Count Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban among those who want the NBA to eliminate the existence of conferences.
Though, to be fair, it sounds like he’d settle for his Mavericks moving into the East.
As he told ESPN’s broadcast during Dallas’ summer league bout with the Phoenix Suns on Sunday, per ESPN.com’s Tim MacMahon:
“We’re rebuilding. Right? There’s no question about it. If we were in the East, we would not be rebuilding. We’d be handling things completely different. I think I’m going to kidnap [commissioner] Adam Silver and not let him out until he moves us to the Eastern Conference.
“Given where we are, given where the Warriors are and what’s happening in the Western Conference, it kind of sealed what we have to do.”
Cuban has many, many points.
Excluding the Mavericks, the West has about 11 teams who can talk themselves into making a playoff push next season. If you include the Sacramento Kings’ typically off-mark ambitions, and perhaps the Mavericks themselves, this number climbs to as many as 13 squads.
Now compare that to the East, where the only bona fide postseason units are the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors and Washington Wizards. Everything after them is up for grabs. And while there are obvious hopeless cases, like that of the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls, you can envision just about anyone else making a play for one of those final four playoff spots.
Slot the Mavericks in the East, and they’re probably a top-five seed. The same goes for almost every West squad that isn’t the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns or Sacramento Kings. That’s an issue, one the NBA needs to address. And if it’s not going to abolish conferences altogether, it should figure out a way to stage a realignment that puts any combination of the Mavericks, Houston Rockets and New Orleans Pelicans in the East.
