I think it came to a head this season because the Blazers got the 4th seed somehow even though they had like the 6th best record, not because of anything in the East. To my recollection this wasn't a problem in the Eastern Conference the past couple of years. And under the new rules division winner is still the 2nd tiebreaker so we would have still been the #2 seed last season, even though we had a worse conference record than LAC and split the season series.
But the ESPN quote in the OP says differently: Division is not a tiebreaker anymore. Was that wrong? I'm traveling so can't look it up easily. Thx for any clarification.
It's just been moved to the 2nd tiebreaker instead of the first, for seeding purposes. Now head to head record is 1st tiebreaker.
His toes would be even more junked up than they are now. Big toe would fallen off on both feet maybe.
Why even have divisions anymore? There's really no point to it. The travel costs are negligible. Rivalries are formed in the playoffs these days, not by region. Seems plausible to just skip waiting a decade and get to a balanced schedule and free seeding across all teams now.
