INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- The NBA continues to make numerous changes -- shorter preseasons, fewer timeouts, draft lottery reform and doing away with the East-West format for the NBA All-Star Game.

More alterations could be coming and Cleveland Cavaliers swingman Dwyane Wade wouldn't be surprised to see playoff seeding next.

"I'm waiting for that day when it's going to happen," Wade said Thursday afternoon. "It's all about evolution, not only in the game of basketball but in life. And everybody always obviously has something to say about when it's a change and give their different reasons why it shouldn't change, but it's needed."

Earlier this week, in the annual survey, general mangers were asked to vote on a variety of topics, including what rule is in most need of change. With 27 percent of the vote, playoff seeding got the nod.

Of course, this doesn't mean it's going to happen and any change has to be approved by the NBA's Board of Governors after weighing numerous factors. Still, it's noteworthy that draft lottery reform came in with the highest percentage (30 percent) in last year's GM survey and the change was approved nearly two weeks ago, trying to do away with the league's tanking issue.

Could the NBA follow suit with playoff seeding, eliminating the conference affiliation and rank the teams 1-16?

"I think as far as logistics go that would be a little harder and that's never happened before," Kevin Love said. "I don't know. I don't know how. That would make it a little tougher for us. But, no, I think everybody wants to see parity, continuity, balance. You talk about competition I think everyone wants to compete.

"Yeah, we know that the West is fully loaded. I mentioned that the players going to their teams, continuing to get better, adding new guys, getting a year older with the team that they are with, so, I don't know. If that happens, so be it, but as of right now that's an interesting concept."

This summer, East stars Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Carmelo Anthony and Paul Millsap switched conferences.

Of course, three of those players were traded. Millsap left Atlanta in free agency. No matter the reasons, those additions only make the West more formidable. There could be five or six teams that reach the 50-win mark once again. The East had three last year.

"I just know that the West has always been great, since I've been in the NBA it's always great basketball," Wade said. "But at the end of the day they always don't win the championship either. I know that they're very good and they're very good this year. But, I've been in the league a couple years and they haven't won it every year, so I think the East has held its own from that standpoint. Maybe not in the All-Star Game, so much, but definitely when it comes to the Finals the East has held its own for the most part."

But is that postseason success because the East has had an easier path? It's something the league will need to deeply explore.

In this future format, the Cavaliers would have entered last year's playoffs as the sixth seed because of variety of tiebreakers.

That would have made getting back to the NBA Finals -- if they would have gotten that far -- much tougher. Given their abundance of talent, the Cavs still might have gotten through any opponent other than Golden State anyway.

But the East-West debate has been going for quite some time and the chatter has gotten louder.

"I don't even look into it, to be honest with you," Jae Crowder said. "I played in the West before. My first few years in the league I played in the West (in Dallas). I played in the East for the past few years. I feel like it's a tough conference over there but I think it's a lot of good teams, a lot of hard-working teams in the East as well who play very hard.

"I just think it's a different style of basketball, obviously, in both conference's play. Obviously they got great scorers in their league and that's the difference I feel when I play the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference."

There would be plenty of obstacles with this reseeding format, which is probably why it's never come to fruition. The primary issue is travel, especially in the early rounds, as a team could have to fly from the East coast to the West coast and if the series isn't a sweep then it could be multiple times within the same matchup.

Heading into this season, the Western Conference looks superior once again, boasting at least four teams (Golden State, Houston, San Antonio and Oklahoma City) widely considered NBA title contenders. Then there's the new-look Minnesota Timberwolves.

The East, meanwhile has two -- if Boston has truly jumped into that mix after a summer trade for Kyrie Irving.

"It really doesn't matter how I feel about it," Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue said. "Just whatever Adam (Silver) decides to do, we have to deal with it. Whatever is best for the game. To make the game great, to continue to grow the game, they've done that over the last 15-20 years. Whatever they think is best for the NBA, for our fans, for our teams, then we have to do it."

Last season, very little would have changed in terms of teams making the postseason. Both eighth seeds finished with 41 wins. But the overall rankings would have been much different. San Antonio, which won 61 games, wouldn't have had such a grueling road before taking on the Warriors.

Golden State, the team with the league's best record, would have been rewarded more for their stellar regular season. Instead, second-seeded Cleveland was able to coast through the 82-game grind at times and there were no real ramifications.

"There will be one day when the NBA possibly makes that move and I think it would be great for the game to have the best 16 teams in the playoffs," Wade said. "You can't make everybody happy, but I think that's one thing that would make some of the teams that win 50 games some years and don't make the playoffs, they deserve. So, one day, it will happen, but in it's own time."