I mean, you can either have to a “balanced” schedule or you have to choose regionalism (to relative degree), because the main reason the NBA doesn’t have rivalries is because the most you play any team is less than 5% of a team’s season. On top of that but the scheduling is also decentralized, so there’s no real rhyme or reason to when NBA teams play divisional opponents, they might get a divisional opponent 3 times before a quarter of the season is over or they might backload the games at the end of the season, it changes every season. Occasionally two teams will meet each other in the playoffs multiple times, but that’s purely by happenstance rather than by any kind of design.
I mean, you can either have to a “balanced” schedule or you have to choose regionalism (to relative degree), because the main reason the NBA doesn’t have rivalries is because the most you play any team is less than 5% of a team’s season. On top of that but the scheduling is also decentralized, so there’s no real rhyme or reason to when NBA teams play divisional opponents, they might get a divisional opponent 3 times before a quarter of the season is over or they might backload the games at the end of the season, it changes every season. Occasionally two teams will meet each other in the playoffs multiple times, but that’s purely by happenstance rather than by any kind of design.