This will further weaken the East when borderline star players get All-Star selections, which then trigger max contracts, thereby causing more long term damage to the East. Looking at Jabari Parker, Otto Porter, Zach Lavine, etc getting 5 years $125 million.
The West playoffs is like Primal Darwinism. Survival of the fittest/ strongest. The East playoffs is basically a participation award.
thankfully all star selections have nothing to do with max contracts anymore. If Parker wants a max he's welcome to look for it in the market. He either takes a huge discount or bye felicia. He won't be coming back to play until after february next year.
Ainge screwed the pooch this offseason, IMO. He had all the assets in the world to acquire Butler or George, and he failed to capitalize. One of those guys plus Hayward could have shifted some of the balance of power from the East to the West. Now he may not even get Hayward, and there aren't really any obvious trade targets left on the board. Of all the guys who are All-Stars or borderline All-Stars that have changed teams this offseason so far, three of the four moved from the East to the West (Butler, George and likely Millsap), which Paul being the lone guy to shift teams within the Western Conference. Three playoff teams from the East (Indy, Chicago and Atlanta) all seem to be going in full tank mode. And only two non-playoff teams (Philly and Charlotte) have made any kind of noticeable improvement. Meanwhile, Boston, Washington and Toronto are essentially all the same teams (or slightly worse) on paper. Seriously, I love Lebron, but can't the East provide SOME kind of competition? I miss the days when he had to get past the Billups/Big Ben/Rasheed Pistons, the Big 3 Celtics and those really solid Paul George Indiana teams. Now it's like they've created a drive-thru lane for him in the playoffs. He should just sit out the first couple of months of the season, start at the beginning of the new year, play like 40-45 games and then blow through the Eastern Conference in 12-14 games again. Why put forth any effort in the regular season if the rest of the East doesn't give a damn?
Ringer article https://theringer.com/2017-nba-free-agency-open-letter-go-east-9089ce3c4d3a Rodger Sherman Staff writer, The Ringer Jul 2 Go East, Free Agents If you’re still unsigned, consider the teams that could inadvertently land you an All-Star spot and the conference where the Finals are within reach
SO much disrespect for Giannis. In that ringer article they basically said that Lillard is a better player and all star.
Anyone but the Lakers. Can't stand them. Don't wanna have to hear their fans every day either. Down side of being in Socal. LA fans are annoying.
FiveThirtyEight blames it all on Lebron https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-nbas-best-are-all-out-west/ Nearly a quarter of last season’s Eastern Conference All-Star roster has gone west this offseason while no 2017 Western All-Stars have gone east, at least so far. In a way, LeBron James is to blame: He has bludgeoned his Eastern Conference competition so badly in the past seven years that several of those franchises have given up on competing with him in the near future and begun teardowns. The Eastern conference as a whole won just 45 percent of its contests against the West last season (a 37-win pace over 82 games), and things can only get worse from here.
I don't see Lebron leaving the East. He must be really stupid to do that. If he doesn't like the Cavs there are other 14 teams that will sell their souls to have him.
I know this is a popular a theory, but I don't believe it. I think the reason Eastern teams keep tearing down is because they keep making terrible decisions that lock them up. Every offseason you look at the teams that are ready to go get one guy to try and compete and it's mostly Western teams.
