR/MEM
SA/DAL

GS/PHO
CLEV/MILW
POR/OKC
CHIC/LAC
What do you think of my new conferences?

None opinion, but if you'll permit the hijack, can you explain the appeal of basketball, exactly? I mean as a spectator sport. It is a beautiful thing to watch Dr. J get one in, but most times it seems like a mad scramble.

I really do want to know.

I think that the NBA was looking for "the guy" post-MJ, and the immediate aftermath ruined it. I also think guys thought THEY were Jordan, and quality suffered.

Well, so, who is the guy who is going to be MJ? I know, Kobe, but still, you don't see posters of Kobe or even MJ like you used to about DrJ.

I'd say LeBron James has a fair claim to the "next MJ" title.

http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2015...state-warriors

The next Michael Jackson?

Kidding -- I forgot about LeBron. Yes, I've heard that too around the water cooler.

I used to enjoy watching the NBA but my interest has greatly diminished with time. I think part of the problem with the NBA (& NHL) is the regular season has so little value as so few teams are eliminated before the playoffs. The other big problem is most games come down to the last 5 minutes on the clock but those are the slowest most interrupted minutes of the game and all the time outs and on purpose fouls drain away the tension and excitement. So we have a drawn out 5 minutes of 82 games to eliminate 14 of the 30 teams. Then they drag out the playoffs to the point where they stretch to summer.

As to realigning the teams, it doesn't matter much as the way the teams are distributed doesn't lend itself to an easy setup. Southwest and Northeast are pretty simple but after that there is no simple answer. I would try to consolidate according to time zones. No div should be in more than 2 time zones.

Assuming this is brought up due to the Kings moving to Seattle. I would try this:
West
Seattle
Portland
Golden State
LA
LA
Phoenix

South West
Utah
Denver
Oklahoma City
Dallas
San Antonio
Houston

Central
Minnesota
Milwaukee
Chicago
Detroit
Cleveland
Indiana

South East
New Orleans
Memphis
Atlanta
Charlotte
Orlando
Miami

North East
Boston
Toronto
NY
Brooklyn
Philly
DC

I'm sure 5 divisions seems odd but it seems to work better than 6 divisions. The 5 division winners get the top 5 seeds and then the next 11 best teams by record fill in the playoff spots.

The Kings are getting a new arena AFAIK, and the weakness of the East is why I brought up realignment. I HATE odd numbered divisions, genrrally, and within conferences. I also believe divisions have meaning.

Weakness is usually cyclical though. I would never worry about realignment for those reasons. Baseball was the only sport where there was a strong imbalance between areas and that has been getting better over recently.

The odd divisions is not ideal but ideal would probably be either 4 or 8 divisions and if 8 then add 2 more teams.

Agree completely!! Best way to go: Move Memphis to the East, add 2 teams west of the Mississippi.