http://espn.go.com/dallas/nba/story...-mavericks-conference-realignment-benefit-nba Something to think about during this Thanksgiving. Happy Turkey day guys.
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Cuban is a smart man but not when it comes to the NBA. The problem with the level of competition in the NBA has nothing to do with the conferences, it has everything to do with the fact that there are simply too many teams and not enough talent to go around. Contraction of 2 or 3 teams would fix the overall level of competition and bring greater parity and balance to the conferences. Realignment is like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound.
While they are at it, can we also be removed from this conference? You can win 45 games but still end up being last.
I don't think there are too many teams. If you have a league of 10 teams...5 of them will still be bad. Someone has to be good and someone has to be bad. It really just comes down to a lot of the front offices for the East are just dumb. That's really all it is. In a perfect league each conference would have about 5 good teams, but the East management is just bad.
Good article from SB Nation. Seems well thought out. Basically eliminates the 2 Conference model altogether. Ultimately seeds top 16 teams in the league for playoffs. Makes sense. Has 5 divisions all lined out pretty well by geographic proximity http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/11/26/7280545/nba-schedule-reform-regions-map-playoffs
I disagree, look at the NFL as an example. In the NFL you have bad teams but its very hard to predict which teams will be bad and which teams will be good from year to year. Occasionally, a team that finished last in the league will make the playoffs and do damage in the following season. That's because there is enough talent to fill the rosters. If you combine it with a good coaching staff you can take a roster of underachievers to the super bowl. Baseball is similar though not to the same extent. In the NBA you can basically eliminate 10-12 teams from making the playoffs before the season even starts. Then you have 6-10 teams that will finish in the middle, be semi competitive but not enough to win the ship or even make the playoffs (we were recently one of these teams). Then you have a top heavy 1-3 teams that are odds on favorites followed by 8 teams that are just on the outside looking in.
End of the day they need the 16 teams to playoffs. When steam in the west doesn't make the playoffs with a good record then gets a chance at a high pick then they will only get better. While a team in the east that sucks gets into playoffs and can't get a good pick. No chance for parity to happen when mid level west teams keep getting better with draft picks.
About four of those eliminations are because of how strong the West is, but you make some good points.
It's weird that Cuban would want all Texas teams in the Eastern conference when the two teams he would most like to get away from are in Texas.
Even NBA teams like New Orleans who have a great star still have trouble selling out games. Because the fans know that they have no shot at winning, and they're right. New Orleans has no shot at winning so why buy tickets this year? It certainly doesn't help that the Pelicans play in the toughest division in basketball, but with reduced teams it wouldn't be as much of an issue.
Yeah the sports are just different. Also the NFL has more teams (and a WAY smaller talent pool), the reasosn there is such parity is because the NFL is a sport where injuries are high (So one year a team that is supposed to do damage loses their QB and becomes crappy...) and the schedule is shorter, and also that the NBA is so dependent on star play. Having one star in the NBA will mean consistently being good. If the Rockets keep Harden healthy and hungry and build around him they will be good for what the next 10 years at least. Teams in the East just make bad moves. They draft bad, they trade bad, they do nothing well other than tanking. If you send Durant to Washington, Marc Gasol to NYK, Say Jabari reaches his potential. Suddenly the East isn't looking so bad, you have Paul George return...basically it all depends on who has the stars. If you really wanted more parity in the NBA you would spread out the stars. Right now stars tend to bunch together. Even so, I think the NBA has even more parity now than it did before. It's just it is all out west.