Has the Eastern Conference closed the gap on the West?

[Jamaaliver]

With Philly's acquisition of J Butler, Toronto's refurbished lineup, MIlwaukee's emergence and Boston's talented starting five -- have the top 4 teams finally gotten on even standing with the superior Western Conference?

Golden State is still the golden standard, but the rest of that conference seems good, but not great.

The East Is Where the Wild Things Are

The Eastern Conference is sparing no expense to try to take LeBron James’s vacant crown. With Jimmy Butler now in Philly, the “Leastern Conference” is suddenly filled with some of the best, most compelling teams in the NBA



In the wake of LeBron James’s exodus to the West, the rest of the East has seen the light at the end of the tunnel and they’re bolting for it. The Bucks have taken a leap in Mike Budenholzer’s system. The Sixers are making a bet on Butler being their third star. The Raptors made a high-risk gamble on Kawhi Leonard, and the Celtics are stocked thanks to prior bold acquisitions.

Milwaukee’s average margin of victory this season is 17.6 points, and its point differential is a league-leading plus-11.9. But as good as the Bucks have been, they’re not running away with the conference either.

The Raptors currently lead the entire NBA at 12-1.

The Celtics, despite an ugly start on offense, may still have the most talented roster in the conference.

And on Saturday, the Sixers agreed to trade for Jimmy Butler.
It was an aggressive move with clear intentions: The time to win is now.

The Ringer

[Jamaaliver]

The Athletic’s NBA Power Rankings: The East is fun to watch again

It seems like Basketball Twitter and the media really want the Eastern Conference to be back. For a long time, the East has been the junior varsity of the NBA. Even when LeBron James was going to the NBA Finals every year and sometimes winning it all, the West reigned as the far superior conference. However, the balance of talent has changed. Kawhi Leonard found his way to the Toronto Raptors this summer, bringing one of the top 5 players in the league to the East via trade.

Then this weekend, the Philadelphia 76ers traded for Jimmy Butler. Butler is a top 12-15 player in this league, boosting the East’s star power once again. Throw in the Boston Celtics’ eventual dominance and the fact that the Milwaukee Bucks are taking the league by storm.

The East, at worst, looks fun to watch again.

The Athletic

[steady]

The Athletic’s NBA Power Rankings: The East is fun to watch again

It seems like Basketball Twitter and the media really want the Eastern Conference to be back. For a long time, the East has been the junior varsity of the NBA. Even when LeBron James was going to the NBA Finals every year and sometimes winning it all, the West reigned as the far superior conference. However, the balance of talent has changed. Kawhi Leonard found his way to the Toronto Raptors this summer, bringing one of the top 5 players in the league to the East via trade.

Then this weekend, the Philadelphia 76ers traded for Jimmy Butler. Butler is a top 12-15 player in this league, boosting the East’s star power once again. Throw in the Boston Celtics’ eventual dominance and the fact that the Milwaukee Bucks are taking the league by storm.

The East, at worst, looks fun to watch again.

The Athletic

The West is just weird this year with UTA, Pelicans, HOU, MN all with a worse record than SAC so far. And POR with second best record. What is going on over there?


TOR, MIL, PHIL, IND, CHA, BOS are far more interesting top group IMO.

[Jamaaliver]

The West is just weird this year with UTA, Pelicans, HOU, MN all with a worse record than SAC so far. And POR with second best record. What is going on over there?


TOR, MIL, PHIL, IND, CHA, BOS are far more interesting top group IMO.

Agreed. There's actually some unpredictability throughout both conferences this year...but particularly in the East where it's really difficult to tell who will make it out.

I can't confidently predict who any of the Conf Finalists will be outside of GSW. That hasn't happened since...MJ retired from the Bulls.

For the last time.

I'm kind of glad we're not included in the arms race this year.

[Jamaaliver]

Buckle Up, the Eastern Conference’s Upper Echelon Is a War Zone

As the dust settles on the trade deadline, the East’s elite stand together as the biggest winners. Will one of the Bucks, Raptors, Sixers, or Celtics separate themselves from the pack in the second half?



The race is on in the East. Of the top five teams with the best Vegas odds of making the Finals, four (Raptors, Celtics, Sixers, Bucks) are Eastern squads; of those four, only the Celtics managed to not make a move before the trade deadline.

The thought process behind all those moves was the same: The margin for error in the playoffs is razor thin, and the consequences for coming up short could be devastating. Now that the dust has settled after the deadline, these rosters could be as good as it gets for all four teams. None of them have control over their own future. All four could see their best chance of contending for a title walk out the door this summer.

The last two rounds of the Eastern Conference playoffs will be a bloodbath. The stakes are incredibly high. None of the four favorites out East are particularly old. All four are built around players in their prime, and they all have a core of young talent that should only improve with time. None of that matters, though, if some of their best players leave this summer. The NBA is a players’ league. You need superstars to win, and superstars always have the leverage. It doesn’t matter how smart a team is. Their fate is out of their hands. There’s no way to reach for the top without also setting yourself up for a big fall.

The Ringer