knicks94 wrote:Jalen Bluntson wrote:Montmorencie wrote:Never been sold on OKC, today you just did see why
Seems to me like there is more parity at the top than usual. For many years you could basically predict the finals before the season even started. This season that's doesn't seem to be the case. The league is starting to feel more wide open than years past.
CLE/BOS/OKC seem to be the best teams in the league according to NET RTG and continuity. No one else is that dominant. The West is a logjam with only 4.5 games separating 2-12. The East is not as close but, 2.5 games separate 3-7.
I like our chances this year seeing how we are playing as a brand new team. We have to build chemistry and stay healthy and the sky is the limit.
Plenty of season to go still. 56 games until the playoffs. LFGK!!
I get what you're saying, but I have to see parity in the playoffs before I believe that it actually exists in the NBA. The last time we had parity in the NBA was 5 decades ago.
The NBA regular season always looks like a crapshoot until we get to the postseason. And it's the same 2 or 3
teams in the finals.
Just look at the last 5 NBA finals:
Miami Heat: 2 finals appearances
Boston Celtics: 2 finals appearances
Before 2021, if your team did not have Curry or Lebron on it your chances of going to the finals were very slim.
Yes, you have the occassional Milwaukee vs Phoenix finals, but at the end of the day the NBA knows exactly who they want to contend. And it would not surprise me one bit if either the Celtics, Heat, Lakers, Warriors or Mavericks are in the finals in 2025.
There's 20 teams that make the playoffs now. Obviously the parity is not that widespread. As of right now there are 10 teams in the West withing striking distance(4.5 GB) of the 2 seed, that's parity. The cream will rise to the top but, the fact that there is there is no clear cut finals teams yet is pretty cool. We could assume CLE/BOS/OKC should be in the mix but, no one is an absolute. A couple of years ago it was nothing like this.
It is early and I expect this to thin out some but, for YEARS you could almost guarantee the teams that made the finals.
From 1999-2013 it was a lock that the Lakers or Spurs were gonna be in the finals usually.
2010-2021 it was LeBron superteams and/or GSW.
LeBron superteams went to 8 out of ten finals in that span. They had four straight Finals with CLE vs GSW and then TOR beat GSW. It was so easy to pick who was most likely gonna be in the finals it was hardly worth watching the season/playoffs.
It's not like that recently. The last four years 7 different teams made the Finals with only BOS making it twice. Hopefully it stays like this. I think with the massive influx of foreign born players it has watered down the ability for a team to dominate the landscape like that now. When you make the playoffs the last four years, it's as much about luck of the draw and injury luck as it is overall talent. Not saying a team can't repeat a few times but, it was a lot different the previous 25 years. Prior to that we had the Jordan years with the HOU repeat in the middle. Knicks made it twice in
94-99!!! Woohoo!
No one is a lock right now. That's for sure. We have just as much a chance as any of the other top teams. Which is the best part of all of this!!
Just let me have this! 
RIP mags
