The NBA playoff system is the best 8 teams from the western conference and the eastern conference.  With the Western conference being so dominant right now there are many people who want to change the playoff system to the best 16 teams in the whole league.  The Warriors, Mavericks or Nuggets are going to miss the playoffs because they are in the West.  If they were in the east they would be the third seed and would have clinched a playoff spot weeks ago.  One of the problems with just putting in the top 16 teams from each conference is that the regular season schedule would have to be completely changed and teams would have to travel cross country several times for a playoff series.  That way wouldn't work very well and there would be more traveling for the players.  If they kept the schedule the same and still had the best 8 from each conference making the playoffs and they made the team with the worst record play the team with the best in a 1-16 bracket a lot of the western teams would advance past the first round instead of being eliminated in the first round like they are going to be with the playoff setup there is now.  The only problem would be the traveling but it would be a lot more fair for the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th seed western teams because they would have homecourt advantage against weaker eastern teams that are ranked 3rd, 4th, and 5th in their conference instead of not having homecourt advantage against stronger western teams.  The Celtics would be the #1 seed and would face the #16 seed which will probably be the Hawks and the #2 Pistons would face the #15 seed Raptors or Sixers, but the better matchups would be the #10 seeded Magic facing the #7 seeded Suns (could be Rockets by playoff time or Jazz without division leader rule) and the #8 seed Jazz (could also be Suns or Rockets) facing #9 seed Mavericks.  Other good matchups are Lakers vs. Cavaliers and Rockets vs. Nuggets or Warriors.  With this playoff format the finals could end up being Celtics vs. Pistons, Hornets vs. Lakers or any other combination.