Top 8 vs. Top 8-

[Gutter92]

I am hearing a lot about how the Eastern Conference is so much stronger than the Western Conference...that the Western Conference only has good records at the top because they beat up on the bottom-feeding 6 teams..

Lets ignore each team's season record vs. their own conference, and lets look at the top 8 teams(playoff teams) from each conference. The difference is not as big as some like to make it

The records for the Top 8 Western Conference teams vs. the Top 8 Eastern Conference teams are:

22:23 in favor of the East. Thats a 1 game difference. Huge difference, I guess. Any way we can get this stickied, so we can update it every week or so?

[witnessmoboobie]

Although I think the Eastern is stronger than the Western this year, it doesn't really matter. It only really matters who wins the championship. IMO that team will come from the East, but all this proves is who is the best team come playoff time.

[coldfish]

A ranking of teams (lets say sagarin) has the league actually clump together like this:
East
West
East
West

The best few teams are in the east, followed by a pretty large group of teams from the west, followed by the rest of the east with the absolute worst teams from the west. Depending on where you draw a line (ie top 10, top 16, top 20) you can change the East - West record significantly, which is what you are doing. However, if you step back and look at it, the East really is better than the west overall.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/nba0809.htm
1. East
2. East
3. West
4. East
........ 3 of 4 top teams from East
5. West
6. East
7. West
8. West
9. West
10. West
11. West
12. West
13. West
......... 8 of 9 from west
14. East
15. East
16. East
17. East
18. East
19. East
20. East
21. East
22. East
23. East
..... 10 of 10 from east
24. West
25. West
26. West
27. East
28. West
29. West
30. West
....... 6 of 7 from west

So, 3 of the top 4 teams are from the east, the east wins!!!!
But 9 of the top 13 teams are from the west, the west rules!!!!
But 14 of the top 23 teams are from the east, the east rocks!!!!

[Triple M]

Good to great teams-3 out of 4 for the east
solid to good 8 of 9 for the west
average to below average 10 for 10 for the east
terrible teams 6 of 7 for the west

Shows the East has more balance but that doesn't mean it is a better confernece to me it is pretty even