Frantic. Frenzied. Fun-believable. This year, the playoffs have started with a bang. The aging Heat were deserved losers against an up and coming Bulls team while the Dallas Mavericks were on the receiving end of the biggest upset in the history of the NBA. Tracy McGrady still can’t win a playoff series and the Suns and Spurs will match up in what promises to be one of the best series’ this decade.

One has to wonder though as to why Phoenix and San Antonio, the two best teams remaining in the playoffs, are playing each other in the conference semi-finals. Sure Dallas got knocked out, but it’s a foregone conclusion that the winners of the Suns-Spurs series will represent the West in the NBA Finals and be the favorite to win it all.

Another question- why are the Detroit Pistons, the best regular season team in the East, facing the tougher opponent in the Chicago Bulls as opposed to the number two seed Cavs playing the easier Nets side. Back in 2004, the Spurs and Lakers met in a fiercely contested conference semi-finals only to have the Lakers brush aside the T’wolves in the conference finals.

Just last year, a ridiculous seeding system meant Dallas and San Antonio, the two best teams in the league played each other after the first round. The NBA seeding system has rightly faced much criticism ever since the league was divided into six divisions. This system has often had the best teams meeting each other in the early rounds of the playoffs. How then, does one design a fair method by which the best teams only face each other in the later stages of the competition?

Here's a crazy idea- hold a “Playoff Draft”. The concept is simple. Instead of picking players, franchises pick their opponents and the team with the best record chooses first. Imagine this, Commissioner Stern on the first night of the playoff draft saying, “With their first pick in the 2007 NBA Playoffs, the Dallas Mavericks pick as their first round opponent- the Los Angeles Lakers.” And the same system carries forward to the next round where the highest remaining seed gets first choice. For instance, this year, Phoenix with their pick in the second round would choose either the Warriors or maybe even the Jazz but certainly not the Spurs, ensuring the best remaining teams would meet in the conference finals. Similarly, the Pistons would pick the Nets instead of Bulls or the Cavs, meaning that the best regular season team has the easiest route to the finals.

From a viewers perspective, fans would look forward to the “Playoff draft” which would be held in two phases, a day before the first round and once before the second round to determine the match-ups. Of course, this system may not be “fair” to some of the lower seeds, particularly an injury prone Wizards team. Hypothetically, if the Wizards ended with the number three but lost their superstars Arenas and Jamison a week before the playoffs began and the number one seed Pistons picked them as their first round opponent, it would certainly be unfair to the Wizards. However, the bigger injustice is to the fans who would witness a  sub-par team and winner of the number three seed Wizards and number sixת, advance to the conference semi-finals only to get steam rolled in that round.

Ideally, all sixteen teams that make the playoffs should be in the draft together, but since there are two conferences and traditionally the NBA Finals is the best of the East versus the best of the West, one could still continue to keep the conferences apart till the finals.

Overall, a playoff draft would be a great event to watch, it would make teams think before picking their opponents and ensure that the best regular season teams only meet in the later stages of the playoffs. After having endured a tough 82 game season to earn their billing as the top seeds, that is the least they deserve.

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