I like the play-in tournament, because it creates more inflection points in the standings.
Do you want to be 7th or 6th? In most years, teams would be indifferent. Now, they care.
2nd or 3rd? Sure, in the past you’d prefer 2nd over 3rd to get home court in the second round, but now you’d get home-court AND get to play a team coming off the play-in tournament (in other words, one that isn’t rested).
10th or 11th? The Bulls made a major deadline deal to fight for 10th. It’s not working for them, but it was fun to see. And ask the Wizards, who’ve won 9 in a row now, if they don’t care.
And 8th or 9th still matters, because 8th has to win 1 out of 2 games to advance, whereas 9th needs to win 2 out of 2, so that inflection points remains, even if it’s reduced.
Do I think it’s the perfect solution? No. But the NBA’s long season had become stale, and I think this is a worthwhile attempt to liven it up. Certainly it made good sense to test it out in a shortened season which at the outset the league didn’t know if some teams would play 10-15 games fewer than other teams.