NBA realignment

A few years ago, Golden State won 49 games and didn't make the playoffs. Of course, I found it annoying when Mark Cuban lamented this on behalf of the Warriors; if you can't finish in the top eight of 15, boo hoo.

But, if we're going to have a 16-team playoff structure, it's obviously best to do whatever reasonable/possible to make sure that the 16 best teams are in.

So here goes:

Eliminate the Eastern and Western conferences, and divide the NBA into five divisions of six:

Midwest: Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indiana, Milwaukee, Minnesota
Northeast: Boston, Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington
Pacific: Golden State, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento
Southeast: Atlanta, Charlotte, Memphis, Miami, New Orleans, Orlando
Southwest: Dallas, Denver, Houston, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Utah

Play all division opponents four times each (20 games), all teams in two divisions (on a rotating basis) thrice (36 games), and the other two divisions twice (24 games). That's 80 games. To fill it out to 82, you take the divisions you're playing twice, and play the two teams who placed the same as you in their division last year a third time (just like the NFL SOS way) (You'd get three Lakers/Heat games next year instead of just two, for example).

Take the five division winners, and seed them 1-5. Take 11 wild cards, and get it on as usual. The playoffs are spread out enough that travel won't become tiresome, especially if they were to go to a 2-3-2 format for all series.

But what do we do with the All-Star game? This is the best part. Take the coaches of the top two teams in the NBA, and make them the All-Star coaches. Pick the 24 All-Stars, and have the coaches literally pick their teams right before the tip-off. As the coaches take turns picking teams, each player, when picked, puts on the appropriate jersey (two are made for each player--a home jersey and an away jersey). The All-Star Game is played almost like a pick-up game, and this would add a little something unpredictable to the game; players who are on the same team could be playing against each other in the All-Star game.

Thoughts?