I noticed that some teams in the top 8 of the east have losing records...and there are some teams in the west that arent in the top 8 that have winning records...do you think it's harder to make big noise in both the season and the playoffs in the west than the east?
For anyone whos been a fan of the NBA for more than 2 years its like asking 'is the sky blue? yes/no'
East = Boston, Orlando, Atlanta, Cleveland West = L.A., Dallas, San Antonio, Denver, Portland, Houston, Utah, Phoenix The eastern conference seems top heavy, a lot of the teams of the west can play with any of the best teams from the east.
Yeah i know that, but the top of the east is stacked with championship-caliber teams (at the top), while the west is more spread out with many decent teams...so basically the question is asking is it harder to play the few championship-caliber teams of the east or the many decent teams in the west (excluding the lakers and suns, they are championship-caliber)
I only see Boston and somewhat Cleveland (with a healthy shaq) as contenders in the East. Orlando doesn't have a PG and we don't know how VC will fit in. Atlanta is too inconsistent to be contenders. Miami relies too much on Wade. Any top 8 from the West are contenders. You saying West are just decent does not compute. Lakers were champs last year. As long as Duncan is playing for SA, they are contenders. Dallas are chokers but they don't have any disadvantages against any East team. Suns are back to their D'antoni days with STAT almost back as well. Utah have home court advantage no matter what. The rockets NEVER back down. Portland has a great slow tempo playoff type game and size advantage over many teams in the East. If you have that many easy teams in your conference, you can take it easy and focus on the hard teams from the west. Note: I am totally bashing the east in this post.
the tops of the conferences have finally evened out the last few years, but after a little resurgence for the east last year, the overall conference picture has swung big back to the west this year. i don't know where it stands right now, but a day or two ago i think i had the west up 54-34 on the east, which is a huge difference.
I concur. 1 star thread! Simple tip for the budding pollsters: IF you are going to ask a question in your thread title that needs to be answered by a poll, THEN please make your poll the same (if not the exact same question, AT LEAST the same sentiment).
I LOL'ed, good catch :grin: Seriously what kind of question is this? The West has always been tougher. Always. And it will always be until Dirk, Nash, Kobe and Duncan retire. This is like asking if Yao Ming is taller than Aaron Brooks.
The top teams in the East have gotten much better in recent years. But the bottom half of the East playoff field is still far worse than the West counter part.
They are only 3 or 4 teams that could make the playoffs if they were in the West. If the Rockets were in the east, they would have more success in the playoffs making it to the 2nd round or to the conference finals.
The thing that has made the West dominant for the past decade are the big men. Until Shaq and KG went to the east coast only Detroit had won a championship, and Detroit went out and got Ben Wallace (formerly in the West with the Blazers). Over the past decade it was: Gasol, Yao, Shaq, KG, Dirk, Duncan, etc. The east? Maybe Morning. Now the east has Shaq, KG and Howard.
Its not just the top teams. The West has always had a lot of good teams, while the East seems to always be full of the garbage teams in the league. Aside from the Lakers, Nuggets and Spurs (all of whom are contenders), you still have the Mavs, Blazers, Rockets, Thunder etc. who all seem to be very good teams. Even sucky teams such as the clippers or the Warriors have legit talent in their roster.
Assuming all players are healthy, the West has at least 10 legitamate playoff contenders (LAL, SA, DAL, HOU, PHX, DEN, POR, UTAH, NO, OKC or LAC). Yes, I think the Clippers can fight for a playoff spot if Griffin is healthy, and the Thunder are actually pretty good this year. In the East, all you have is ORL, BOS, CLE, and ATL. It's been years now that the West has dominated the East in the regular season.
This is a ridiculous argument. If you're saying that at least 10 teams in the west can fight for a playoff spot, then you can say the same thing about the East (ORL, BOS, CLE, ATL, MIA, MIL, CHA, TOR, DET, CHI). However, there are absolute NOT 10 teams in the west that have a legitimate shot of winning the conference, either in the regular season or the playoffs. In the playoffs, it's almost certainly going to be LA, barring a major injury. In the regular season, Phoenix and Denver may also have a chance. In the East, Orlando, Boston, and Cleveland all have a real shot at finishing with the best record in the conference. Also, any one of those teams would be favorites against any western conference team other than the Lakers.
To make things worse, the West had the top 7 picks in the draft this past year. However, Milwaukee may have come away with the best player in Brandon Jennings.
I think by "fighting for a playoff spot" he meant being a legitimate playoff caliber team. That is true. The East has only 5 teams above .500 while the West has 9. 10 of the top 16 teams are from the West. 3 of the bottom 4 teams are from the East. Tell me which conference is stronger.
