But 2/3rd the league doesn't make the playoffs? A little under 2/3rd the league does. Gotta get it right!

The play ins are not the playoffs. They are glorified regular season games. We've had play in like games, come naturally in the NBA a bunch of times. It's nothing crazy.

I wish NBA fans would stop ignoring the financial side of things, when they bring up ideas like that though. Like you know why the NBA isn't a 40 game league with single elimination playoffs. It's obvious to anyone with eyes and ears.

Anyway, the play ins don't change anything with regards to "rewarding mediocrity" that started when they expanded the playoffs to 8 seeds. Play ins just make it so teams are still playing hard at the end of the season.

Usually at this point, it's just the guaranteed playoff teams playing hard. In previous years you wouldn't see teams like the Wizards trying this hard to win games, so close to the playoffs. It's made the league much more exciting, which is what you should want at the end of the day.