Now Rivers could have a say in whether divisions themselves are important.
With every team in the Atlantic Division below .500, deputy commissioner Adam Silver said in a radio interview last week he expected the league's competition committee to discuss whether it's worth having them.
Rivers is on the committee, and doesn't sound eager to see them go.
"I don't think they should," he said. "I think it would be hard to do."
Winners of the three divisions in each conference are guaranteed a top-four seed in the playoffs. That means the champion of a bad division is not only guaranteed a spot, but possibly a more favorable opponent than a better team.
Returning to the pre-2004 format of two divisions in each conference would help — nobody would be complaining about the Atlantic leader if Miami was still in it — but that would be difficult because they would be unbalanced with 15 teams in each conference.
So perhaps this is like issues such as resting healthy players or intentional fouls away from the ball, where the committee discusses it but eventually declines to recommend changes.
That sounds fine by Rivers.
"Obviously, this year you look at it and you say, 'Wow, it would be nice to have the top 16 teams, or whatever it is,'" said Rivers, now coaching the Los Angeles Clippers.
"This has been going on for a while, but at the end of the day I think it's fine the way it is right now."
The next meeting of the nine-member committee, comprised of coaches, general managers and owners, hasn't been scheduled.