Restructure the NBA Playoffs?

What would happen if we experiment and let 16 best teams in, kicking everyone else out the door and and making them take a massive, contemplative shit aided by generous use of fiber?

This year is just weird when you consider that a 48-win team like Golden State isn't making the playoffs, and meanwhile teams mired in mediocrity like the Cavs, the Bullets (FUCK "the Wizards" I do what I want), the Raptors, the Sixers and... wait for it... the 37-44 Atlanta are bringing up the rear.

The Cavs? 4th place in their conference? At 45-36?

But then, would a restructuring actually help out a season like this one?

Here are the standings right now:

West
1 Lakers (57-25)
2 N'Awlins (56-25)
3 Spurs (55-26, who could actually drop to sixth if they lose to Utah tonight)
4 Jazz (54-27)
5 Rockets (54-27)
6 Shaq (54-27)
7 Mavericks (50-31)
8 Nuggets (49-31)
9 Warriors (48-33, left out of the playoffs, in the cold with no pants on)

East
1 Celtics (65-16 holy shit Kevin Garnett is awesome)
2 Pistons (58-23)
3 Magic (51-30)
4 LeBron James' Shoulders (45-36)
5 Bullets (43-28)
6 Raptors (41-40)
7 Sixers (40-41)
8 Hawks (37-44)

Taking every team's record into account, we shuffle it like so:

1 Celtics (65-16)
2 Pistons (58-23)
3 Lakers (57-25)
4 N'Awlins (56-25)
5 Spurs (55-26)
6 Jazz (54-27)
7 Rockets (54-27)
8 Shaq (54-27)
9 Magic (51-30)
10 Mavericks (50-31)
11 Nuggets (49-31)
12 Warriors (48-33)
13 LeBron James' Shoulders (45-36)
14 Bullets (43-28)
15 Raptors (41-40)
16 Portland (41-40)

The brackets would actually look like:

1 Celtics
16 Portland

8 Shaq
9 Magic

5 Spurs
12 Warriors

4 N'Awlins
13 LeBron James' Shoulders

6 Jazz
11 Nuggets

3 Lakers
14 Bullets

7 Rockets
10 Mavericks

2 Pistons
15 Raptors

* Pro: We end up throwing two sub-.500 teams (as of April 16th) out the window -- The Philadelphia 76ers and the Atlanta Hawks -- and letting in the Warriors, who deserve to be here.

* Con: We end up throwing a compelling 1-8 Western Conference matchup in a Lakers-Nuggets series out the window and are left with a 1-16 matchup of... Portland and Boston. Gee -- wonder who's winning that one.

* Pro: We get a 8-9 matchup between Orlando and Phoenix -- Shaq's old home versus Shaq's new home; Dwight Howard versus Shaq. That would be fun as all hell to watch.

* Con: Phoenix and Boston would meet up in the second round if they won; assuming Phoenix can't pull off an upset (would it be an upset?), we'd be robbed of that much-anticipated Phoenix-San Antonio rivalry in the third round. I want to see Shaq and Duncan go head-to-head again, with Amare lurking for a baseline dunk.

* Pro: We'd be almost guaranteed to see an awesome finals.

* Con: Cinderella team? What's that? Ain't no way the freaking Raptors are going all the way. Then again, this is contingent on the structure being a multi-game series instead of a single-elimination series. I'm not keen on a single-elim NBA playoffs just yet.

* Pro: The teams that hit the draft lottery are the ones that SHOULD hit the draft lottery, in terms of balance: That'd be the WORST 14 teams in the league, not the ones that simply did not make the playoffs on account of a territorial division.

* Con: Won't it be a little exciting to see Portland and Golden State snatch up lottery picks, especially when Golden State is a playoff-quality team and Portland has Greg Oden waiting in the wings?

Any other thoughts on the pros and cons of a playoff restructuring?