Just was looking at the Rockets schedule for the rest of the season and what struck me was how bad the NBA is generally right now.... Other than: Spurs GSW Clippers Cleveland Rockets Toronto Memphis I mean obviously the concentration of talent into a few teams is the driving force but the "exciting" match ups are really missing. I mean in the West in recent years you at least had a good OKC, Dallas and Portland... that's three pretty good teams fallen apart the last couple years and they haven't been replaced at all.... except maybe by the Jazz a bit.
We're going to have an 8th seed in the west be under 500. Pretty sure of this. (Hasn't happened in over a decade) Denver, Kings, are bad. Portland is one of the worst defensive teams I've seen in some time. Lakers and Pelicans are like 10 games under .500 and are 3 games back from the 8th seed. Looks like the East is trending towards being the stronger conference now. A lot of these teams at the bottom of the west are trash.
I would not say that the east is stronger. Of the best 8 teams in the nba only 2 play in the east. That being said the west has less good teams than in the past.
The so called media experts are just lazy, so they just regurgitate the same stories as everyone else.
I don't agree the East is better... I'd say the East is more balanced and the west drops off hard but 3 of the top 4 teams are still in the west GSW CLE SAS CLIPPERS MEM, HOU, TOR? Also, of the Top 15 players how many are in the East? I'd say one 1.... maybe 2 - 3.... that's pathetic.
I don't know...I think players in the East sometimes don't get credit. Like Lowry, Derozan, Kemba, Paul George...meanwhile players like Cousins gets called elite and has yet to even play a playoff game.
Obviously top 10 or top 15 players is subjective but I'd take (in no order) Top 10: lebron Curry Durant Leonard Westbrook Harden CP3 Davis Conley M. Gasol Top 15: Thompson Butler Cousins Lowry George Ok so thats 1 in the top 10 and 4 in the top 15... Not good at all
You could make the argument last year that the East is better than the West slightly, but not this year so far. If we combined the standings so far based on record: PLAYOFF teams currently: Warriors 25-4 Spurs 23-5 Cavs 20-6 Clippers 21-8 Rockets 21-8 Raptors 20-8 Jazz 18-11 Grizzles 18-12 Thunder 16-12 Celtics 16-12 Hornets 16-13 Knicks 15-13 Bulls 14-13 Hawks 14-14 Bucks 13-13 Blazers 13-17 Simply looking at this. Higher concentration of West teams near the top compared to the East teams.
The West is still fine. The down fall of the Lakers and Mavs in recent years, and the slow drop of Portand have been replaced by GSW's rise from obscurity, and to some degree, the Clippers' rise as the counterpart of the Blazers drop. The Spurs is still going strong. The Jazz is getting better. Memphis is Memphis, forever hovering between mediocre and good. The Rockets are relevant again. (TBH, the Rockets are pretty much like Memphis in the past 10 years or so.) The East is still a one-team or two-team conference. The Raptors are replacing the Hawks these couple of years as the bridesmaid to LeBron. All the other teams are either mediocre or bad. It has been like that for more than a decade.
LOL what are you talking about? Other Lebron who's a top 10 player in the EAST? East is still just a two man team with Toronto replacing Pacers and Cleveland replacing Miami. OTH, West has GSW, SAS, Rox, Clippers and UTAH all of whom are really good teams and just a cut above the rest. EAST may have more parity but on the whole they still suck, just look at Dwight's statline last year and this year the East is still weak hence he started beasting again the moment he came back.
No they aren't. Cleveland has a great roster. But outside of them, NONE of the best east teams can beat GS, SAS, Rockets or the LAC in a 7 game series. It's not even close
Well just looking back a couple years ago you had Strong GSW with Curry, Thompson, Green and crew Strong Spurs with Leonard, Parker, Duncan, Ginobli and crew Strong OKC with Durant and Westbrook Strong Clippers with CP3, Griffin and Jordan Strong Rockets with Harden and Dwight and crew Strong Portland with LMA and Lillard Strong Memphis with Gasol, Conley and Randolph Strong Dallas with Dirk and company Strong NOP making the play-offs with Davis, Anderson and Gordon giving GSW a decently hard time Now it's GSW with superteam Spurs still good Clippers still good Rockets look pretty good Memphis looks good Jazz looks good (pretty good but big time injury problems and have never made play-offs as a team) OKC looks pretty bad Portland looks pretty bad Dallas looks pretty bad NOP look awful So at least a two - three good team net loss which is significant at this level (not sold on Jazz, they're good but always injured and have never been in the play-offs as a team)
I think it will be two decades if it happens this year. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the last time the west had a below-500 team in the playoffs was 1997, when the (37-45, IIRC?) Clippers snuck in.
really makes you miss 90's NBA, every game had a story line and even the bad teams had a star or two. Talent across some NBA teams thru the 90s Bulls - Jordan / Pippen / Rodman Rockets - Dream / Clyde / Barkley Spurs - Robinson / Duncan / Elliott Suns - Barkley / KJ / Majerlie Sonic - Kemp / Payton Jazz - Malone / Stockton / Hornacek Blazers - Drexler / Robinson / Porter Pacers - Miller / Smits Knicks - Ewing / Starks Pistons - Isaiah & crew Hawks - Dominque Kings - Richmond Lakers - end of Magic > Ceballos / Jones / Van Excel > Kobe / Shaq Warriors - Hardaway Magic - Penny / Shaq / Anderson Heat - Alonzo Hornets - Johnson (Grandmama) / Alonzo Nugguets - Shariff / Deke I know some of these teams were bad but it seems like there were real rivalries and story lines. Now everyone is friends with each other and instead of wanting to kill the other team, everyone just wants to play together. Meh
