Has the balance of power officially shifted to the EAST now?

[Cry Havoc]

The Thunder are an up and coming team, but clearly worse than the Heat, Bulls and Knicks, from a potential standpoint..

I don't know that I agree with that. The Thunder have so much potential long-term, especially if they make a move or land a good FA.

[Halberto]

This is a tough question. While the east has undoubtedly become stronger as the west has grown weaker, the level of compe ion is still stronger in the west.

Assuming the elite of the West are the Lakers, Spurs and Mavs, the other compe ive teams are Utah, OKC, NOLA, and Portland + Denver (two teams clearly on the decline).

For the East the Elite teams are Boston, Chicago, Orlando, and Miami. The other teams in the East don't seem nearly as compe ive as the West's (New York, Atlanta maybe... but no way Philadelphia, Indiana or Charlotte).

The East may have more le contenders, but they also have a larger gap of compe ion. That makes things even out if you ask me. When looking to the future though, the East will probably be stronger.

[DPG21920]

Damn, imagine if the Thunder would have kept Tyson Chandler instead of nixing the trade.

[HarlemHeat37]

The 6ers' SRS has been just as good or better than any of the non-elite teams in the West + OKC..they are much better than their record..

[ElNono]

It's hard to look two or three seasons down the road. You know the Lakeshow might be declining now, but you already know they'll draw some talent (Howard?) eventually. Mavs haven't been shy about trying to add up talent when they needed and so I wouldn't count them out, although they'll probably take a hit for a small while once the Dirk era is over.
There's also some scattered talent that will eventually relocate, like John Wall, or Griffin.
On top of that, there might be a new draft surprise or two.

[TD 21]

Both conferences have 3 potentially elite teams..the next tier consists of 3 East teams and 1 West team IMO(Orlando, Atlanta, New York with Anthony, OKC)..those are teams that aren't contenders, but they could challenge the other teams and take certain series' to 7 or so..

After that, does it really matter?..teams like New Orleans, Portland and Memphis are completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things..they will have just as much success against the top teams as Philly and Indiana will IMO..

The Lakers, Mavs and Spurs are clearly on the way down, their cores are old, they have 1 more year after this one IMO..

The Thunder are an up and coming team, but clearly worse than the Heat, Bulls and Knicks, from a potential standpoint..

Agreed.

Yes, it does matter. If you're going to call one conference better than the other, then they better have more than six and a half quality teams. Teams like the Hornets, Trail Blazers and Grizzlies would be definite playoff teams in the East. In fact, the Hornets and Grizzlies would arguably be better than the Hawks and Knicks and if the Trail Blazers were ever healthy, they'd definitely be better than them. The Suns would also be a definite playoff team in the East. The Rockets would probably make it in the East, too. Even the Warriors and Clippers would have a shot in the East. That's what makes the West better, the depth of the middle class and upper lower class.

You could say the Lakers are on the way down. The Spurs and Mavs, I don't see how that could be reasoned. Forget about how much longer their reign will last, we're talking about right now, as in this season.

I don't know if I'd say the Thunder are worse than the Knicks from a potential standpoint.

[Darkwaters]

Knicks
Heat
Magic
Bulls
Celtics

Hawks (50-win team, but not elite)


The West has:

Spurs (nice story this year, but the core isn't getting any younger and there's not a le-contending future longterm)
Lakers (this is their last legit chance with this team, getting D12 might change things.
Mavericks (getting old fast as well)
Thunder

The Knicks don't worry anybody too seriously right now. They're barely above .500 in a weak conference that can only muster up 5 other teams with winning records. Not too threatening. We'll see what the Carmelo thing does, but I don't expect it to be as rosy as everyone predicts.

Also, nice of you to mention the age of all the teams out west and fail to mention the Celtics. They're getting old too...but they're GOOD. Same with the Spurs and Mavs. So why do we only mention the western teams' age?

[Nick Manning]

The Knicks don't worry anybody too seriously right now. They're barely above .500 in a weak conference that can only muster up 5 other teams with winning records. Not too threatening. We'll see what the Carmelo thing does, but I don't expect it to be as rosy as everyone predicts.

Also, nice of you to mention the age of all the teams out west and fail to mention the Celtics. They're getting old too...but they're GOOD. Same with the Spurs and Mavs. So why do we only mention the western teams' age?

I'm sorry if I offended you.

[Cry Havoc]

Agreed.

Yes, it does matter. If you're going to call one conference better than the other, then they better have more than six and a half quality teams. Teams like the Hornets, Trail Blazers and Grizzlies would be definite playoff teams in the East. In fact, the Hornets and Grizzlies would arguably be better than the Hawks and Knicks and if the Trail Blazers were ever healthy, they'd definitely be better than them. The Suns would also be a definite playoff team in the East. The Rockets would probably make it in the East, too. Even the Warriors and Clippers would have a shot in the East. That's what makes the West better, the depth of the middle class and upper lower class.

You could say the Lakers are on the way down. The Spurs and Mavs, I don't see how that could be reasoned. Forget about how much longer their reign will last, we're talking about right now, as in this season.

I don't know if I'd say the Thunder are worse than the Knicks from a potential standpoint.

Right now, the West is still unquestionably better. I don't think you can legitimately make an argument for the East right now. But in a few years, that should change.

[HarlemHeat37]

Right now, the West is still unquestionably better. I don't think you can legitimately make an argument for the East right now. But in a few years, that should change.

There's absolutely no argument that the West is "unquestionably better"..if the West is better, it's a very small margin..the East is clearly better at the top(from 1 to 6), the only argument for the West is the bottom, which shouldn't matter, since teams like Phoenix and Memphis are irrelevant..

[Nick Manning]

The Magic, Celts, Bulls, and Heat would probably beat the Spurs in the finals if they came out of the WC, tbh

[nhan]

The Magic, Celts, Bulls, and Heat would probably beat the Spurs in the finals if they came out of the WC, tbh

LMAO. Celtics, probably yes. Heat, probably not. Everyone else, no.

[Cry Havoc]

There's absolutely no argument that the West is "unquestionably better"..if the West is better, it's a very small margin..the East is clearly better at the top(from 1 to 6), the only argument for the West is the bottom, which shouldn't matter, since teams like Phoenix and Memphis are irrelevant..

I just mean as far as number of good teams goes. At the very top, the East looks like it's on par if not better than the West, but the drop is pretty drastic after the first 6 teams or so out East. You're still going to see a -.500 team make the playoffs this year.

[ElNono]

I just mean as far as number of good teams goes. At the very top, the East looks like it's on par if not better than the West, but the drop is pretty drastic after the first 6 teams or so out East. You're still going to see a -.500 team make the playoffs this year.

Don't forget also that East teams play more against other East teams, meaning a bunch of those nifty records at the top are obtained playing against clearly lesser compe ion.

[Cry Havoc]

Don't forget also that East teams play more against other East teams, meaning a bunch of those nifty records at the top are obtained playing against clearly lesser compe ion.

Yeah, actually now that I look at it, 5 through 8 in the East is awful right now, unless the Knicks actually become a force with Melo/Amare. The Hawks are a joke at that record.

But still, the East has an incredible amount of young talent.

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

Top to bottom, it's the West. This year in regards to the championship, it's up for debate. But the East definitely have an advantage for the future.

[tlongII]

The Knicks are no better than they were before the trade. No defense.

[rayjayjohnson]

lol @ thinking melo is going to make new york a contender.

he had a much better supporting cast in denver since they traded for chauncey. , even denver had better supporting bigs.

new york are now a perpetual 6 seed.

[Rummpd]

LOL when the West still wins about 60% and the Knicks who already could score with anyone now cannot absolutely defend anyone.

[LnGrrrR]

Bumping this in light of D-Will trade...

[Bito Corleone]

I'd say it's much closer at the top, with the balance tilting towards the East. From top to bottom is a different story though. In the West only 3 teams (LAC, SAC, MIN) have worse records than the 8th seed (IND) in the East.

.500 in East = 6th

.500 in West = 10th

[Red Hawk #21]

no

[Koolaid_Man]

Knicks
Heat
Magic
Bulls
Celtics

Hawks (50-win team, but not elite)


The West has:

Spurs (nice story this year, but the core isn't getting any younger and there's not a le-contending future longterm)
Lakers (this is their last legit chance with this team, getting D12 might change things.
Mavericks (getting old fast as well)
Thunder

Did the Black Mamba announce his retirement today?

[Jt.ONE]

east with a power boost since deron-> nets

[alchemist]

there's no doubt that with Melo/Williams moving East it makes the West a lot weaker, which is good for the Spurs/Lakers. These older teams will no longer have to play Game 7's every night like the past decade.