Is the gap small now or nonexistant or is there still a significant difference between the conference that you play in? For example, personally I think that Golden State, the 13th best team in the West is as good as Milwaukee, the 8th best team in the East. I don't think the Pacers, Hawks, 76ers, would look as good as they do now if they had to play consistently against Western conference opponents.
Why do we have to have this thread every year? 8 Eastern teams, as opposed to 4 Western teams, are below .500.
that's because the best players from a couple of the Eastern teams took their talents to South beach! if D Howard leaves for the West, then that would change the balance even more.
http://espn.go.com/nba/standings/_/group/2 We all know the East has more basement dwellers, but how about the East top 6 vs the West top 6? In looking at the stats for both, something caught my attention. How many East teams have a winning home and road record? Answer = 6 West? Answer = 1 And of those 6 east teams, all but one has a winning record vs the west. Hmmm
The East top teams play against all those basement dwellers a lot more than the West teams. Hence the better records. There are 10 above average teams in the West. They have to fight against each other for most of their schedules. The East only have 6 good teams. More than half of their opponents are bad teams.
The East also have two of three best teams in the league regardless of their schedule. Don't know if you were taking anything away from Chicago or Miami but you can argue that they're the two best teams in the league.
While I agree with your assessment, I cant remember the last time only 1 team in the west had a winning road and home record.
The gap is definitely narrowing. The East is more top-heavy but awful at the bottom, while the West goes 10 deep with good but not necessarily great teams. Of course this all changes if Howard takes his talents elsewhere..
There is no argument: Bulls and Heat ARE the two best teams. I say that as probably the biggest KD fan and closest follower of OKC on the forum.