Free Agency Winding Down: What Lies Ahead for the NBA Playoffs?
With most of the big free agency moves now settling in, many fans are left wondering what lies in store for the 2017-2018 NBA Season. The NBA Playoffs this past season was altogether underwhelming, with the Golden State Warriors sweeping through the West, and the Cleveland Cavaliers one game away from sweeping the East. Many were hoping that the offseason would provide a greater sense of parity between the top teams, with those on the fringe of making the NBA Finals acquiring missing pieces, and those barely scraping by trading assets to begin their boisterous rebuilds.
For the Western Conference, the Houston Rockets acquired superstar Chris Paul from the Los Angeles Clippers--who may prove to fit perfectly into NBA Coach of the Year Mike D'Antoni's combo guard system. The Minnesota Timberwolves made some promising changes by once again joining two-way star Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls and veteran Taj Gibson with their former coach Tom Thibodeau. Finally, Oklahoma City provided some much needed help for the NBA Most Valuable Player, Russell Westbrook, by trading for the highly sought after superstar, Paul George.
Yet, with the dice now rolling in the Western Conference, where does that leave the East? After arguably 14 seasons of dominating the NBA Eastern Conference, some may have simply accepted Lebron James as a Finals lock. Though it would appear that his path to the Finals has been easy for the past decade or so, the 2017-2018 season may prove to be an even easier journey for the 4 time MVP of the league. With the exception of the up-and-coming Boston Celtics, who recently signed All Star Gordon Hayward, the Cavs may not have much competition in the East. The talent gap between the two conferences appears to be growing larger and larger, in a race which has already been one-sided in favor of the West. Besides an expected re-emergence of the Lebron-Celtics Rivalry, what lies ahead for the NBA Playoffs?
At this point, there may be many Western teams that have the talent to make the Playoffs, but won't, simply due to the concentration of talent. Teams like the Portland Trailblazers, New Orleans Pelicans, and Denver Nuggets will be fighting for the eighth seed, while lesser teams in the East will walk right in. It may be unlikely that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will take any drastic steps to change the format of the NBA Playoffs, but if this trend keeps up the NBA may need to reevalutate things. One way would be to simply have the top 16 teams in the league make the playoffs, regardless of conference standings. The NBA already changed the importance of divisional standings, so perhaps this isn't such a far-fetched idea. However, some fans would argue that the league has always been one-sided for a particular conference and that we should simply let things play out. Whatever the case, next season promises to have many new looks in store for fans, and will hopefully prove to be more exciting than the last.
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