In MLB, or even in the NFL, there's incentive to make the playoffs. If you make the playoffs, you have a shot to win it all. Maybe the lower seeds don't win a lot, but they do often enough that just making the playoffs are incentive enough to try to make that last playoff spot. In the NBA, realistically, there's probably 5 or 6 teams each year (or even less) that have a shot to win it all. The last few years, we pretty much knew it was the Warriors, Cavs, and maybe one or two other teams. 8 seeds have won I think 2 or 3 series ever, since the NBA went to a 16 team field. In MLB, not only do wild card teams semi regularly win a series, 6 wild card teams have won world series in 24 years. I don't know.... it doesn't feel like there's a great answer to this question, but there should be some sort of way to incentivize teams in the NBA to chase those last few playoff spots a bit harder. I don't know that tanking is a huge problem the way people say it is, but at the same time, how many years do you want to watch what happened in Philly before you get the payoff? As a fan, that's pretty brutal.