Huh?? What's the logic in this? This rewards the 2nd seed over the 1st seed, the 16th seed over the 15 seed, etc. Does this exist anywhere or did you just make this up? This makes no sense to me.
I think this is a philosophical question of fairness vs excitement. The NBA's goal - TV ratings - in large part driven by excitement. However, you do have the potential to lose some star teams (though realistically, the best teams tend to be there in the end). Think about March Madness and the excitement level of those games - it's completely unfair and pretty random as to who ends up winning, but it's crazy fun and really popular with fans. I think having 1v16, etc increases your likelihood of top teams moving farther, but it makes the first round even more boring than it normally already is.