The league needs to give teams outside the top 16 something real for which to play — the chance at a postseason spot, or perhaps even to improve their lottery odds through winning games (what a concept!). The complaint you hear in league circles about such concepts — play-in tournaments, World Cup-style pool play — is that they are gimmicky, and too far from what fans and the keepers of the game consider legitimate proceedings. This season’s champion, should the season get that far, will already face the dreaded asterisk. As silly as that seems, the 1999 champion San Antonio Spurs still hear about it 21 years later because one highly decorated rival coach uttered the A-word. Introduce new structural contrivances, the thinking goes, and the asterisk brightens.