West vs. East

[themanishere]

I remember how, early this season, people were talking about the parity between conferences.

HOWEVAH, 30+ games in, and that supposed parity is slowly widening into the same situation as last season between conferences. In the East, there are two teams at .500 or below holding playoff spots, while Utah (at 18-14) is 9th in the West.

QUITE FRANKLY, it is funny how media (especially BSPN) can still hype things like this.

[WilyWestbrook0]

While there isn't true parity in the overall standings, there is no longer this enormous chasm between the conferences, and I actually think the East has been better than the West so far this season. While the East has a lot of teams hovering around .500 right now, they only have one truly bad team (Washington, the only team in the East with fewer than ten victories). The West has five teams with fewer than ten victories (Golden State 9, Clippers 8, Sacramento 7, Minnesota 5, and Oklahoma City 3). Thanks to the West's collection of that quintuple futility, not even the nine teams with 16+ victories (East has six) can make up for the fact that, as a conference, they have 17 fewer cumulative team victories than the East.

[themanishere]

I can roll with that, but I'm speaking more to the collective performance of 'top' teams within each conference, hence the playoff W-L records and .500 and below teams in playoff spots.

I imagine not too many people would say the East's playoff bracket comes close, from top to bottom overall, to the West's. Not as it stands right now.

[WilyWestbrook0]

The West definitely has the advantage in the playoff bracket.

I am not familiar with BSPN, but some media outlets (Chris Webber and Gary Payton on NBA TV, for instance) still act as though it's easy to win in the East. When discussing Boston's and Cleveland's prominence a few nights ago, they flippantly remarked that "well, it's not hard to be good in the East!" Sure, the playoff bracket isn't as long, but it's not like the conference is a cakewalk anymore.

It'll be interesting to see if much changes as the season continues.

[garnett_21]

Which conference has the better top teams? Easy. East. They have 2 teams on pace for 70 wins, with the Magic on pace for 65. The west? Lakers are on pace for 65, then there aren't any teams on pace for even 60 wins.

Now, if you are asking which team will have the more competitive first-round playoff matchups, that is also easy. That goes to the west.

[themanishere]

Now, if you are asking which team will have the more competitive first-round playoff matchups, that is also easy. That goes to the west.

Which means it is tougher to get further in the playoffs in the West, since teams are more even on a high level, and thus more competitive from top to bottom.

I am not disputing that the East has two of the three best teams in the league, but the overall playoff experience is more difficult in the West.

[garnett_21]

In terms of playoff competition, yes, the west is better....but, the east is better overall IMO in terms of regular season play.

[whalechaser]

The parity comes in that the east and west will both have serious title contenders at the end of their conference playoffs, unlike the late 90's early 2000's where basically the western conference finals was pretty much the league finals, and the top east team was the New Jersey nets or the 76er's.

[BravesFan4Life]

It really comes and goes in cycles, strange breakdown but check this out:

1950-59: Mixed bag, 6 Titles Western, 4 Titles Eastern,

1960-69: All East, 10 Titles

1970-79: Mixed bag, 5 Titles West and EAst

1980-89: Mixed Bag, 5 Titles West and East

1990-99: East tilt, 7 to 3

2000-09: West Tilt, 6 to 3

The 90s belonged to the east and the 00s belong to the West. Only one period has seen a conference dominate that badly(the 1960s and the great Celtics teams, etc). The league does really balance itself out. As great as the West has been, 3 teams have won titles this decade. The same can be said of the 90s, as great as the east was(Bulls primarily but still), the West still won 3 titles. Next decade you will probably see a return of the balance. that has been historically seen in the league.

[WilyWestbrook0]

If you take the Lakers out of the equation, the '80s East was more competitive. The Celtics, 76ers, Pistons, Bucks, and even the Hawks and Bulls were very tough. The Lakers never really had a consistent Western rival during that time. While the Rockets and Mavericks had a few good seasons, it was nothing compared to the logjam of talent over in the East.

I'd also say the West was more competitive in the '90s even though the Bulls were so much better than everyone else during that time. The Rockets, Jazz, SuperSonics, Spurs, and Suns were consistently very, very tough. The Bulls had the Knicks and the late '90s Pacers, but not much else. Orlando was good in the mid '90s with Shaq and Penny, but not the early and late '90s. The Pistons and Cavs were tough for the first couple of years or so, but not near so much in the mid and late '90s.