I actually agree with the Kam Brothers. I prefer the Lakers having a touch schedule, especially since they have a 5.5 game cushion to insure they will still be the #1 seed in the West, although the value of that has been diminished greatly by the elimination of any home court advantage. No better way to get properly prepared for the playoffs than to play a bunch of good playoff teams. With only 8 games to get ready, Lakers should benefit from being challenged rather than coasting.

What’s also interesting is how much more watchable these 8 games are going to be with the 8 worst teams in the league eliminated. Who wants to watch the Lakers play the Hornets, Pistons, Cavs, Timberwolves, Warriors, and Bulls? While we would probably watch anything after not having games for months, how much better to watch the Lakers play some tough teams. Kind of makes you wonder how much better the NBA might be if there were only 22 teams in the league, especially if you redistributed the better players from the 8 poorest teams to the remaining 22 teams. With all the talk about the league looking for ways to improve the level of play and quality of matchups to raise ratings, maybe there’s a seed of an answer in how competitive these last 8 games will turn out to be.

If the league wants to split the season into halves and raise interest, how about adding two new franchises to raise money and then have 32 teams play the first half of the season and then have a seeded 30 team, 2 round, single elimination tournament to divide the teams into a losers and winners divisions for the second half of the season. The 16 losers play against themselves for the second half of the season for lottery positioning and a huge dollar prize. The 16 winners play against themselves for playoff seeding. The national TV money would obviously rise dramatically as the matchups in the winners division would be top grade. Ultimately, the league might create two divisions of the NBA and promote the winners from the lower division to replace the losers in the upper division, much like some of the European leagues.

Anyway, as you enjoy the enhance competition and improved matchups over the Lakers last 8 games, it’s food for thought for a league looking for ideas to improve interest and revenue in the new normal.