Should divisions be made important again?

After recently watching videos on YouTube discussing NFL rivalries and their histories, it became pretty obvious that most rivalries were divisional. The NFL and MLB (presumably the NHL as well, I’m not an active follower so I’m not sure) really make divisions matter in their respective sports, and as a result the intensity of games can be heightened which draws interest.

For example, the MLB has rivalries many would know like Yankees-Red Sox and dodgers-giants. The NFL has a fair few like cowboys-commanders, giants-eagles, rams-49ers, bears-packers, etc. With the NBA on the other hand, it’s kind of harder to really pinpoint legitimate rivalries. Sure, you have lakers-Celtics, and while it is a classic rivalry dating back decades it’s definitely cooled off since 2010, other than that, what else is there? Cavs-warriors may be a rivalry considering the 4 straight finals matchups, yet since 2018 it hasn’t been the same with LeBron’s departure from the cavaliers. Other than that, there’s not really strong rivalries that exist in the league today, I think partly because it’s so player driven coupled with the lack of stakes present within each divisional matchup. Now this isn’t to say there aren’t any rivalries within the league, but there aren’t very many that are known on a national level these days.

In my opinion, making divisions matter again would really help with a lot of the issues facing the league today. It would foster stronger rivalries in the league that we lack today, golden state and the lakers should be a southern vs Northern California classic matchup, yet it’s more stressed for the LeBron-curry dynamic instead. This helps draw interest in the game to make people tune in since they actually FEEL the stakes behind each game since it matters to clinch the division. The regular season wouldn’t be called unimportant until the latter half of the season since you’d have important matchups spread throughout the season.

It just seems strange the NBA downplayed the importance of divisions when the MLB and NFL have been going steady and their fan bases wouldn’t want it any other way.