Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West!

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Which conference will be better in 2020-2021?

Eastern Conference
11
21%
Western Conference
41
79%
 
Total votes: 52

Metallikid
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Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#1 » by Metallikid » Thu Aug 13, 2020 8:39 am

The 2020-2021 season will finally be the first season in the LeBron era in which the Eastern Conference will have the better overall and head-to-head records than the Western Conference!

Discuss.



East:

Raptors - Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol
Celtics - Jayson Tatum, Kemba Walker, Gordon Hayward
76ers - Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Al Horford
Nets - Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving
Knicks - N/A

Bucks - Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez, Kyle Korver
Pacers - Domantas Sabonis, Victor Oladipo
Bull - N/A
Pistons - Blake Griffin, Derrick Rose
Cavaliers - Kevin Love, Andre Drummond

Heat - Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Goran Dragic, Andre Iguodala
Magic - Nikola Vucevic
Wizards - Bradley Beal, John Wall
Hornets - N/A
Hawks - Trae Young

West:

Nuggets - Nikola Jokic, Paul Millsap
Thunder - Chris Paul
Jazz - Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell
Trailblazers - Damian Lillard, Carmelo Anthony
Timberwolves - Karl-Anthony Towns, D'Angelo Russell

Lakers - LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo
Clippers - Kawhi Leonard, Paul George
Suns - Devin Booker
Kings - N/A
Warriors - Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green

Rockets - James Harden, Russell Westbrook
Mavericks - Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis
Grizzlies - N/A
Spurs - DeMar DeRozan, LaMarcus Aldridge
Pelicans - Jrue Holiday, Brandon Ingram

Current and Former All-Stars: East - 29 West - 27
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#2 » by Dr Aki » Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:16 am

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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#3 » by Raps in 4 » Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:43 am

It was already pretty close this year. The west still has more top-end talent though with almost every team having at least one top-10 player on their roster, while pretty much only Milwaukee and maybe Philly meet that criteria in the East.

Things will be interesting next year when GSW and Portland are healthy. There are potentially going to be 9 teams in the West with .600+ winning percentages.
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#4 » by bobobolas10 » Thu Aug 13, 2020 9:47 am

I think the only season the East was better than the West is 2018-2019. (in a long time)

Raptors, Celtics, 76ers and of course, the Bucks. Any of them could have won the ring that year...


...mostly because the warriors were injured.
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#5 » by Optms » Thu Aug 13, 2020 10:06 am

I actually have the West taking a major leap forward next year, so not really for me:

- Clippers and Lakers are going to remain juggernauts and possibly improve
- Dallas will continue its rise up the ranks as the next big contender
- Warriors are going to come back as in elite form, possible fav's to come out
- Utah and Denver are going to remain perennial playoff fodder
- Rockets will remain a tier below the elite
- OKC will remain more or less the same, 50 win team
- New Orleans will emerge as the next 50 win team
- Blazers will remain a 50 win viable team when Nurkic comes back, possible high seed
- Young teams like the Suns and Grizzlies will make playoff pushes
- Spurs remain a low seed threat if Pop remains

Meanwhile

- Bucks have peaked, will likely regress, turmoil with Giannis will begin
- Raptors will remain the same if not regress, second round team
- Heat are solid but nothing spectacular
- Sixers have peaked, moron coach isn't going anywhere
- Nets will self implode
- Celtics being the only team to have a shot at becoming a contender with Tatum and company
- Magic are bad
- Wiz are trash
- Hawks are trash
- Knicks lol
- Lolcats lol
- Bulls lol
- Cavs lol
- Pistons lol
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#6 » by leolozon » Thu Aug 13, 2020 10:55 am

How does going by all-stars make any sense? The All-Star game is 12 guys from each conference every year even though that 12th guy in the East is generally more underserving than the 13-15th guy in the West. Having more former all-stars doesn't mean you have better players.

The West should obviously be better.

You listed Kyle Korver for a start... and many other guys that aren't as impactful now as before (Griffin, Iguodala, Rose, Love etc)
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#7 » by Village Idiot » Thu Aug 13, 2020 10:57 am

Let's have playoffs and an off-season first before we jump to any conclusions. Given the league's dramatic revenue fall we're probably going to have a very unusual off-season and a lot of guys are going to get paid a lot less than they're expecting. You also have teams like the Sixers that are looking at an $85 million luxury tax bill, teams selling picks in a bad draft or trading down for cash. I don't expect a lot of major moves but there will be plenty of smaller transactions which will have a significant impact on each team.
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#8 » by mariller » Thu Aug 13, 2020 11:00 am

Raps in 4 wrote:It was already pretty close this year. The west still has more top-end talent though with almost every team having at least one top-10 player on their roster, while pretty much only Milwaukee and maybe Philly meet that criteria in the East.

Things will be interesting next year when GSW and Portland are healthy. There are potentially going to be 9 teams in the West with .600+ winning percentages.


It's difficult for 15 teams to have at least 1 top-10 player when there is only 10 of them, and some are in the Eastern Conference :D
Anyway, no way, not really close.
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#9 » by NuggetsWY » Thu Aug 13, 2020 11:15 am

Overall, total record, the West will still be better. Some will measure "better" based on who wants the title.
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#10 » by Statlanta » Thu Aug 13, 2020 11:24 am

Even if the records were similar I still wouldn't take them as better. Stats, win totals in this case, are misleading without context.

There's simply more talent in the West.

Just thinking of the teams that will miss the playoffs in the play-in is kinda sad.

The DeRozan Spurs
The Curry Warriors
The Rubio Suns
The Ja Grizzlies
The Fox Kings
The Zion Pelicans
The KAT Wolves

All teams I would rather see in the playoffs than Orlando, a team that supposedly is on the same trajectory as the Mavericks but clearly less talented.

Besides Brooklyn(who took one of the best players from the West) there really isn't a team to get excited about next season.
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#11 » by Dutchball97 » Thu Aug 13, 2020 11:27 am

The top teams in the east are looking good the current top 6 along with the KD/Kyrie Nets should make the play-offs more competitive than they've been in past years but after those 7 teams the east still lacks any semblance of depth. Meanwhile the west has about 12-13 play-off level teams.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the east top 4 outperform the west top 4 next year but the western conference is just so much deeper than the east.
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#12 » by Raps in 4 » Thu Aug 13, 2020 11:33 am

mariller wrote:
Raps in 4 wrote:It was already pretty close this year. The west still has more top-end talent though with almost every team having at least one top-10 player on their roster, while pretty much only Milwaukee and maybe Philly meet that criteria in the East.

Things will be interesting next year when GSW and Portland are healthy. There are potentially going to be 9 teams in the West with .600+ winning percentages.


It's difficult for 15 teams to have at least 1 top-10 player when there is only 10 of them, and some are in the Eastern Conference :D
Anyway, no way, not really close.


LAL: Lebron, AD
LAC: Kawhi
Denver: Jokic
Houston: Harden
GSW: Steph
Portland: Dame
Dallas: Luka

These are all top-10 players. The East has Giannis. And depending on how well he's recovered, KD could be there too.
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#13 » by mariller » Thu Aug 13, 2020 12:28 pm

Raps in 4 wrote:
mariller wrote:
Raps in 4 wrote:It was already pretty close this year. The west still has more top-end talent though with almost every team having at least one top-10 player on their roster, while pretty much only Milwaukee and maybe Philly meet that criteria in the East.

Things will be interesting next year when GSW and Portland are healthy. There are potentially going to be 9 teams in the West with .600+ winning percentages.


It's difficult for 15 teams to have at least 1 top-10 player when there is only 10 of them, and some are in the Eastern Conference :D
Anyway, no way, not really close.


LAL: Lebron, AD
LAC: Kawhi
Denver: Jokic
Houston: Harden
GSW: Steph
Portland: Dame
Dallas: Luka

These are all top-10 players. The East has Giannis. And depending on how well he's recovered, KD could be there too.


Well you did say "almost every team having at least one top-10 player on their roster"
And then you listed 7 teams out of 15, out of which only one has more than one :lol:

I know nitpicking, but come onnnnnnnnnn.
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#14 » by realball » Thu Aug 13, 2020 12:49 pm

Optms wrote:I actually have the West taking a major leap forward next year, so not really for me:

- Clippers and Lakers are going to remain juggernauts and possibly improve
- Dallas will continue its rise up the ranks as the next big contender
- Warriors are going to come back as in elite form, possible fav's to come out
- Utah and Denver are going to remain perennial playoff fodder
- Rockets will remain a tier below the elite
- OKC will remain more or less the same, 50 win team
- New Orleans will emerge as the next 50 win team
- Blazers will remain a 50 win viable team when Nurkic comes back, possible high seed
- Young teams like the Suns and Grizzlies will make playoff pushes
- Spurs remain a low seed threat if Pop remains

Meanwhile

- Bucks have peaked, will likely regress, turmoil with Giannis will begin
- Raptors will remain the same if not regress, second round team
- Heat are solid but nothing spectacular
- Sixers have peaked, moron coach isn't going anywhere
- Nets will self implode
- Celtics being the only team to have a shot at becoming a contender with Tatum and company
- Magic are bad
- Wiz are trash
- Hawks are trash
- Knicks lol
- Lolcats lol
- Bulls lol
- Cavs lol
- Pistons lol


LOL Lakers with 35 year old Lebron and no young players will continue to improve, while Milwaukee with Giannis just entering his prime has peaked... Sure thing pal.
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#15 » by Sgt Major » Thu Aug 13, 2020 1:11 pm

Terrible post.

- Dallas as the next big contender with two players, while the well-rounded Nuggets and healthy Jazz will be perennial fodder :lol:
- 36 years old Lebron as a juggernaut :lol:
- apparently only one team will play in the ECF, because the Raptors will be a 2nd round team, Bucks will regress and Sixers have peaked, so I guess the Celtics shall play it alone :lol:
- Nets will self imlode with two amazing guys that are great friends and share the same mentality of being trashed by the public for no reason :lol:

Right.
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#16 » by Raps in 4 » Thu Aug 13, 2020 3:09 pm

mariller wrote:
Raps in 4 wrote:
mariller wrote:
It's difficult for 15 teams to have at least 1 top-10 player when there is only 10 of them, and some are in the Eastern Conference :D
Anyway, no way, not really close.


LAL: Lebron, AD
LAC: Kawhi
Denver: Jokic
Houston: Harden
GSW: Steph
Portland: Dame
Dallas: Luka

These are all top-10 players. The East has Giannis. And depending on how well he's recovered, KD could be there too.


Well you did say "almost every team having at least one top-10 player on their roster"
And then you listed 7 teams out of 15, out of which only one has more than one :lol:

I know nitpicking, but come onnnnnnnnnn.


Almost every playoff team.
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#17 » by The_Hater » Thu Aug 13, 2020 3:16 pm

The gap is going to be even worse next season. Much worse imo. golden state and Portland will be healthy instead of missing the playoffs and the talented Pelicans will he healthy and a year older. Every single WC team is going to think they can win 40+ games and make the playoffs. All 15 of them. And they will all have a chance.

The only thing the east has to look forward too is Brooklyn getting healthy and the conference is so weak right now that they’re 7th out of 15 without their full roster. The bottom of the conference might have the 5-7 worst teams in the league next sesson.
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#18 » by Joshyjess » Thu Aug 13, 2020 3:17 pm

If we are talking about only the top 4 or 5 teams, then I'd say they will be pretty close to being equal. However, if we are talking about the division as a whole, then the WEst will still have many more teams that are just way better than the teams in the East.

BTW, OP, you forgot to mention Jaylen Brown for the Celtics (which I think gives them one of the best starting four in the game - *and yes I'm baised)! :rock:
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Re: Next Season The East Will Be Better Than The West! 

Post#19 » by Bankai » Thu Aug 13, 2020 3:31 pm

The East seems to garner enough talent over time to rival the West. The problem is that lots of East GMs have been generally incompetent that those Talents eventually leave for the West, and the cycle keeps going.

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