There is growing momentum for a play-in tournament to determine the final two seeds in each conference.

The play-in proposal that has generated the most discussion, according to several sources: two four-team tournaments featuring the seventh, eighth, ninth, and 10th seeds in each conference. 

The seventh seed would host the eighth seed with the winner of that single game grabbing the seventh seed while the ninth seed would host the 10th seed with the winner of that game playing the loser of the seven versus eight matchup.

There is nothing imminent for the implementation of this concept and it would surprising if it arrives by 2020 or 2021.

A play-in would require collective bargaining with the players' union. 

Backers of the play-in tournament view the 7-through-10 proposal as a workable compromise. 

This concept would have ramifications on the lottery. There has been discussion to include the seventh and eighth seeds into the lottery to expand the field from 14 to 18 teams.

LeBron James has played his entire career in the Eastern Conference and he's against the NBA changing the format of the playoffs to seed teams 1-16 instead of by conference.

The Eastern Conference has been a weaker conference for years.

"I would disagree with that," James said. "I think our league has been built the right way as far as when it comes to the postseason."

James has reached The Finals every year since 2011.

"There's been dominant conferences throughout time," James said. "In the '80s you had the Lakers who dominated the league at one point, then you had Boston that dominated the league. In the '90s you had Chicago that dominated the league. San Antonio also had its run. We had our run in the East with Miami, Golden State is having their run.

"It just changes the landscape of the history of the game. If you start messing with seedings and playoffs and then you start talking about, 'Well, if this team would have played this Western Conference team, what....' It's cool to mess around with the All-Star Game, we proved you can do that, but let's not get too crazy about the playoffs. You have Eastern Conference and you have Western Conference. You have Eastern Conference champions, you have guys from the Eastern Conference that win the big dance and sometimes you have it from the West as well."

Adam Silver discussed the possibility of the NBA modifying their playoff seeding system away from the two conference format.

There has been a recent history of imbalance between the Eastern Conference and Western Conference, which has led to many call for the best 16 teams to reach the playoffs regardless of conference.

Silver said his concept would keep the best eight teams from each conference in the playoffs, but would seed those teams 1-16.

"You also would like to have a format where your two best teams are ultimately going to meet in the Finals," Silver said. "You could have a situation where the top two teams in the league are meeting in the conference finals or somewhere else. So we're going to continue to look at that. It's still my hope that we're going to figure out ways."

In a 1-16 proposal, there would be issues of travel with playoff format of 2-2-1-1-1 in all rounds.

"Maybe ultimately you have to add even more days to the season to spread it out a little bit more to deal with the travel," Silver said. "Maybe air travel will get better. All things we'll keep looking at."