Incidentally, my proposal to expand the playoffs to 20 teams still calls for crossovers when a team in the bottom 5 of one conference has a better record than one of the teams in the top 10 of the other.
This actually would have happened under my proposal this year. The 11th place team in the East, the Knicks, had a better record than the 10th place team in the West, the Spurs. Thus, the Knicks, and not the Spurs, would have clinched the final playoff spot in the West. As they also had a better record than the Pelicans, the Knicks would have been the 9th seed in the West, setting up a first-round matchup with the Clippers, while the Pelicans and Timberwolves would have contested the other first round series in the West. Nets-Hornets and Cavaliers-Hawks would be the first round series in the East.
Under my proposal, the highest-remaining seed to come out of the first playoff round in each conference would play the 2nd seed in the conference quarterfinals, while the lowest-remaining seed would play the #1 seed. Reseeding would also occur for the conference semifinals.
