Just look at the Milwaukee Bucks. The top five or six teams in the Eastern Conference all look pretty dangerous, but the 7th team is Indiana at .500 and the 8th team is Milwaukee with a 9-13 record. That's on pace for a 33-49 record, but they will make the playoffs unless Charlotte or Toronto or some other pathetic team beats them out (probably with mid-30s for wins). It's distinctly possible that the 8th seed could be a team with 50 losses.

Of course, that team will just get swept by the Celtics or Heat in the first round, but it's still an embarrassment to the league. Maybe not as embarrassing as the 1952-53 Baltimore Bullets, who made the playoffs with a 16-54 record. But for the modern game, it's an indication of how the good teams with mostly high payrolls are dominating hopeless franchises.