It's a known fact that the NBA's Western Conference is much better than the Eastern Conference. It's the main reason why several players and critics believe that the league should adopt a Top 16 playoff format and do away with the current system. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has heard all their concerns, acknowledging the great obstacle to a new postseason design: travel.

As reported by Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press via KSL.com, the NBA estimates an increase of about 40,000 miles of travel in the postseason if they do adopt a Top 16 playoff format. Currently, the top eight teams of each conference qualify for the playoffs.

In the current playoff format, the NBA estimates an average of around 90,000 miles of total travel. In the Top 16 scheme, it is forecasted to balloon to 130,000 miles.

Silver and his team have studied the advantages and repercussions of the proposed scheme. Back in the All-Star break, he said:

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“I think, as I've said in the past, the obstacle is travel, and it's not tradition in my mind, at least. It's that as we've added an extra week to the regular season, as we've tried to reduce the number of back-to-backs, that we are concerned about teams crisscrossing the country in the first round, for example. We are just concerned about the overall travel that we would have in the top 16 teams.”

Despite the logistical challenges at hand, Silver says that they are looking for a way to figure it out. They are not completely shutting down the idea of a new playoff design:

“It's still my hope that we're going to figure out ways,” Silver said. “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. Maybe air travel will get better. All things we'll keep looking at.”