Ok, I know they made adjustments so that the best two teams would not face each other early in the playoffs, but it seems like this concept is not foolproof.

The Bulls should have been the 3rd seed and if they won the series, they would play the the winner of the 2-7 series (more than likely the 2nd seed - CLE). With the current format, with Toronto jumping over them, they now have to face the #1 seed in the second round (DET). They would've probably faced them in the conference finals anyway, but it just seems like it is too early for this marquee matchup.

Right now the 2nd round is looking like: CHI at DET, and NJ at CLE. The 2nd seed got over big time this year.

I would like to see them realign the seeds after the first round. If they did that, the Bulls would play CLE and NJ would play DET. I am sure DET wouldn't mind either.

They could do that, but I think that the three division winners should get three automatic bids. Then they should take the other five teams and division winners and seed them based on record. This years Eastern Conference would have looked like this:

(1) Detroit*
(2) Cleveland
(3) Chicago
(4) Toronto*
(5) Miami*
(6) New Jersey
(7) Washington
(8) Orlando

Division leaders should not be given preference if they were subpar.

OT - Bulls vs. Nets ECF

The system is terrible we can all argue that.

The thing your talking about RME, NFL actually has that and it works pretty well, best team plays the lowest seeded team that advances.

They could also entertain the idea of the division winners getting the top 3 spots but still with the unbalance in the Bulls division nobodys gonna be happy.

If they did this looks like this:

Pistons *
Toronto *
Miami *
Cleveland
Bulls
NJ
Wash
Orlando

Obviously Cleveland and the Bulls both get screwed.

They really just need to switch it back to the old days.

that's how it was last year and it sucked bc Memphis got jobbed by getting the 5th best record and having to match up with dallas and then dallas and san antonio meeting in 2nd round when both were better than clippers and amare-less suns (boris diaw? how do u say "one year wonder-thanks Steve Nash" in french?)

That is why the re-seeding after every round should be the path. That way the best teams don't meet until the latest point in the playoffs.