This stage is heavily expanded since the last time I did this tournament; we're back to the size of the field from the original NBA Tournament of Champions. These teams are all now 24 wins away from ultimate glory.
Let's take a brief look at some of the numbers around the teams that have made it to this point.
- By League
- 5 ABA Champions
- 4 NBA Conference Champions (did not win their season's NBA championship)
- 55 NBA Champions
- By Decade
- 1950's: 0
- 1960's: 4
- 1970's: 12
- 1980's: 10
- 1990's: 11
- 2000's: 10
- 2010's: 10
- 2020's: 7
- By Previous Tournament Result (Quarterfinals or later)
- 2013, 2015 Champion ('96 Bulls)
- 2016 Champion ('85 Lakers)
- 2013 Runner Up ('05 Spurs)
- 2015 Runner Up ('91 Bulls)
- 2016 Runner Up ('97 Bulls)
- 2013 Semifinalists ('12, '13 Heat)
- 2015 Semifinalists ('86 Celtics)
- 2015, 2016 Semifinalists ('15 Warriors)
- 2016 Semifinalists ('02 Lakers)
- Previous Quarterfinalists ('71 Bucks, '72, '87, '88 Lakers, '92 Bulls)
- By Franchise
- Los Angeles Lakers: 12
- Boston Celtics: 10
- Chicago Bulls: 6
- Golden State Warriors: 4
- San Antonio Spurs: 4
- Detroit Pistons: 3
- Indiana Pacers: 3 (2 ABA Champions, 1 NBA Conference Champion)
- Miami Heat: 3
- Milwaukee Bucks: 2
- New York Nets: 2
- Philadelphia 76ers: 2
- Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder: 2 (1 with Seattle, 1 with Oklahoma City)
- Cleveland Cavaliers: 1
- Dallas Mavericks: 1
- Denver Nuggets: 1
- Houston Rockets: 1
- New York Knicks: 1
- Portland Trail Blazers: 1
- Toronto Raptors: 1
- Utah Stars: 1 (ABA)
- Orlando Magic: 1 (Conference Champion)
- Phoenix Suns: 1 (Conference Champion)
- Utah Jazz: 1 (Conference Champion)
Obviously with this expanded field, we get a much larger sample of teams than we have in years past. In prior tournaments, 15 different NBA Champions made at least one run to the quarterfinals or deeper; all 15 advanced this year. We had nine new NBA Champions since the last time I ran this tournament; all nine advanced. To fill the field, I added five other conference champions who don't have an NBA title to their name; four of them advanced.
Meanwhile, there's a lot in the way of records from group play I want to get out of the way before we get into the seeding and bracketing.
- The worst possible record to get in Group Play and still make the Elimination Stage was 7-13.
- Four teams finished with that record; two of them made it in.
- The best possible record to finish with but still miss the Elimination Stage was 8-12.
- Seven teams finished with that record; five of them made it in.
- Any team that finished 9-11 or better made the Elimination Stage.
Unfortunately for the 1975 Kentucky Colonels and 1994 Houston Rockets, they went 8-12 in the wrong groups. The threshold for getting in ended up being about what I thought it was going to be going in.
From here, we move onto the seeding criteria for the Elimination Stage. I debated for a while about how to handle this, even contemplating a round robin before settling on a somewhat modified format based on finish in group play. Teams were sorted into one of the following tiers of seeds:
- Seeds 1-8: Group winners. These teams are, to borrow a term from Division III football, "top eight protected," meaning they are guaranteed to not have to face each other until at least the quarterfinals. By virtue of winning their groups, they are also guaranteed home court advantage up through the quarterfinals.
- Seeds 9-16: Group runners-up. Finishing second in their respective groups guarantees these teams home court advantage for the first two rounds of the Elimination Stage.
- Seeds 17-32: Group third and fourth place finishers. This was where I decided to change some things up. Finishing in the top four guaranteed you home court advantage in the Round of 64. However, finishing third in your group would not guarantee what was effectively a 3 seed in an eight-team bracket. Better finishes, following the tiebreaker rules used for group play, means that some teams that finished fourth in their group may be seeded ahead of third place teams from other groups.
- Seeds 33-64: All remaining qualifiers. Similar to the above tier, teams here were also seeded using the tiebreaker rules for group play, so teams that finished lower in one group may be seeded higher than teams from another group.
- Tiebreaker procedures among each tier, in order:
- Group Play Record
- Head to Head (for group standings only)
- Point Differential in Group Play
- Points Scored in Group Play
- Rematches from Group Play are allowed
Postseason series will begin shortly; I will break the first few rounds up into multiple parts just to keep posts smaller.
Good luck to all of our participants!
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