The NBA should reward teams for winning a division. The current proposal to seed playoff teams 1-8 based on overall record sounds more fair, but in all reality, it hurts the NBA by making the regular season utterly meaningless. Without any sort of advantage to winning your division, NBA teams will become less incentivized to play well down the stretch of the regular season, which will make the regular season way less interesting.
The NBA acts as if they want the regular season to go away, but in all reality, the regular season is still the largest portion of their schedule and they have to do whatever they can to make it as interesting and entertaining as possible. By eliminating divisions, the NBA creates two playoff races (one in each conference) as opposed to six playoff races (three divisional races in each conference). Less races means less on the line for each team and it means less entertainment for the fans. Further, this totally eliminates divisional rivalries, which means less important games for fans to circle on their calendars.
Rather than making divisions meaningless, the NBA should make them even more meaningful. They should make teams play everybody in their division six times as opposed to four and subsequently guarantee a division winning team with a top-three seed and home court advantage. Such a system would create more excitement and meaning in the regular season since teams' playoff positioning would largely depend on how they did against a small pocket of teams that they faced on a regular basis.
The NBA's biggest problem is keeping fans engaged in the months of January, February, and March. With no divisional races to follow and only overall records by conference, fans won't have as much to follow since the playoff picture will pretty much have taken shape by that point. The top four seeds will be close to locked in with only the bottom playoff seeds still up for grabs.
Under the system that I would like the NBA to adopt, fans would be glued to their seats all the way until the end of the regular season since winning a division vaults their team to a top three seed in the conference with home court advantage. Fans would get extra amped up for games against teams in their division since winning a division would have such a high reward. In essence, the regular season would turn into baseball's regular season, which is filled with several important divisional races towards the end of the season.
These races make baseball way more exciting and interesting for fans. Especially fans who don't follow the sport all that closely. The casual fan probably gets intimated by conference standings which feature 15 teams, but a 5 team race they can handle, knowing that winning the division guarantees home court advantage and a top three seed in the playoffs.
In addition to my proposed system being a good thing for fans, it's also a good thing for players and coaches by reducing travel. If each team played everybody in their division six times as opposed to four times, the amount of travel for each team would reduce substantially and less demanding back-to-backs could be scheduled.
The NBA wants to make things less grueling for players so that the quality of basketball night in and night out is better. If the NBA isn't willing to reduce the number of games, then making teams play teams in their division more often is the best alternative. E.g. As opposed to having to make an extra flight to Minnesota, the Phoenix Suns would have two extra trips to Los Angeles, which is a much shorter flight.
All in all, the NBA is making a big mistake by eliminating the value of divisions. Divisions exist for travel purposes and creating excitement for fans. By making divisions more important, the NBA would be making things better for everybody involved in the NBA whether it be fans, players, coaches, or owners.
---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord for NBA news
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