The NBA has spent the last several years juggling ways to improve the quality of play and way of life for its players, in no small part to Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich starting the trend of “resting” his aging stars. The move initially drew the ire of league (or at least David Stern), but current commissioner Adam Silver — while not a fan of the practice himself — has been more attentive to players’ needs and receptive of new ideas to actually fix it.
Steps like spreading out the regular season to lower the number of SEGABABAs and mostly eliminating FOGAFINIs have been taken, but more extreme options such as lowering the number of regular season games or eliminating conferences have never gotten past the discussion table due to possible financial and contractual implications.