The NBA playoff format is being questioned once again, but, unsurprisingly, only by half of the league.
Western Conference executives are pushing for a new playoff format where the top 16 teams are seeded regardless of conference, according to ESPN. The concept has been floated for years around NBA circles, but has returned to the spotlight this season given the noticeable gap between the two conferences.
As of Saturday, only four Eastern Conference teams hold a record of .500 or better. The West has a 43–22 record (.662 winning percentage) over the East in head-to-head games this season, which is on pace for the biggest margin in NBA history.
Executives are eyeing a potential league expansion, which may happen within the next three years, as the time to propose the new format. The NBA may add two new teams out West (Las Vegas and Seattle), which could potentially move a few teams to the Eastern Conference.
However, even with the shift, Western Conference teams have an uphill battle to make a change as they would need more than 75% of the league to approve the proposal, which would mean 23 teams voting for it before league expansion. Eastern Conference teams will not be easy to convince.
Historical Numbers
The Western Conference’s superiority in the NBA is not a small sample size. Over the last 25 seasons, not even including this year, the West had a better record in the head-to-head regular season battle 22 times. The West is 6,108–4,816 against the East in that timeframe, for a .560 winning percentage. The NBA Champion was a Western Conference team in 16 of those 25 years.
Over the last few years, it seemed like the East was closing the gap—especially after the West had won the head-to-head battle and overall regular season record for 12 seasons in a row from 2009 to 2021.
The East’s record was trending up from 2018 to 2021, then the conference prevailed over the West in back-to-back seasons (2021–2022 and 2022–2023). But then last year, the tides turned around again completely, with the West winning 57.7% of its games against the East, 10% more than the previous season.
Despite the West’s dominance, this year’s title favorite remains the Celtics—though that may be in part because of a relatively weaker path to the finals than their Western Conference counterparts.
