When Portland and Seattle got the top two picks of this years draft, people are acting like the East is doomed further because of this. However, look at who had the last few years' #1 pick since the turn of the century: 2000 New Jersey 2001 Washington 2002 Houston 2003 Cleveland 2004 Orlando 2005 Milwaukee 2006 Toronto From 2000 to 2006, 6 out of 7 #1 picks were made by an Eastern team, the only exception being, well, us. Did those #1 picks create an inbalance in the NBA in favor of the East? Well, you know what the answer is. The East had its chances at #1 picks. The teams didn't use them well. There is no guarentee that had another Eastern team got the #1 pick, it would help tipping the balance of power. The East stinks because of poor management, not the NBA draft.
The entire premise of your post is flawed. You make the assertion that the Eastern teams made bad picks. I think that is completely wrong except in the case of the Washington Wizards. The Nets selected Kenyon Martin in 2000. Until his injury, he was the best/most successful player from the 1st round that year. Kwame was a total wash. Cleveland selected LeBron James. He's a future HOF player, nuff said. Dwight Howard is a beast. It's too early to tell, but he could easily turn out to be the best player in that draft class. Andrew Bogut isn't a tremendous player, but far from a flop pick. Outside of the two PGs, he's right up there with everyone else from that draft. Bargnani was the clear cut 2nd best rookie behind Brandon Roy this season and helped his team win its first ever division title. I think there will be an eventual levelling out of good talent in the NBA, it will just take some time for these players to develop to superstar level and for their franchises to put the proper talent around them. Look at LeBron, he's already in the conference finals and has shown the capability, in my opinion, to take his team to the championship level in the future. Don't forget a team from the east won the title last year on the back of a player drafted in the top 5 a few years ago.
2000 and 2001 were both incredibly weak drafts, as was 05 and probably 06. Is it Washington's fault they won the lottery when the best available player was Richard Jefferson instead of Yao Ming?
??????? #1 2001 Draft Picks #3 Pau Gasol #5 Jason Richardson #10 Joe Johnson #13 Richard Jefferson #19 Zach Randolph #28 Tony Parker #31 Gilbert Arenas #38 Mehmet Okur
