The Indiana Pacers will face the Washington Wizards in the first round of the playoffs…
Or at least that’s who they would face if the NBA went to a modified seeding system where they seeded teams 1 through 16, regardless of conference. Funnily enough, though, that’s who the Pacers would face anyway if the playoffs started today under the current format.
The idea of straight seeding has floated around for years now as an alternative to the current format, which some see as unfairly rewarding Eastern Conference teams while the Western Conference had been more competitive.
The difference now is this isn’t coming from Twitter or Grantland (RIP) but from the NBA commissioner himself, Adam Silver.