Evan opened Monday’s show by ripping the NBA’s current playoff format, noting that top seeds in each conference, including the Knicks, got “screwed” despite playing to win in the final day of the regular season.
“The New York Knicks got screwed, and it’s not fair,” Evan said. “The Knicks found a way, and their reward sucks. It’s not just them. The reward for the Celtics sucks. The reward for the Nuggets and OKC sucks. In this odd year of the NBA, where the Knicks are gonna have their most difficult first-round matchup for being the two seed, I am here to tell you that this should be the last year this ever happens.”
Evan came with a solution, which includes the top seeds in each conference getting to pick their first-round opponents among the bottom seeds to make the playoffs, similar to a format that Major League Baseball was pondering before adding another Wild Card team to its postseason.
“After the Play-In Tournament is over, there’s gonna be a TV special on TNT, where the Boston Celtics will come up to the podium and get to select their first-round opponent amongst the five, six, seven, and eight seeds,” Evan said. “Once they pick their opponent, the Knicks are on the clock…and they get3 to decide who they want to play, because that’s a reward.”
Evan hopes that change gets put in motion after this season, so teams like the Knicks aren’t penalized with tougher first-round assignments despite satisfying the league’s desire to make sure competitiveness is there on a nightly basis.
“The Knicks were not given a reward. They got screwed,” Evan said. “You may not lose in the first round, but you have a much more difficult first-round matchup because you got the two seed. How is that fair? How is that right?”