Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban proposed expanding the playoff brackets to 10 teams per conference during this week's league meetings in Las Vegas, terming his pitch as "food for thought."
Cuban detailed the proposal he made to fellow owners, explaining in a Cyber Dust post on Thursday that it could potentially affect the issue of teams tanking and increase interest in the regular season.
"With all the concern about getting a high draft pick taking precedent over winning games, the disparity in talent between conferences and the general challenge of team building, I asked the question," Cuban wrote. "Why do just 8 teams per conference make the playoffs? Why not 10?
"The increased number would reduce the chances of good teams missing the playoffs in the stronger conference.
"It would keep things interesting for fans longer into the season.
"Teams that suffered difficult injuries would increase their chances of recovering."
Cuban suggested giving the top seeds in each conference a playoff bye and matching up the bottom two seeds in a best-of-five series.
