CURRENT DIVISION ALIGNMENTSince the team formally known as the Sonics are moving to Oklahoma City, now would be as good a time as ever to realign the conferences to both balance out the competition and improve geographic relationships between divisions.
Proposed Moves:
Oklahoma City goes to Southwest Division
New Orleans moves to Southeast Division
Washington moves to Atlantic Division
Toronto moves to Central Division
Milwaukee moves to Northwest Division
New Divisions:
Atlantic Division
Boston Celtics
New Jersey Nets
New York Knicks
Philadelphia 76ers
Washington Wizards
Central Division
Chicago Bulls
Cleveland Cavaliers
Detroit Pistons
Indiana Pacers
Toronto Raptors
Southeast Division
Atlanta Hawks
Charlotte Bobcats
Miami Heat
New Orleans Hornets
Orlando Magic
Northwest Division
Denver Nuggets
Milwaukee Bucks
Minnesota Timberwolves
Portland Trail Blazers
Utah Jazz
Pacific Division
Golden State Warriors
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Phoenix Suns
Sacramento Kings
Southwest Division
Dallas Mavericks
Houston Rockets
Memphis Grizzlies
Oklahoma City
San Antonio Spurs
NEW DIVISION ALIGNMENTThe OKC 'TBD's' don't make sense being placed in the Northwest Division because they are neither North nor West in relation to the rest of the NBA teams. In the propose realignment, the Hornets join the Southeast Division because they are located in the SE quadrant of the United States.
The Wizards slide north to the Atlantic Divisions which makes a lot of sense since they are much closer to the other Atlantic teams than those in the Southeast.
The Raptors slide over to the Central Division because they are in close proximity to Detroit and Cleveland and the rest of the Central teams.
Finally, the Bucks join the Western Conference by merging into the Northwest Division. This division could be renamed 'North' to more accurately describe the teams that reside in the division.
The big change is the switching of conferences between the Buck and Hornets. Due to the decade long overall dominance of the West, it makes sense to shift Hornets over to the East to bolster the competition and allow for a grouping of divisions that make more sense geographically.
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5 comments:
The current system doesn't make sense, but neither does yours with Milwaukee and Minnesota being in a division called "Northwest" when the only Northwest team is over a thousand miles away from them.
If a certain system actually corrected the errors of the current one, I'd be down, but just replace the current errors with different ones? Might as well keep it the same.
I agree that this division is the most spread out of all, but putting OKC in the Northwest Division is far worse. They could rename it the North Division to make more sense.
I know Bucks fans will not like the realignment, but it does a lot of good for the rest of the league, in my opinion. The clustering of the 5-teams within each Division is tighter than before and their is greater parity between Conferences.
Portland should be in the Pacific Division. Suns and OKC to the SW. Add Milwaukee and/or Chicago to the former Northwest division and the Hornets and Grizz go to the SE division.
Alright, here are my ideas. I feel this is the best way to go:
Move Portland to Pacific.
Move Phoenix and OKC to SW.
Move Washington to Atlantic.
Move Charlotte and Toronto to Central.
Move Milwaukee and Chicago to what's left of NW.
Move NO and Memphis to SE.
Change Central's name to Continental.
Effect on divisions:
WC/Pacific: loses PHX and gains POR.
WC/Southwest: loses NO and MEM but gets PHX and OKC.
EC/Atlantic: loses TOR and gets Washington.
EC/Central: loses CHI and MIL, gets TOR and CHA, changes name to Continental.
EC/Southeast: loses Charlotte and Wiz; gets MEM and NO.
WC/Northwest: picks up CHI and MIL, loses POR and OKC, changes name to Central.
The current divisional alignment is the best it can possibly be. Yes, I know the Northwest Division is weird since both Minnesota and Portland are in it, but the NBA did the best it could with assigning teams to divisions when it went from four divisions to six divisions. Five of the six divisions were put together perfectly, and the Northwest got the leftover teams.
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