SEATTLE – For more than three decades, the Seattle SuperSonics have shared a division rivalry with the Los Angeles Lakers, the Phoenix Suns and the Golden State (formerly San Francisco) Warriors.
This season, the Sonics will have new neighbors.
With the arrival of the expansion Charlotte Bobcats, an addition that has pushed the NBA to 30 teams, the league has opted to scrap its longstanding two-conference, four-division configuration. There will again be two conferences this season, but there are now six divisions, each with five teams. Seattle, which has been part of the Pacific Division for the past 34 seasons, will join the new Northwest Division with Portland (formerly of the Pacific Division), Utah (Mountain), Denver (Mountain) and Minnesota (Mountain).
The other five teams from last season’s Pacific Division – Phoenix, the Lakers, the LA Clippers, Golden State and Sacramento – will stay in the Pacific.
Still, other than how the standings appear in the newspaper, the changes probably won’t have much impact this season, Sonics officials say. That is because the two conferences were left largely intact, and the process of picking playoff teams and establishing seedings will be largely unchanged.
“I don’t think it really matters,” said Sonics coach Nate McMillan, “because the number of wins to get in (the playoffs) will be pretty much the same.”
“I don’t think it’s a huge difference,” agreed general manager Rick Sund. “There’s still a Western Conference and an Eastern Conference. And the rivalry of Seattle and Portland is always going to be there.”
“We still play 82 games,” added guard Ray Allen. “Maybe if you had a chance to win a division title, you might pay more attention to it. You’d be thinking, ‘Who do we have to fight to win this division?’ But this season we just want to make the playoffs and we need to focus on everybody.”
That said, the Sonics will need to be aware of certain changes this season, all related to the league’s new alignment.
First, it now might be more difficult for the Sonics to make the playoffs because the Western Conference has added a 15th team – New Orleans. The Hornets are moving from the Eastern Conference, with Charlotte becoming that conference’s 15th team. As before, eight teams from each conference make the playoffs.
Second, the extra Western Conference team means the Sonics will have a slightly different schedule. Last season, Seattle played four games against every team in its conference and two against teams from the Eastern Conference. This season the Sonics will play four games against each of their four division foes (two at home, two on the road), and against six of the other 10 Western Conference teams. The Sonics will play three games against the other four conference teams – Phoenix (two home, one road), the Los Angeles Clippers (one home, two road), New Orleans (two home, one road) and Memphis (one home, two road).
Against the Eastern Conference, the Sonics still will play each team twice, home and away.
Lastly, playoff seeding also will be slightly different, though the league is sticking with its 16-team, four-round format. The three division winners in each conference will be seeded 1, 2 and 3 based on regular-season records. The remaining five spots will go to the five conference teams with the best records, in order, regardless of their divisions.
As before, the homecourt advantage in each seven-game playoff series will be determined by record and not playoff seeding. For instance, a team seeded sixth would have the homecourt advantage against its first-round foe, the third seed, if the No. 6 team had a better record.
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