With the annual imbalance between the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference becoming a topic of contention with pundits, fans, and even possibly the league office, the idea of getting rid of conferences in the NBA and taking the Top 16 teams for the playoffs has been gaining steam. A quick, easy, and necessary fix to the playoff formatting before they decide the relevance of conferences in the NBA's future would be to drop the concept of divisions from the league.

The argument for keeping divisions is even more outdated than conferences, especially when you factor in the travel amenities of NBA teams. The scheduling within the conferences is close enough to the same number of games against each opponent year in and year out, and it doesn't have to be tied to divisional opponents. Pretending the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Minnesota Timberwolves are within proper travel distance to the Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz is quite the stretch.

(On a side note: there isn't anything more embarrassing for a franchise than including singular division championship banners in the rafters of their arenas. That's just promoting a losing culture and a losing history if it's anything outside of one banner with multiple years on it for when you secured the top spot in your respective division.)

And the concept of having divisional winners sells merchandise that nobody wants and leaves too much confusion within the structure of the playoffs. The Western Conference Playoffs show just how unnecessarily divisions can affect pathways with almost zero payoff for the health of the league. 

THE WONDERFULLY PEACEFUL PATH OF THE HOUSTON ROCKETS

On the final day of the regular season, the Houston Rockets demolished a dangerous Utah Jazz team by 26 points. In doing so and coupled with the San Antonio Spurs losing to the New Orleans Pelicans on the final night of the regular season, the Rockets ended up securing the 2-seed in the West. It's important to note that under the current rules of divisions, conferences, and playoff tiebreakers, the Rockets absolutely earned their 2-seed. They overcame huge injuries throughout the season to finish with the same record of 56-26 as the Los Angeles Clippers, who ended up with the 3-seed.

However, the reason the Rockets ended up with the higher seed and therefore the easier path to the Western Conference semi-finals wasn't because of head-to-head. They went 2-2 in their season series against each other. It also had nothing to do with a better record against conference opponents because their 33-19 record against the West is trumped by the Clippers' 37-15 record in the better conference. They received the 2-seed because they won the Southwest division. The Clippers finished 11 games behind the Golden State Warriors in the Pacific division.

The Rockets won a tougher division but the Clippers were just as successful, if not more with their season (especially in the West). The Clippers' biggest fault was the fact that the Warriors were historically good in the regular season. The reward for the Rockets has been facing this imploding Dallas Mavericks team while the Clippers received a much tougher match-up. 

To their credit, the Rockets are taking advantage of it. They've been in control of both games they've won heading into Game 3 and they're still working with significant injuries (Patrick Beverly and Donatas Motiejunas) while working Dwight Howard back into his typical form. However, it can't be ignore that the arbitrary division crown put them in a series with a Mavs team that is now without Chandler Parsons and has exiled Rajon Rondo due to "back injuries." I guess trying to throw your coach and team into oncoming traffic can be tough on the lower back.

The Mavericks still have enough talent and coaching to make this a series as they reboot with the next two games at home, but it wouldn't be out of line to say the first two games have showed us the Rockets are likely to advance in the series. If the undermanned Mavericks can't right the ship after tossing Rondo overboard, the Rockets could end this in four or five games as they look at the other match-up in their side of the bracket and laugh while bathing in rest and recuperation.

THE SPURS AND CLIPPERS ENTER WITH ONLY ONE TEAM GETTING TO LEAVE

The Spurs should have beaten the Pelicans on the final day of the regular season. They were completely outplayed in the first half and it ended up costing them the 2-seed. For the Clippers, they won 14 of their final 15 games in the regular season, but a costly loss to the Rockets at home on March 15 ended up helping push them into the 3-seed and away from a Mavericks team that would likely still be too battered and dysfunctional to provide enough resistance.

Chris Paul missed a 4-foot shot over Trevor Ariza that would have sent it to overtime and that ended up being one big difference in playoff seeding.

The result has been pitting two potentially great teams like the Clippers and Spurs against each other in the first round while people pine for this series being much later in the playoffs. We've seen over the first two games of this series two impressive teams, which makes it harder to feel great that one will be deemed a failure after a first round loss. That just happens to be the rules when it comes to the Western Conference and how good the Top 8 teams end up being when we get to the postseason.

If we're lucky (and I'm feeling pretty lucky), this series will go seven games with a couple of overtime periods chucked in there, and we'll get to extract every ounce of incredible basketball out of these two hopeful title contenders. Unfortunately for them, they'll then have to pack up and turn around immediately to head to Houston to face this especially tough Rockets team that is building confidence by the day against the Mavs. 

Had we not been forced to pretend division titles still matter (or ever mattered for that reason), we would have been treated to the Warriors and Pelicans, the Clippers and Mavericks, the Rockets and Blazers, and the Grizzlies and Spurs. But even then we'd be looking at the Spurs and Grizzlies first round series and talking about how unfortunate it is they have to face each other early instead of being allowed to meet later in the postseason.

There may not ever be a fair way to shake out these playoff match-ups and better match-ups early on certainly ensures a longer stint of brilliant playoff basketball. We also shouldn't punish or disparage the Rockets from taking advantage of the current system by being rewarded due to a division title. It's merely an example of how an unnecessary grouping like divisions can muck up the final standings that lead to postseason seeding. It's also evident in the fact that the Portland Trail Blazers have a higher seed and yet the Memphis Grizzlies have the homecourt advantage. 

When we get into situations like that, you truly start wondering what the point of divisions in the modern NBA even mean? It may never be totally fair, but it certainly doesn't have to be unnecessarily organized the way we currently have it.

Rockets are loving their side of the bracket. (USATSI)
Rockets are loving their side of the bracket. (USATSI)