The NBA will seed the playoffs based solely on record, with division winners no longer locked into the top four playoff spots, the league announced Tuesday. The NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved the changes to the playoff structure, which is effective starting in the 2015-16 season.
The league also changed the tie-breaker process for playoff seeding and home-court advantage. The first criteria is now the head-to-head record between teams with the same record, with the second criteria being if the team won its division.
This means that it’s possible that a division could not send a single team to the playoffs.