Adam Silver: No changes to NBA playoffs for now

LAS VEGAS  —  NBA commissioner Adam Silver said something Wednesday that might be of interest to the 76ers and their fans.

Silver announced that changing the league's playoff structure was not at the top of the agenda for now during a press conference after a Board of Governors meeting.

There had been some talk of ignoring conference affiliations in the NBA playoffs and seeding the 16 postseason teams based on records. Under the present system, the top eight teams in the Eastern Conference and top eight in the Western Conference advance to the postseason.

This is of interest to folks in Philadelphia because under the current format, the Sixers might contend for a playoff berth next season. The East is weakened a bit after all-stars Paul George, Jimmy Butler, and Paul Milsap headed to the West recently.

The Indiana Pacers traded George to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Chicago Bulls traded Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves. And Milsap left the Atlanta Hawks sign a free-agent deal with the Denver Nuggets.

The Pacers, Bulls, and Hawks were all playoff teams last season that are expected to struggle in 2017-18. Meanwhile, the new-look Sixers, who finished 28-54, are expected to be vastly improved.

The NBA considered changing the playoff format two years and decided not to do it. The holdup has to do with the focus on sports science, the health of players and the impact on travel.

"It didn't make sense, at least at this time, to move to a balanced schedule because again, we play an imbalanced schedule," Silver said. "Teams in the East obviously play each other more than [they play] teams in the West. And the notion is if you're going to see 1 through 16, the only fair way to do it is then have a balanced schedule throughout the season."

That's why the league feels it's best to stay in a conference system.  "The notion, again, of having teams crisscrossing the country in the first round didn't seem to make sense to our teams," Silver said.

The league's trade deadline had been the Thursday after the all-star break. However, the Board of Governors approved a plan to push the trade deadline up to Feb. 8. That's 10 days before the 2018 NBA All-Star Game in Los Angeles.

Silver said the move was made to allow the traded player and his family time to get readjusted to the new team during the four- to five-day all-star break. The league had discussed such a move for several years.  League officials believe this was the right time to do it, especially with the NBA adding an extra week to the season.

Teams are still going to play 82 regular-season games. The extra week will allow them to space out the travel and have fewer back-to-back games. Team will play about four preseason games and start the regular season "roughly" on Oct. 17. The Sixers opened the regular season on Oct. 26 this past season.

The Board of Governors unanimously approved decreasing the maximum number of timeouts from 18 to 14 this season. In addition, teams will be limited to two timeouts each in the last three minutes. They previously were allowed to have three each.

Other changes: Halftime will be 15 minutes for all games. It will begin immediately after the clock expires to conclude the first half. A team would receive a delay-of-game penalty if it is not ready to start at the end of the halftime clock . …  Free-throw shooters who venture beyond the three-point line between foul-shot attempts will be assessed a delay-of-game violation.