http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22483506/adam-silver-discusses-potential-playoff-changes-ideasSilver mentioned still having the best eight teams from each conference making the playoffs, but then seeding those teams 1-16. In that case, if the top two teams were from the same conference it would set up a possible Finals meeting.
"You also would like to have a format where your two best teams are ultimately going to meet in The Finals," Silver said. "You could have a situation where the top two teams in the league are meeting in the conference finals or somewhere else. So we're going to continue to look at that. It's still my hope that we're going to figure out ways."
As has been the case with other 1-16 seeding proposals, there is an issue of travel. With the current playoff format of 2-2-1-1-1 in all rounds, a long first- or second-round long series between teams on opposite coasts would create an unfavorable situation. Also it would require a more balanced schedule so certain teams didn't have an advantage in playoff qualification during the regular season.
"Maybe ultimately you have to add even more days to the season to spread it out a little bit more to deal with the travel," Silver said. "Maybe air travel will get better. All things we'll keep looking at."