(silly idea because I'm up late and can't get to sleep)
Let's shorten the season and extend the playoff season (isn't this what hockey did?).
10 game season:
play each team in own division twice (6),
play one team of each other division (3),
play one team in the other conference (1).
This determines seeding for the double-elimination every-team-gets-in playoffs. Each team gets two weeks between playoff games for the first few rounds to allow for injury recovery; and that allows more games to be televised nationally.
I think I'll turn in now and sleep on it (yeah, right).