I am sick of this. It seems there is a new darlin team in the East every few weeks. New Orleans, then the Bucks. Now the Cavs. None of those three would be sniffing the palyoffs this season in the West. What are the Rox, undefeated against those three to date? Just beat the LeBronsters who were on a roll, rock'n'rolling, rested, and yes, on the road V 4th game in 5 nites Rox. The Rox are solidly in the playoffs and scoffed nationally. These pseudo beasts of the East are darlins? What a shame that if our Good Guys were in 'there' we'd be homecourt/playoff and would have a chance 'to come out of the East'. I accept the reality of our location, the limitations of our team. Just don't keep swooning over those pseudo-pretenders from east of the Brazos and Sabine.
With the ( vaguely) possible exception of new Orleans, none of the teas you mentioned are remotely regarded as beasts; Cinderellas more like, akin to Denver, but less so.
No, not beasts. But oft heard as Cinderellas, as you say or darlins, as i suggest. In any regard, I am sick of hearing them extolled and the Rox lambasted.
New Orleans enters the Western Conference next year. Go ahead and book that franchise for 10 consecutive lottery-bound seasons with Baron Davis at the helm.
I couldn't disagree more. New Orleans has the players to compete in the West. If healthy, they would definitely be in the playoffs out here also.
Let me revise that. I think they challenge for the 8th spot as long as Baron is healthy, but I think Carmelo and the Nuggets and the Jazz with Kirilenko will be favored over the Hornets for the 8th spot.
They have good players but a poor coach and lousy organization. They are destined to go down, not up. Notice their attendance drop this year?
Attendance? What does that have to do with this? They are big and they play defense. Two ingredients for a succesful team.
Attendance points to the quality of the front office and their willingness to maintain the roster. Shinn & Co have already relocated once and fouled that up pretty badly. I believe they are a heartbeat or two from falling into a Clipper-abyss. Certainly more likely than to be setting in the West, than rising up and taking charge of their seasons.
Think, please. Try hard. What would happen if the talent was more evenly distributed? Two things happen: 1. The teams in the West wouldn't be as good, and we'd get more wins against them. 2. There would be fewer absolutely execrable teams out-east, so we might have a slightly worse record against them. However, we play 4 games against Western teams... 2 against each Eastern team. Conference parity would benefit us tremendously. As far as the original point: I agree. Many marginal Eastern teams (like the Knicks) get far too much hype, when they'd be in the basement out West.
