Reply With Quote
Cant argue that.
After a decade of West domination, it looks like the East Conference is filling the gap.
Boston, Cleveland, Orlando, Atlanta, Detroit, Miami are all compe ive this season.
On the other hand, the wild wild west has lost its edge.
The Lakers are the only elite team in the West (elite team = 0.700 and more).
The Spurs are not (yet) as good as they were in 05, 06 or 07.
The Mavs and the Suns have definitively missed their chance.
Utah and Houston suffer both from injuries.
The Blazers are still a bit young this year and the Hornets's bench seems too short.
As for Denver, well, they're a pretty solid team but i don't see them going far into the post season.
Plus, many Franchise players of the Western Conference Elite are in their 30s
(Duncan, Bryant, Nowitski, Nash, Ming, Tmac).
So do you think the East is going to take over the NBA in the next years?
Cant argue that.
not a good time to bring this up
The Nuggets beat the Heat
The Blazers beat the Pistons
The Rockets beat the Celtics
Difficult to say, I think we are going to have a better vision after the famous 2010 off season, but indeed right now I think the west lost its edge. The east has 3 very compe ive team with Celts / Clev and the Magic even if the Magic is going to miss Pietrus and Atlanta / Detroit and Miami are better than decent.
BTW
current West teams record: 0.482
current East teams record: 0.518
Like so many things it depends heavily on what happens with that 2010 FA market. There's a lot of game changing talent coming up for auction and where they land could determine will the balance of power for some time to come.
Not sure where I read it but head to head the West still beats out the East. There are 9 teams with winning records in the West vs 6 in the East so the East contendors have a somewhat inflated record.
yeah wayoutwest. But still... Compared to the situation 2 years ago, we can safely say that things are moving
worst record so far:
thunder
Wizards
kings
clippers
warriors
wolves
grizzlies
that's new, this season the lottery EC teams suck less than before
I am seeing a flawed analysis on this thread. I must stress that you cannot use winning percentages of teams to compare the west vs. the east since they do no play each other an equal number of times. Thus, breaking a law of statistics that requires an even distribution of sampling.
Teams play other teams from inside their divisions 4 times and teams from the other conference twice. Thus, if you play in a good/deep division you will tend up have a worse record in reference to your performance level.
The best thing is to look at the head-to-head match-up records later in the season. This allows teams to play enough home and away games between the conferences to obtain a proper sample size.
Does anybody know where we can get these data? I know that the west has one the head-to-head match up nearly each of the last 10 seasons. But, I am not sure of this year.
you realize that there are much more ty teams in the East Coast, so it's easier for Boston, Orlando and Cleveland to get a better record..
Even teams like the Jazz or the Mavs are fighting for the 8th spot while teams like Milwaukee and New Jersey are in!
Using winning percentage of teams only aimed to give a global indication of this trend.
the Thunder, Kings, Grizzlies, Warriors, Clippers, and T-Wolves have a combined 52-162. I think the opposite is true: The West is full of solid teams that have inflated records because they get to play the worst teams in the league 3-4 times a year. Plus, it's harder for East coast teams to fly and play out west than it is visa versa
The West is made of ty and solid teams only. There's no in between.
--> the Jazz are 9th with a 0.583 record followed by the Grizzlies at 10th with a 0.306 record (sic)
The East is much more geneous.
--> there is just one team with a 0.300 record or less (Wizzards: 0.206)
All in all, it has to be fairly equal
I see a flawed evaluation of your flawed analysis. I'd like you to explain to the audience how the East does not play the West an equal number of times. Is there a third conference I'm unaware of?
As for me, I see an Eastern conference with 5 compe ive teams. Three weak teams will make the playoffs thereby potentially giving the top 3 seeds an easier first round, making them fresher for the later rounds.
The West will be a war, from seeds 1 through 8, as there are really nine solid playoff teams out West.
I'm not convinced yet that Boston, Cleveland and especially Orlando are significantly better than the West's 1 through 8, but as we saw last year with the Spurs, if you're battling through every round of the playoffs you can lose your steam the farther your progress.
If the East has an advantage, it's that there are fewer contenders for the top teams to deal with.
+1
but IMO, this wild wild war we've seen in the West for the last 5 years or so is about to end
Can the Beast from the East (Lebron) beat the Best from the West (Spurs)?
That's what it all comes down to.
Maybe I wrote my statement wrong. Sorry. I'll try again. West teams play west teams more often than west teams play east teams. Also, teams play the teams in their division more than most of the teams outside their division. Thus, if you play in a really hard division your record will be worse than you are. You'll be stuck playing your better players more minutes.
The rules for the NBA schedule are rather interesting. I can't find a direct link to them. The NFL has somewhat similar rules.
My general feeling is that the West is still slightly better but it's much closer than recent years. I like where OKC and Memphis are heading more than I like where the Bobcats and the Wizards are heading. But, I would admit that the Clippers and Golden State seem dead in the water to me.
I think NBA fans are in for a ride over the next few years. Lots of great teams on both conferences. As far as the Eastern Conference taking over, I think that it will probably be a back and forth deal between years.
Likewise, the East teams have been mind ing the weaker west teams.
How so? The #9 team in the WC would be #6 in the EC. The East has three really good teams, which is a switch, but after that, not too much has changed. It still looks like one or even two teams from the EC will make the playoffs below .500.
Dalembert as the second best center according to votes? The east got serious problem there IMO.
East can have the better records against the west in their matchups. It will help the better western teams get HCA in the west, as well as a chance for HCA overall.
Maybe if LA could actually win a Finals without Shaq.
So far only the Spurs are able to actually represent the West.
I really don't care very much if the east or West dominates. I do care enough though if it means that deserving teams in either conference miss the playoffs because they don't rank in the top 8 in their conference while undeserving teams with lousy records get in in the other conference. I really hope that the League eventually seed teams into the playoffs regardless of their conference -- top 16 get in based on record alone.. this would raise the quality of the games and I think good compe ive BB should be the primary objective.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
