"It's indictable, as far as I'm concerned, for the league to offer all the excuses in the world but I don't buy any of them," he says.
The NBL used to have series playoffs and it worked in the 1990s.
"I'm not going to sit here and say, 'That's the reason the Saints win' - not at all."
While the series format would have offered home-court advantage, it was no guarantee the Hawks would have been able to match the Saints' quality.
"I just think it would be better for the league and all the franchises to host playoff games in their own arena with their own fans."
In a 10-team league, according to the former Tall Blacks coach, ideally eight should make the playoffs with the quarterfinals coming down to a best of three and the semifinals a best of five and the grand final a best of seven.
"We need to give the fans something to get excited about and to stay excited about over a one-month period.
"Instead, we have a weekend where everyone gets excited and before you exhale, it's all over."
Logistically, he accepts, the series format will be tougher but that doesn't mean it will be impossible.
"When something is better, you find a way to do it."
It hardly matters if it is a home-court advantage to the Saints - back to Wellington after a break from an unsuccessful one in Napier in 2013 - because that is the format.
"They [Wellington franchise] hosted the playoffs because they were willing to front up with the administration and money so good on them.
"That's an important part of running the franchise and taking the risk so I applaud them," he says.
All Baldwin is simply saying is the existing format is poor and one will have to look far and wide around the world to find a competition that matches the Kiwi one.
"We're certainly trailing the field, in terms of the development and promotion of our game, so the playoff format is one way of doing that."
To accommodate the series format in New Zealand, Baldwin says, compromising the international calendar must never be an option.
"The international calendar is the apex of the sport and should never, ever be tampered with."
Instead, the NBL board will have to consider getting caught offside with the New Zealand Breakers' season in the Australian National Basketball League (ANBL).
"We might have to move earlier and that would encroach on the Breakers' season.
"I love the Breakers and what they do, but so what if we do impinge on their season."
He hadn't seen Breakers players Alex Pledger or Thomas Abercrombie in the NBL this year although the former was a spectator at the grand final at Wellington on Saturday.
"I saw Mika [Vukona] only for a few games. Corey Webster played and that was great.
"BJ [Anthony] played some and that was great but there were several Breakers players for whom it wasn't in their profile to play in the league so why are we handicapping the New Zealand league in order to accommodate players who may or may not play?"
The Breakers franchise, Baldwin says, may or may not have another agenda for their players.
While they have every right to do that, the Kiwi league didn't have to depend on them, he says.
Tall Blacks coach Nenad Vucinic and assistants Pero Cameron and Paul Henare were at the Final Four before this week's trials in Auckland.
So was Breakers coach Dean Vickerman, who congratulated Saints coach and ex-Boomer Shane Heal outside the locker room after the game, for leading the franchise to their eighth NBL crown on his debut season.
