i cant quote Basketball teams IRL cos I dont follow the sport...
But look at the English Premier League...
You have a so called top 4 (Lpool, Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal) you then have another tier of teams (Spurs, Villa, Blackburn, Man City etc) you then have the newly promoted..... West Brom, Stoke, Hull....
Now of course managers dont tell players to take it easy but if Man Utd are playing Hull 3 days before a Champions league game is Ferguson going to play all his big guns? If Hull only have a limited squad and arent in Europe they are going to just play similar level football all season round.
If Hull were in BB then at least they COULD TIE to give them a better chance vs some of the teams around them or perhaps spring a surprise against a team better than them.... in the Premier League they dont have this option!!