People need to realize this about the Western Conference

Everything changes

Remember how dominant the east was in the 80's

 

Still doesn't chnage the fact that for years, teams with pathetic records got into the Eastern playoffs, but teams with semi strong records in the West didn't make the playoffs.

 

Get this guy a genius medal.

 

Yet the championship has a better chance of coming out of the West again this season.

All that other **** is irrelevant. The west will be back to being the superior conference in a couple of years. Injuries have also taken a huge toll on the West.

 

It has only gotten easier for the Lakers. We will see if San Antonio can hold up.

Add Dallas losing Caron Butler. That will turn out to be huge.

 

Not really Boston and Miami chances are about the same as the Lakers and San Antonio.

 

Blake Griffin, Demarcus Cousins, Kevin Durant, Lemarcus Alridge, Kevin Love...for the Rockets it still doesn't get any easier. Rockets still have a worse record than the Lakers, Mavs, Spurs, Nugs, Suns, Blazers, OKC, Hornets, Memphis and the J*!$.

That's why we need Terrence Jones, ASAP!

 

Why does this even matter? There is a difference between a subpar team that has a chance at the playoffs and a legitimate title contender. The legitimate title contenders will be in the mix regardless of the strength of the conference. In terms of the Rockets, they don't fall into either of these categories right now, so conference strength really doesn't matter.

 

San Antonio - Duncan is still a good player but no where near as dominant as he was earlier in his career. Actually have you not been seeing them this season? his numbers are drastically down, and his minutes decreased too. parker isnt old yet, hill, blair, splitter is just some of the young talent this team has got. and dont forget about ginobli. he still has gas in his tank. san antonio is far from gone.

Dallas - before the injury dirk was having his best season yet. he still has plenty of years on him, and dallas is never afraid to spend money, jj barea, and beadrious, or whatever his name is, they will have another star after butler, chandler, haywood, and terry are gone, no way they fall out at all.

OKC - If they can manage to keep their core together and add a bit of help they will be the team to beat for the next few years.

Utah - They always have something up their sleeve, they will either get a gold mine when they trade williams in the future, and will develop players which they are very good at doing, or they will adjust the team around williams, as it was built around boozer for a while. this team aint fading anytime soon.

Portland - the OP nailed it with the comparison to McGrady and Yao tho they still have some good pieces. They are not yao and tmac, no way no how, they never really played at all together, so you cant compare, yao and tmac were expected to win championships, oden and roy? there were no expectation, because theyre was never time for them to develop as a team. they are amazing at draftiing and will only get better as time goes by.


Memphis - Could be the dark horse of this bunch. They have a lot of young talent but they are about 1 - 2 players away from being a contender, they just need to realize what they have, and this team, is only going to get better, and are going to keep building around gay. expect this team to rise.

Kings - Evans, Cousins, Whiteside, Casspi? any of these young guys ring a bell. this team is barely beggining to rise. young team, and expect another top 5 pick this year. now they just need new management, and a new building, and trust me, you will be seeing kings that was fun to watch.

Clippers - Really? No mention of this team. slap yourself. 5 words is all i need to say. Eric Gordon and Blake Griffin.

and if the rockets make a move to make us better

the west is about to get that much better in about 2-3 years.

 

Obviously he's talking about teams contending this year and how tough it is in the playoffs in the Western Conference. Most of the teams you named either aren't making the playoffs or will not make any noise in the playoffs.

 

Kings and Clippers? Be serious.

 

The west has gotten worse and the East has gotten better. It's a fact.

 

I don't think much has changed - the East is still top heavy. It used to be the only teams you didn't want to play in the East were Boston, Orlando, and Cleveland. Now it's Boston, Orlando, and Miami. Chicago and Atlanta are decent but pretty much everyone else (Knicks included) probably wouldn't even make the playoffs in the West....

 

The Bulls are more than "decent". They are better than the Magic and it wouldn't surprise me if they ended up the #2 seed in the East.

 

Bulls a serious Eastern conference champion threat....lol @ decent.

The West is in deep **** when it comes to winning a title (Non-Lakers)...

OKC won't win anything with THAT core, DEN is a lame duck team, Utah could be the next Nuggets...MIN, LAC, PHX, SAC and MEM are flawed, too old, no cap space, little to no depth and POR had too many injuries. As for our team? Well, we are in that flawed area with Minny, Clips, Suns, Kings and the Grizzle.

 

How is Chicago only 'decent' when they have a better record than Orlando and they're only half a game behind Miami?

 

The West won't have to "come back" at all. The West is still far superior this year, as it has been for many years. The East has about five or six good teams, but then nothing is left but trash. The West has a couple of horrible teams, but not nearly as many as the East. If we are looking at both conferences from top to bottom, the West continues to reign supreme.

 

Sure, the west "reigns supreme" if your idea of reigning is having a lot of decent teams that can win 45+ games but not have any chance at winning a championship.