NBA commissioner Silver expects changes to playoffs

After meeting with the league’s Board of Governors on those and other topics Tuesday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that as expected the league is leaning toward eliminating any protection for division winners in playoff seeding going forward and instead placing the eight teams on the Eastern and Western Conference brackets based solely on record.

Changing the moratorium was discussed, and Silver said no one had a good solution.

Some ideas bandied about in recent days include having a memo of understanding that could be executed to essentially lock in the commitment while the budgets for the new league year are still being worked out, or simply shortening the moratorium.

While it seems nobody likes Hack-A-Shaq the mechanism where teams foul a player intentionally to send him to the line knowing the odds aren’t high that he’ll make both free throws it might still be part of the NBA world.

“There is a sense, especially from the basketball people, that it would be sending the wrong message to the larger basketball community particularly youth basketball to de-emphasize the need for guys to hit free throws,” Silver said.

The Wisconsin Senate could vote as early as Wednesday on a plan to direct $55 million in state money as part of the public financing plan for a new arena, one where the Bucks’ current and former ownership have committed to giving another $250 million toward.

The league has had a 90-second countdown clock in arenas to ensure that games start on time after starting lineups are introduced, and the same thinking may soon be applied to stoppages between quarters and for timeouts.