The NBA playoffs are mostly seeded in a way fans understand, with the exception of a division winner being guaranteed a top-four seed but not home-court advantage. But if were up to Nuggets coach George Karl, the post-season would throw everyone for a major loop (at least until we got used to Commissioner Karl’s new format). Karl, via Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post:

“I think you should put all top-16 and do it that way, and then reseed for the next round,” he said. So basically, here’s Karl’s idea: The top eight teams from the Western Conference and the top eight teams from the Eastern Conference are put into a playoff pool. At this point, conference affiliation no longer matters. Instead, it’s all about record. The team with the best record plays the team with the 16th-best record and so on. And then, like he said, they reseed hockey-style for the next round. And so, the NBA’s “Final Four” could be four teams from the same conference — but, as proven by this system, perhaps the four best teams in basketball. “I think it would get fans excited, man. It would be crazy,” Karl said. “And we travel with private jets now, so I think you can schedule it to where you’d get two days of rest between games. I think it would be really fun and interesting to see the matchups.”

If the NBA adopted Karl’s plan and the season ended today, the first-round matchups would be:

Heat-Bucks

Spurs-Lakers

Thunder-Celtics

Nuggets-Bulls

Clippers-Hawks

Grizzlies-Rockets

Knicks-Warriors

Pacers-Nets

Does that excite you?

Perhaps, the better questions are, would casual Knicks fans be excited enough to stay up late to watch games at Golden State and would casual Warriors fans be exited enough to get home early to watch games at New York?

The biggest problem with Karl’s system wouldn’t be teams travelling, though that would definitely be a concern. It would be television ratings. Perhaps fans would adjust to watching games at less-convenient times, but that’s probably not a risk the NBA would take.