LeBron James of the Cavs <> at American Airlines Arena on March 19, 2016 in Miami, Florida.

One of the chief complaints about the NBA is that its regular season is boring and meaningless for the league’s top teams. That argument gained some extra legitimacy Monday when Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said his team would prioritize rest over home-court advantage over the season’s final 16 games.

Via ESPN, here’s what Lue said about Cleveland’s bid for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

“We definitely want the No. 1 seed if we can get it, but I think we have to rest our guys also,” Lue said after the team’s shootaround Monday morning. “I think health going into the playoffs is more important than the seeding. If we’re fortunate enough to get the No. 1 seed, it will be great for us. But if not, then we just got to play through it.

“I think all championship teams have to win on the road anyway. So, [the No. 1 seed is] important to us, but also being healthy going into the playoffs is more important.”

The Cavs are currently one game up on the Toronto Raptors for first place in the East. The team that secures the better regular-season record will get home-court advantage if the franchises match up in the Conference Finals.

Lue’s decision to prioritize health and rest over seeding makes sense, of course. The Cavs have an older roster that has played a lot of basketball in the last 15 months and need to be in tip-top shape during the postseason. Plus, they entered last year as the No. 2 seed and had little trouble trouncing their conference foes to reach the finals.

But the choice to sacrifice seeding also illuminates a problem in the NBA’s structure: because so many teams make the playoffs, top squads have little reason at all to worry about the regular season. From this season’s first tip-off, the Cavaliers have been essentially assured of making the playoffs, so in a sense they haven’t played a meaningful game yet this season. For Cleveland, this entire 82-game campaign has basically been a formality, and Lue’s decision to rest his players down the stretch instead of going all out for the top seed reinforces that the regular season just doesn’t mean that much.

[ESPN]

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.

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