NBA to seed Conferences by record

[Andrew]

As expected, it's official.

The NBA will now seed playoff teams solely by their record, throwing out the top-four protection for teams who win their divisions.

The expected change was unanimously approved Tuesday by the league's Board of Governors. Teams in each conference will be seeded from one to eight by their won-loss record.

Previously, division winners were guaranteed no worse than the No. 4 seed, a rule that became heavily criticized last season when Portland ended up No. 4 in the powerful Western Conference despite the sixth-best record in the conference.

[NovU]

So what happens when entire division fails to make the playoffs record? Even if you are the division leader gets ousted?

[Andrew]

My understanding is that Division winners still qualify, they just aren't guaranteed a top seed. I'm guessing it would be a rare occurrence that a Division winner wouldn't have a record that placed them somewhere in the top eight.