The notebook article in today's Post talked about the call for NBA playoff realignment and The Don's typical curt, condescending response to change. In a nutshell, the NBA commish said that other leagues don't realign when .500 clubs make the playoffs in their sports, so the NBA won't either. Don't you hate it when arrogant people make good points? For the record, I agree with him. Even if it isn't fair this year (see below), you can't tinker with your playoff format every year to fit the standings.

Whether you want realignment or not, all this talk got me thinking about what would happen if the NBA set up an NCAA tournament-style playoff format where the teams with the top 16 winning percentages squared off. If these playoffs started tomorrow, this would be the first round...

1-seed Boston v. 16-seed Philly: I gotta say, this match-up is much more interesting than the Boston/Atlanta blowout fest that will probably occur.
2-seed Detroit v. 15-seed Toronto: Interestingly, this may happen anyway.
3-seed New Orleans v. 14-seed Portland: When I wrote this up, it just felt like justice to include Portland and exclude Atlanta and New Jersey.
4-seed San Antonio v. 13-seed Washington: When I saw this, I immediately cast my vote AGAINST realignment.
5-seed Houston v. 12-seed Cleveland: T-MAC v. Lebron...talk about a death match.
6-seed Lakers v. 11-seed Denver: Cool match-up and right now, Denver would be on the outside looking in on the Western Conf. playoffs. This is a crime considering the junk at the bottom of the East.
7-seed Phoenix v. 10-seed Golden State: A dream 1st rounder for every NBA fan.
8-seed Orlando v. 9-seed Dallas: A very even, competitive series if Dirk could come back for it.

Now, I have no idea how the logistics would play out. Would these first rounds be 3, 5, or seven games? What's the point of winning your division if you're not assured home court in round 1 (even though it works out that all division winners get home court in this scenario)? I'm sure there are a million more questions, but one thing stands out to me: for this year especially, a re-aligned playoff format would be much more fair and competitive than the current system. Maybe every other year would be different, but the disparity between the bottom of the East and bottom of the West this year makes the playoffs brutally lopsided in favor of Boston and Detroit. As it stands now, they won't have to play a team whose winning % is over .550 until they play eachother in the conf. finals. In the West, not team has a winning % under .610.

One other point really stands out to me: Thank whatever God you pray to the Wiz don't have to play San Antonio in the first round.