The East closing the gap on the West?

[bulliedog8]

Warriors
Clippers
Cavs
Raptors
Bulls
Spurs
Hawks
Thunder
Heat

in that order right now. East is overall better now and better in the top 4. Anyone who disagrees is just hurt that the east is now better

[DowJones]

I think the top-4 in the East is comparable to the top-4 in the West but the West is much deeper overall. Of course that is assuming teams like Houston and NO get their act together. The depth of the West took a hit when Portland blew it up and Dallas fell off.

[homecourtloss]

Sample size is small, but last year, in a small sample size, the East was already demonstrably worse than the West after a week of basketball if we went by head to head records. We can't say that this year so far. As far as playoff viability goes, the GSW, Cavs, OKC, Clips, and Spurs look to be the only possible contenders, so while the gal will close this year, outside if Cleveland, there aren't any contenders in the East.

[Nebula1]

I think it's fair to put Atlanta and Chicago in the contender category with Washington getting closer.

There is no doubt the East is improving at its core, even if the teams are too immature to become contenders at this time. IE, Milwaukee.

[choomag]

No


It's that when a west team plays against a east team, they think, oh sweet! Basically a off day...

That's what all other teams think too when they play the Lakers.

[devilsace]

Ok its 5-6 games into the season for teams...the Spurs started slow last year as well and they have a new ALL-NBA player to incorporate, OKC lost Durant for almost all of last year and they will get better, Harden started rolling now so you will see the rockets pick it up too....Im a Raptor fan and comeon saying we are getting closer, dont forget that we started 24-7 last year too and beat some west teams as well, Lets visit this thread 2 months down the road and see if the east really got better, not 5 to 6 games in

[Zion Wembanyama]

Get back to me after the season is over.

[Asif16]

Na, I'm chill brah, this place is full of delusion when it comes to the Rockets... you're no different.. it's ok.

The Rockets were the 2nd seed in one of the deepest conferences ever last year riddled with injuries and made it to the WCF... pretty absurd to think ATL, CHI, WASH, or especially Tor could beat them in 7 game series.... as far as I can tell Toronto can't beat anyone in a 7 game series with HC in the east.

Oh dang bruh i had no idea this thread was referring to the past. Im basing my opinion off what i see so far this year and what this thread is referring too. Its way too early but still the Rockets dont scare me as much imo. Spurs/Thunder/Clips/Warriors are the top dogs in the west. Rockets a playoff team for sure but thats about it. Spurs are a different animal this year. OKC didnt even make the playoffs last season due to injuries. If you think houston is gonna be the 2nd seed again and make it back to the WCF you got another thing coming.

Playoffs aside, You're basically saying if you move the rockets to the east, that they're automatically 2nd in the east after the cavs in the regular season. That could very well be true, but all im saying is that you can make a case for either ATL, WASH, TOR, CHI, or even the Heat to be better and that its not gonna be the usual "OH HOUSTON TAKES A DUMP ON ANY EASTERN CONFERENCE TEAM CUZ THEY ALL TRASH".

The Rockets were 2nd in the West 5 months ago with worst injuries problems than any other playoff team in the WEST.... they would without a doubt be the 2nd seed in the east if not the 1st.

they aren't playing well at this very moment but so what? it's ridiculous to look at a 5 game sample size.... why not just look at a one game sample size... Wizards > Spurs then

to claim that Toronto could beat the Rockets in a 7 games series? It's absurd. Toronto got SWEPT out of the first round of the EC playoffs... 5 months ago... the team is essentially the same and the Rockets are likely even better in the long run with the addition of Lawson.

The fact that you said the raptors are "essentially the same team" shows me how much you watch the rest of the NBA other than your own team.

Hey Its cool you dont follow the raptors. Not a lot of people do, especially in the western conference. But dont talk out of your ass pretending like you do. Our team definitely isnt the same from last year.

Out:
Amir Johnson
Lou Williams
Greivis Vasquez
Tyler Hansbro
Chuck Hayes
Landry Fields

In:
Demarre Carrol
Cory Joseph
Luis Scola
Bismack Biyombo
Norman Powell
Delon Wright

Thats a much better supporting cast to go along with our big three of Lowry, Derozan and Valaciunas. Irony in your post is that between the raps and rockets, rockets are essentially the same team outside of adding Lawson.

But getting back to point, you obviously are getting butthurt over what im saying because you seem to be bashing the raps and bringing up the past. You seem confident that the rockets would 2nd seed no doubt in the east, even first apparently. Thats your opinion and i respect that. In my earlier post, i even said the rockets COULD very well could be the best in the east.

But in MY OPINION, i dont think thats case and that you cant confidently say that. I believe the Wiz, Bulls, Raps, Hawks or the heat all can be have better seasons because they have either equally as talented if not better teams than the rockets. Regardless of their great run last season, the rockets dont have my full confidence. Its my opinion, you dont have to agree with it.

[Troubadour]

Easy answer NO! Some of the West teams have just come out shaky

Probably due to the fact that they're in the West.

Being in the West doesn't explain losing to teams in the East. I think the conferences are balancing out. Years of getting higher draft picks had to pay off eventually.

[Troubadour]

Warriors
Clippers
Cavs
Raptors
Bulls
Spurs
Hawks
Thunder
Heat

in that order right now. East is overall better now and better in the top 4. Anyone who disagrees is just hurt that the east is now better

The Wizards are better than the Heat. That backcourt is dominant.

[cammac]

Right now the only truly dominant team in the NBA is GS. Then I think obviously you should put the Cav's after that the reality is the gap has closed with many Eastern & Western teams.
Clipper had a easy 1st 4 games against non-contenders from the West and fell to GS.
SAS lost to OKC in 1st game got 3 wins against the East Brooklyn, Boston & Knicks before falling to Washington the only top tier Eastern team they faced.
OKC the only memorable win against SAS, scraped out a victory in overtime against Orlando, beat Denver then lost 3 straight to Houston, Toronto and Chicago.
Houston lost 3 straight to start the season with Miami beating them, beat OKC but couldn't hold them under 100PTs which both Toronto & Chicago did. Win in overtime against Orlando.
Grizzlies lost to Cleveland won against Indiana & Brooklyn lost to GS & Portland and a victory over SAC.
The West has got most of their Victories against 2nd or 3rd tier teams in the East while losing to top tier teams.
Cleveland 1 & 0
Chicago 1 & 0
Washington 1 & 0
Toronto 2 & 0
Miami 2 & 0
Atlanta 0 & 0

[dalton749]

The west has a lot more flashy type players making them look a lot better, but it is closing. The east is more of an ugly, grinding type style, but should have competitive teams down to 13, roughly the same as the west

[WWSRD]

1. GS
2. Healthy Cavs
3. LAC
4. Spurs
5. OKC
6. Houston

I still have 5 West teams in the top 6.

[lilswift01]

The only true dominant team in the west is GS. Every other team has some glaring weaknesses that can be exploited in a 7 game series. Maybe not san antonio.

[Johnlac1]

Sample size is small, but last year, in a small sample size, the East was already demonstrably worse than the West after a week of basketball if we went by head to head records. We can't say that this year so far. As far as playoff viability goes, the GSW, Cavs, OKC, Clips, and Spurs look to be the only possible contenders, so while the gal will close this year, outside if Cleveland, there aren't any contenders in the East.

The Bulls are definite contenders. The Bulls have about as much overall firepower as any team in the league. The key is Rose staying healthy and returning close to his old form. Which is what he looked like against OKC.

[HotRocks34]

The two best offensive teams (ORTG) in the league are in the West. Warriors and Thunder.

Now guess who has the 3rd-best ORTG in the NBA right now?

Spoiler:

Charlotte Hornets

Just one small sign of how the East is slowly catching up with the West. It's little things, and lesser teams, making improvements. There hasn't been a titanic shift but the East is getting better.

[daschysta]

Closing, but still not that close, I'd say. The one guy from this draft that looks like a future All-NBA guy went to the West.

In terms of young teams that seem to have a lot of talent, there's more of them in the East, but that doesn't mean they'll develop, stay together, and eventually dominate.

Towns looks like the class of the draft. However, Okafor, Winslow, Turner, Johnson and Prozingas all have the potential to be studs and have looked better than Mudjay, Russel etc...

[Got Nuffin]

The west is definitely still better but it looks very, very top heavy now compared to previous seasons.

Warriors Spurs Clippers - best teams in the league
Houston looking shaky
then you have Dallas, Portland, Memphis who were all dominant but seem to have dropped off quickly.
New Orleans could take the last spot.

The east has a bunch of teams who could win 50 this season:

Cavs
Bulls Heat Raptors Wizards Hawks
Pistons Bucks (imo the last playoff teams)

So when you look at it like that the gap has closed considerably and the East will be a dogfight, but the cream of the crop is still in the west.

[ken6199]

If you only look at the current form right now, Detroit has to be a title contender, maybe Toronto too. Are they?

I do think the East is on the rise (fellow West homers, give them credit). The key thing is most of the rebuilding teams have pretty much completed their transition. They are fighting for playoff spots now from the get go, and wish to have a successful year to lure big time free agents to reach the level of absolutely stacked, and title challenging. Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Washington, Charlotte, Miami, Orlando, all capable of mounting serious challenge. Outside of Nets and Philly, everyone is pretty much all out fighting.

Having said that, West is not on a decline either (some East trash talkers, I hear ya). Power houses remain the same or even better, the conference is very top heavy. Mid-tier dropped a bit but you have up rising teams coming up too. In a year or two, TWolves gonna be really good. This year, you might see Utah being really good already. Portland looks like their rebuilding process can be a lot shorter than you would imagine, by taking a swift and solid first step.

So in summary, yeah the gap is closing, but more to do with East rapid rising rather than West declining.

[RonSwanson]

I look at the Clippers and Rockets the same way many fans of Western teams look at teams like Atlanta and Chicago. They have plenty of talent and are, perhaps, "title contenders" but I honestly can't see any of those teams surpassing Golden State, OKC or San Antonio (Or the Cavs in Chicago and Atlanta's case.).