0, and there are about an equal # of crappy cities in both conferences. I also think there are about an equal # of big cities or attractive cities in both conferences. The only example of earth shattering free agent movement from East to West in the last 15 years I can really recall is Shaq. LeBron is the next biggest move and he went from East to East. Melo went from West to East. Whatever...this part is over. The East just sucks, for many many reasons. They've sucked for a long time, and will probably continue to suck overall in the future.
Actually 1, Milwaukee won the 70-71 title. That aside, my logic is pretty simple. The west wins more games because they have better players. This to me isn't debatable. No one guy, even Lebron, Shaq or Melo is going to impact a conference as whole in terms of significantly changing how one conference fairs against the other. So what we are left with is why does the western conference have better players.
Charlotte is not a crap city, just bad management,the city cares about the Hornets not the Bobcats. They are going in the right direction just hope MJ doesnt **** it up. Also NC is a football/college state, they havent been excited for NBA basketball cause its all in the past. They want a playoff team to root for tho now and are excited about being the Hornets again.
We can agree there. The variables are: better drafting, luckier draft positioning, better trades, better management moves (salary cap), and maybe, just maybe better cities (but it's hard to prove this). I think a better way to examine it would be going team-by-team and seeing how they've done over the years. The Wizards are finally like a .500 team, but made horrible management mistakes over the years like trading away potentially Steph Curry or Harden for Randy Foye and Mike Miller, drafting Jan Vessley, and had the bad luck of the Gilbert Arenas fiasco and the quick decline of Antawn and Caron. This is a better way of looking at things. And when combined for all teams, the luckier and better moves will mostly belong to West teams. Cool...yeah, forgot about all the college hoops environment nearby. I think most would blame the Bobcats' woes more on MJ than on the location.
Perhaps we need to define what we mean by a crap city: 1) To live in 2) To play basketball in 3) Nightlife (the clubs of course) 4) Glamour / Prestige / Spotlight (or lack of) 5) Weather 6) Its people 7) All of the above I contend that money and perceived ability to win are #1 and #2 for most superstar/star FA's. But my angle considers that at this level of player, you will usually have a number of teams seeking your employment. So getting your money is the easy part. And if your this good, you can elevate a number of teams into contention. So the potential winning is there in multiple scenarios as well. Now, if your not a star, and perhaps a borderline role player, then all bets are off. Very little if any of my thinking is applicable. But if you are a top 10 or 20 player. It seems to me that more subtle things like who you would be playing with, the coach, the owner, the team history, and how much you like the city bear more weight.
tbh the greatest player of all time played in the East and greatest player right now is in the East. So the Conference as a whole might be bad but individual powerhouse wise the East has been better
The eastern teams in other major sports don't seem to have the same problems. In fact, the eastern teams in the NBA used to do just fine before the current era. I think it is mostly bad management.
Yup. Knicks ownership is now a multi-decade long joke; Brooklyn ownership is all cash and flash with no eye toward long term stability, Boston is rebuilding, Chicago is bad luck on Rose combined with utter cheapskateitude. Any of those 4 has the potential to be dominant due to market, but they just all are at nadirs.
The weakest teams have the best chances of getting the best players by draft. If the top picks aren't busts, they will stay on the team through their rookie contracts and one max contracts before they can leave through free agency or force a trade near the end of the second contract.
This raises a serious problem about the NBA. Three of the 4 teams you mentioned are traditionally dominant or at least pretty good. When they're not, none of the other teams seem to be able to stand up. We should be talking about the rise of the Pistons, Cavs, Wizards. Instead, we're talking about how a whole conference can't get their **** together.
Yeah... Management. And luck, too. As you pointed out, injury to Rose, Boston being in rebuilding phase. Every team goes through a downturn. Seems the Eastern teams are getting hit with a perfect storm of negativity. The thing about management, though, is that a competent ownership/front office can at least give your team a chance at not allowing the nadir to get so low for so long and allow the team' "peak" to be higher and longer lasting.
There is a combination of decision-making and luck, but the Eastern teams have been bad overall for 15 years. In one of the 20+ plus threads over the last 15 years here on CF, I did an adjusted record accounting for the unbalanced schedule, and showed that even in seasons where the East had the perception of being okay, the reality was bad.
Fair enough, but in the NBA, the impact of individual players is such that luck can frequently be enough to overcome horrible ownership. The Clippers have been a power team for 3 seasons, and will likely be one for the next 2-3 despite having one of the single worst owners in professional sports history. Why? Because they were in the right place at the right time to snag Chris Paul - in part because their embarrassingly bad ownership kept them out of cap jail due to miserliness at a critical time. Meanwhile the Knicks bad ownership went in the other direction and they are now no hopers looking at another lost decade.
first of all, even last season when healthy the wizards weren't a bad team. if they can stay healthy they're a playoff team but yeah, i dont think i've seen the east off to this bad a start ever. i know they'll pick things up but still...the new york teams have some of the worst records in the league! all but 2 west teams would make the playoffs in the east!
