Actually if you split North and South the talent would be more evenly distributed, but the costs of travel would increase dramatically.
South
LA Lakers**
LA Clips
GS Warriors
Sacramento**
Phoenix
Houston**
San Antonio**
Dallas**
Miami**
Orlando
New Orleans**
Memphis**
Atlanta
Charlotte
Washington
North
Portland
Seattle
Minnesota
Utah
Denver
Indiana
Detroit
Milwaukee
Cleveland
Toronto
New York
New Jersey
Boston
Philly
Chicago
Actually, IMO, the best thing the NBA could do would be to seed the entire league not the conferences. This would assure the 16 best teams are in the playoffs, and would give the East more of the lottery picks which would even out the talent faster. They could seed #1 team in each conference, and then everybody else by records.
West
#1 - Lakers
#2 - Minnesota
#3 - San Antonio
#4 - Detroit
#5 - New Jersey
#6 - Denver
#7 - Portland
#8 - New Orleans
East
#1 - Indiana
#2 - Sacramento
#3 - Memphis
#4 - Dallas
#5 - Houston
#6 - Utah
#7 - Milwaukee
#8 - Miami
That gives the west 10 teams, the East 6 teams (5 teams next year when New Orleans moves), so the east now gets 10 lottery picks (with Charlotte), and the west only 4 (Golden State, Clippers, Seattle, Phoenix). That would speed up the east's improvement, and it would give the best teams the chance to play for the title, and it would also allow the better teams the extra paydays. Creates a greater incentive to win, knowing you can get 3 playoff games at home. Also no increase in cost, except in the playoffs.
