Just think if Otto Porter ends up being worth a dime. Just this week, he had his first practice since September.
The difference between the conferences is now so extreme that it really needs to be taken into account via conference-adjusted stats. In other words, if you were playing for the Jazz, say, it would be much harder to put up good numbers playing four games a season against all of the strong teams in the West than it would be if you were playing for the Bucks and only playing against the Western powerhouses twice a year.
Wizards starting lineup is doing great, tbh. They have 3 lineups in top10 in the league in terms of NetRtg (min 50 minutes). Wall/Nene/Gortat + any combination of Ariza, Webster and Beal are playing very solid basketball but their bench is horrific. Besides Webster their best player off the bench this season is... Vesely.
if the trend continues this season, the league has a real problem there is an entire conference of unwatchable teams
The records would be even worse if there was a balanced schedule. Conferences play the majority of their games w/in their own conference, so for this disparity to continue, the West will have to destroy the East in every inter-conference meeting. Historically, the unbalanced schedule has sort of hidden how bad the East has been over the last 20 years. It's been a problem the NBA has not cared about enough to try to resolve at all.
And this is why people have been massively overrating the Pacers, and Paul George Their schedule is just so stupidly easy compared to anyone in the West.
5 of their 7 next games are against the clips, Spurs, blazers, thunder and heat, so i guess we'll see if they're legit in the next two weeks.
Just checked out the standings... I'm disgusted. After Indiana and Miami, who cares? & looking at the west, there are more solid teams than I can count on two hands.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>How pathetic is the Eastern Conference? Lakers, with a 9-8 record, would be the 3rd best team behind Indiana and Miami.</p>— Josh Green (@Josh_P_Green) <a href="https://twitter.com/Josh_P_Green/statuses/406621631184764928">November 30, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Hopefully the nets and Knicks get their act together post allstar and finish 7th and 8th on the east to make a good first round in the playoffs. Miami vs Brooklyn (Lebron vs peirce rivalry) Indi vs New York (rematch from past playoffs series, would be great if NYC won)
Only two Western Conference teams have records that wouldn't make the playoff positions in the East right now and 3 teams outside the playoff spots in the West have good enough records to be 3rd in the East. What a joke.
What can the league do about it? They aren't making these Eastern teams suck. Knicks and Nets were expected to be much better than they have been. The Cavs were also expected to be better and the Wiz could be a decent team.
^ Seriously. While we get stuck in the toughest division in the league, one with S.A. With that we can never get a top 4 seed unless we get a better record than them.
Balance the schedule. Have a rotation like they do in the NFL. Make the playoffs based on 16 best records. There are people that won't agree and that's fine but Miami has a defacto dynasty in the making because they don't have to play a rested spurs or OKC team in round 1 or 2. Meanwhile, we're getting two of the best 3 teams in the league matching up in the semi-final what seems like year in and year out. 2007 PHO v SAS anyone?
We can still have a top 4 seed still. We just need a better record then GSW and Portland (I am predicting Clippers and OKC to win their divisions)
They could probably start by fixing the lottery system. Teams with GMs like Morey should be rewarded for rebuilding teams without tanking, because it's the best of both worlds, but also extremely difficult to accomplish. So when Morey was seemingly putting the team on a mediocrity treadmill, but was actually collecting assets to flip for star players, why do pure craptastic teams like Cleveland get the 1st pick? The NBA should be rewarding teams that remain competitive and push for championship aspirations through good management. Allowing teams to simply suck and hope for the 1st pick is how you keep bad management around, because being bad would be part of the management's plan.
