The way I see it, I still wouldn't be happy playing those bottom teams as a top seed. Memphis? HELL NO Dallas? Not too fond of it. Phoenix? They've beaten us on our homefloor already, can get hot and school us at any time.
The East being unusually weak this year doesn't mean the West is automatically tougher. How is that a hard argument to understand?
Most of the talent in the East has moved to the West. Even the horrible West teams would make the playoffs in the East. How is that hard to Understand?
What up, sir? I remember you from ESPN, unless I'm wrong. Dude's were hating hard before the board closed.
I believe this is on pace for highest winning % from one conference over another. It was in Dec anyway.
And yeah I seriously think New Orleans, Denver, maybe even Utah would be in the playoff picture in the East. Crazy.
You seem to be having a lot of fun arguing with literally every one on this thread. But sorry, you just have yet to present enough evidence to convince us that the Western Conference is not "really tough." Or that the Eastern Conference is tougher.
The talent pool feeding into the NBA is almost a constant. Millions of kids scratching their way up through the various levels of basketball trying to make it to the NBA. That selection system has not changed in forever. The population of kids however has grown in lockstep with the US population growth rates. From a statistical standpoint the talent may vary from year to year, but when considered over a decade's time span it is almost constant. Or possibly increasing due to the greater number of kids entering the selection process. So, this years record breaking dominance by the WC means that more talent, significantly more NBA talent, resides in the WC than the EC. I hope this clears the matter up.
The Wild Wild West is very tough again this season. Lose a few games and you could be fighting for that 8th seed.
I think people use the adjective "tough" to describe how difficult it is to get ahead in the competition for a playoff berth or a higher seed. As it stands now, the GB between the #3 and the #5 seed is as narrow as it can be--half a game. And four teams are fighting for a playoff spot with three teams locked by half a game, and the #9 is only one game behind with a 0.576 win%. The GB between #1 seed and #9 in the West is 10.5 games, while it's 22.5 games for the East. I would call this level of competition in the Western Conference red hot or even white hot. And it a really really tough WC. Can someone remind me of another season for either the East or the West when something like this has happened?
