It used to make sense because they played more games within the division. This is good for the current model, but if they change back, they should change this rule back as well.
What do you mean? They won their division, so they were guaranteed a top 4 seed. And since GSW, the Rockets, and the Clips had better records, they were the 4th seed.
Step in the right direction although I doubt there will ever be a top 16 seeding regardless of conference
I was kidding. I remember that question being asked ALL over the internet thousands of times per day.
I've addressed this before. I'm not going to source the post again. But this change ISNT common sense or logical. NBA teams do not play a common schedule, even in the same conference. Against same opponents, eliminating record against opponents played a different number of times, the Rockets had a better record than the Clippers. How will tiebreakers work now? I assume conference record? But as noted that's dumb. It should be common opponents number of times played.
If they do that, then it's important to play the east and west the same number of games…otherwise, western teams would get screwed.
This really makes division pretty much irrelevant, as the discrepancy in how many games you play within your division is a minor difference at most. Which in some aspects saddens me from a history standpoint and how MLB/NFL do things. But definitely fairer.
