Pardon me for asking a similar question again so soon. I'm just very curious to hear your thoughts. Ignore this post if it bothers you.

There is pretty intense intra-divisional rivalry in the NFL: teams within a division play each other far more often than those outside. What if the NBA had smaller divisions (such as four team divisions, even though there aren't enough teams for that yet) in which the intra-division games occurred far more frequently?

And playoff eligibility was determined by the first and second place teams in each division? It might cause very worthy teams to miss the playoffs in highly competitive divisions, but it would undoubtedly increase intra-division rivalry, no?

What do you think?