Is the Eastern Conference brutal or trash.

[XDT76]

The Spurs which is 6th in the western conference is 7th in the overall NBA standing.

[BG_Spurs_Fan]

Trash. Their overall record against the west is terrible.

On the other hand, if someone had told you before the season that the Spurs would be 21st in offense, 9th in defense, bottom 6 in EFG%, TS% and 3P made AND they'd have a better record than the Bucks, Celtics and Nets after a third of the season ... :lol

[Teamduncan21]

Eastern gleague conference

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

It's a little unfair to the West that a team like Atlanta would be in the play-in tournament in the East, yet they'd be 14th in the West. But, this east/west disparity has been true for years.

[KobesAchilles]

brutal trash tbh

[cjw]

East/west disparity wasn’t as bad from 2016 onwards as it was for the most part of the prior decade. With one exception from 2005-2015, the west was at a ~55 to 60%+ winning percentage against the east. Hovered in the low-to-mid 50s the past few years, but now is back to 60%+ this year.

[The Truth #6]

Trash. Their overall record against the west is terrible.

On the other hand, if someone had told you before the season that the Spurs would be 21st in offense, 9th in defense, bottom 6 in EFG%, TS% and 3P made AND they'd have a better record than the Bucks, Celtics and Nets after a third of the season ... :lol

I’ll take it! Some believe we have been overachieving, but I think it’s more of a younger team learning how to win. And the Demar factor of inconsistency.

[exstatic]

East/west disparity wasn’t as bad from 2016 onwards as it was for the most part of the prior decade. With one exception from 2005-2015, the west was at a ~55 to 60%+ winning percentage against the east. Hovered in the low-to-mid 50s the past few years, but now is back to 60%+ this year.

It’s a long term flaw in the draft process manifesting itself. When one conference is inferior, there is one, and sometimes two sub .500 teams that make the playoffs, and do not get a lottery pick. In the other stronger conference, one or sometimes two teams with records above .500 will miss the playoffs, and WILL get a lottery pick. It’s a self perpetuating system.

There are two options to fix it. The first one is to seed the best 16 teams into the playoffs. The chances of a sub.500 team sneaking in are nearly nil. Teams under .500 get a lottery pick and theoretically improve. Teams over .500 don’t. the second option is to keep the playoffs as is, but seed the lottery strictly by record. The inferior conference could have a sub .500 team both make the playoffs, and get a lottery pick. The superior conference could have a team miss the playoffs, and not get into the lottery, because they’re over .500. The point is, this is a system that would correct the imbalance, and in a few years, it won’t even be an issue. The conferences will be balanced.

[Mr. Body]

The East may be as bad as it's ever been. It's fucking atrocious, tbh.

One thing that hurts is Miami is seriously bad. Like, not even Dallas or NOP bad. Boston is worse than usual. Philly doesn't deserve its exalted status. Bucks are on a treadmill. Toronto imploded.

Nets are the only remote contender -- during a time when the league has very few -- and they are massively flawed.

So many bad franchises, not many good players, not even very many good coaches. Some franchises are just lasting losers -- Washington, Orlando -- just are always terrible.

[pad300]

It’s a long term flaw in the draft process manifesting itself. When one conference is inferior, there is one, and sometimes two sub .500 teams that make the playoffs, and do not get a lottery pick. In the other stronger conference, one or sometimes two teams with records above .500 will miss the playoffs, and WILL get a lottery pick. It’s a self perpetuating system.
...

Not sure that I believe you here. I don't think it's the lottery system, it's that the ownership of some teams have clearly been much worse about installing good/competent management. There are teams in the west that have been just as bad for a long time - the Kings, the Timberwolves, New Orleans. These teams cycle between bad and mediocre. If they luck into good management, they become decent teams pretty quickly, for example, TO (owned by a pension fund IIRC) got Ujiri and became consistently good. A bunch of high picks doesn't fix bad management - they get wasted by organizations that can't develop them properly not build around them effectively. The problem is that bunch of these weak ownership teams are in the east, whereas there are relatively few of them out west.

[stephen jackson]

#ReleaseTheEast

[BG_Spurs_Fan]

Not sure that I believe you here. I don't think it's the lottery system, it's that the ownership of some teams have clearly been much worse about installing good/competent management. There are teams in the west that have been just as bad for a long time - the Kings, the Timberwolves, New Orleans. These teams cycle between bad and mediocre. If they luck into good management, they become decent teams pretty quickly, for example, TO (owned by a pension fund IIRC) got Ujiri and became consistently good. A bunch of high picks doesn't fix bad management - they get wasted by organizations that can't develop them properly not build around them effectively. The problem is that bunch of these weak ownership teams are in the east, whereas there are relatively few of them out west.

I agree with this, it's not the difference between getting the 12th or 18th pick, it's more that a number of teams in the east have been in a rebuilding/tanking mode for years and it's very difficult to suddenly flip the switch and begin winning, as Atlanta are showing now. Years of losing and underdeveloping, at least partially because of this, take their toll. Meanwhile in the west most teams in recent years have been actively trying to get in the playoffs and be as good as they can as opposed to tanking for 5 years in a row.

This is why I like the Spurs being competitive right now and developing their young guys in real games, teaching them how to win. Sure they don't seem to have a real star in the pipeline but as we've seen a million times one or two top 5 picks don't automatically make you good, it's a long process.

[Mr. Body]

I agree with this, it's not the difference between getting the 12th or 18th pick, it's more that a number of teams in the east have been in a rebuilding/tanking mode for years and it's very difficult to suddenly flip the switch and begin winning, as Atlanta are showing now. Years of losing and underdeveloping, at least partially because of this, take their toll. Meanwhile in the west most teams in recent years have been actively trying to get in the playoffs and be as good as they can as opposed to tanking for 5 years in a row.

This is why I like the Spurs being competitive right now and developing their young guys in real games, teaching them how to win. Sure they don't seem to have a real star in the pipeline but as we've seen a million times one or two top 5 picks don't automatically make you good, it's a long process.

The West only has about two franchises that are completely awful. One is Minnesota, which I believe owns the worst winning percentage in NBA history. The other is Sacramento. GSW and LAC were awful for years, but managed to turn it around. Every other franchise has been highly competetive at times.

In the East, even playing other bad Eastern teams, you have so many franchises that are just jokes. Coaching carousels, bad draft picks, bad ownerships, just trash all around. They compound awful decisions with horrible contracts, like the Pistons completely saddled with Blake Griffin right now or other franchises giving negligible stars like Kemba Walker or John Wall big contracts. For young players, getting drafted by Orlando or Washington is practically a death sentence, development-wise.

What's weird is that top EC teams should feast on their peers, get to the ECF and Finals constantly, but they can't. They can't even manage records on par with middle-of-the-pack teams in the West, who are facing other West teams.

[Dex]

Trash. Their overall record against the west is terrible.

On the other hand, if someone had told you before the season that the Spurs would be 21st in offense, 9th in defense, bottom 6 in EFG%, TS% and 3P made AND they'd have a better record than the Bucks, Celtics and Nets after a third of the season ... :lol

This is what boggles my mind. We feel like the Spurs are inconsistent and having a tough season.

Imagine having KD and Kyrie (and now Harden for the past few weeks) and still sitting at 12 losses. Or being the defending ECF Heat and 5 games under .500