What Happened to the East?

Of East's 6 most talented teams, 4 had significant injuries this year.

 

Of the west's 6 most talented teams, 6 had significant injuries this year.

 

Bad owners.

 

Obama?

 

Kobe: "Put me in the east and see what happens."

 

We have a winner! Bad owners hire bad GMs. Bad GMs draft bad players and mismanage the cap.

That said, Toronto, Atlanta, and Philly appear to be headed in the right direction from a GM spot.

 

Look at injuries in detail, time and extent. You'll see a difference.

 

Bad owners in outdated markets. Milwaukee, Cleveland, Detroit all Midwest cities that have been in decline for decades with dwindling fan-bases and little to no interest in supporting their teams. The owners are content with the TV deals they have in place and are in no hurry to spend on top level management. Move these teams to more vibrant and growing markets and see how they will have to appease the fan-base.

 

The east has the best two teams in the NBA, so they just settle for that and ignore all the other eastern teams.

 

I would say to when the West takes the best moreso. Boston, Detroit, NJ, Kings none of them had the best payer

 

I think it's a combination of many factors. As mentioned above, the East is full of bad owners who hire bad GMs (and I'll add it's AMAZING how James Dolan has managed to squander all of the collective advantages his franchise has for decades now). But I think the lottery system is kind of broken too. If the West is stronger practically from the top to the bottom (as it has been for more than a decade now) the worst teams in the West tend to have worse records than the worst teams in the East. So the Clippers get Blake Griffin. New Orleans gets Anthony Davis. Etc.

I expect Utah will likely get the number one pick this year even with the East being so desperately in need of talent. It's a good thing there is a lot of talent to go around this year.

 

I'm not even so sure of this. I find myself wondering if either the Pacers or the Heat would have as strong of records if they had to face the teams in the West as often as they have to face the weaker competition in the East. That said, I still think the Championship is Miami's to lose.

 

Given the choice of fighting Lebron James for a berth in the Finals and selecting Wiggins in the draft (with good consolation prizes for runners-up to boot), which way would you go?

 

I don't think team who have the potential to suck really worry about meeting LeBron in the ECF. They'd have to beat the pacers first. I agree on first round. But not ECF. Pacers totally want another shot.

 

Tanking is one thing when there is just a few teams that know they can't compete, but now the east is just becoming a joke. What second level star would even want to play on one of those teams? At least ATL tried to give it a shot. Make yourself competitive and try and attract that first star.

 

Pacers are 9-2 vs the West and let's not even bring up the Heats record vs the West. They really do have the best 2 teams in the NBA.

 

i believe it a combination of several factors

a. the biggest market in the east is dominanted by arguably the WORST front office (NU Knicks)
b. the supposedly new contender of this year crashed Brooklin
c. the traditional 1-4 member had a disabling injury -> Chicago and the Roze return => reinjurey (not a big Rose fan but such an accident can ruin a team Morale)
d. a traditional playoff member enter a total rebuild season -> Boston
e. predicted STRONG DRAFT !!! lead to massive tanking by many

 

Indiana and Miami play a good team about once every 14 days or something. In the West, you can't go through a 4 game stretch without playing at least one or two playoff teams. The wear and tear that a Western Conference team goes through during the course of a season doesn't even compare to the cakewalk a team like the Heat face.

 

Not only is the East bad, but their style of play is pretty boring to watch - JVG-like slow paced and defense-oriented basketball.