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It's about damn time
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
It's about damn time
Finally it has.
No
West definitely got easier, but I wouldn't say there even at the bottom yet.
No
I think so
no
The East has clearly been better for the last few months..the shift began last year, where the West probably still had the edge, but not by much..now, it's not really debatable, the East is better, and it will be better for a while, since there are no up and coming teams in the West..
tbh, the West has 10 teams at .500+, and even if Denver decides to tank that will make it 9 teams...
The East has 6 teams at .500+ (7 if you want to add Philly who is 2 game below).
If you want to limit it to proverbial 'superteams', then you might have a point. But top-to-bottom, I think the West it's still better.
Denver gutted the Knicks, so they are just another team fighting for a playoff spot. Its closer than it use to be, but I would still give the West the edge.
tbh this is all the more incentive for the top EC teams to fight for the top 2 spots. Anything less than a 1 or 2 seed and you could be in for a long 1st round series. Boston won't be able to rest their starters imo
This.
If you're judging solely on superpower teams, then yeah the East is better. But from top to bottom, the West still holds the edge.
tbh the Pacers are worldbeaters when they're playing good teams
Also, the Lakers, Spurs and Mavs are on the decline, while the Heat and Bulls haven't even began to peak, yet..the Knicks have also set themselves up to potentially acquire Paul or Williams, which will put another team in the elite, for the future..
The East definitely looks younger and better for the future. But the West is still the power conference right now, a lot more good teams there. At the top though, there's still only 2-3 teams in each conference.
Also, don't forget that this isn't necessarily a downgrade for the Nuggets. They got WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more from New York than they should have. Nugget fans should be thrilled. Chandler, Felton, Gallinari, and Corey Brewer are all very solid players. The Nuggets are now one of the deepest teams in the league, although they don't have a go-to scorer.
Of course it's a downgrade. This is a superstar driven league.
Blake Griffin is on the West and he'll be dominating and dunking over cars and planes for years to come, tbh
The East certainly has all the superstars.
Howard...check
Lebron...check
Wade....check
Melo...check
Amare...check
Really, all the West has left is Kobe, Dirk, Durant....maybe the Super PG Bros (Paul and Williams)....and an aging Duncan/Spurs big three?
Still, I think across the boards, the overall teams in the West are more balanced and better than those in the East, since they've been used to dealing with the big bad West the past few years. But even that will probably shift eventually.
What I mean is that Denver isn't completely stranded. They still have a good team and a ton of talent.
The Thunder don't qualify as up and coming? How is it not arguable? Head to head, the West has destroyed the East, plus three of the top six teams reside in the West and the West is deeper. The Spurs and Mavs are on the decline? Why, because of the ages of their core players? So that's more important than the results?
This trade changes nothing. They're still the sixth best team in the conference. Still explosive offensively and sieve like defensively. They've gutted their depth. They'll inevitably sign Barron, but even then, they have virtually no size and will play probably a six and a half man rotation.
They have a load of #3 options with no superstar. They have talent, sure, but their ceiling was just lowered
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..
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