Last 26 years West nearly doubles East in championships

[cgf]

And yet, 4 of the top 6 teams this year were in the east. Balance of power has shifted.

[cgf]

Meh, kind of an arbitrary cutoff though. Before that, the Celtics and Bulls were winning most of the titles, and the East had the advantage. You had the Lakers winning as well, but so were the Knicks and Sixers.

In the last 10 years, it’s 6-4 West, which isn’t much of a difference at all, and 4 of those were with one team (Warriors). The other 2 were the Lakers and the Nuggets. For the East, the Cavs, Raptors, Bucks, and Celtics all won 1.

OKC likely winning it this year, but the narrative about the West is just so tired. Yeah the West is the stronger conference, been that way for a little while. I think there have been a couple years here and there when the East was actually stronger, maybe a couple other years when they were about the same, and honestly, the best in the East have been just as good as the best in the West, so outside of a tougher 1st round matchup in the West, the playoff competition has been about the same.

The east had 3/5 first team all NBA and 8/15 of the all nba players this season. The narrative was much more true in the 2010s when the east often only had 1/5 first team and 3-5/15 all nba than it is now. There’s even an argument to be made the east was the stronger conference this year, 2/3 top regular season teams and neither one even made it out of the second round in their conference.

Yeah, people don’t want to talk about how weak the west was this year outside of OKC. But they are the only western conference team who would’ve made it out of round one in the east.

[doogie_hauser]

Meh, kind of an arbitrary cutoff though. Before that, the Celtics and Bulls were winning most of the titles, and the East had the advantage. You had the Lakers winning as well, but so were the Knicks and Sixers.

In the last 10 years, it’s 6-4 West, which isn’t much of a difference at all, and 4 of those were with one team (Warriors). The other 2 were the Lakers and the Nuggets. For the East, the Cavs, Raptors, Bucks, and Celtics all won 1.

OKC likely winning it this year, but the narrative about the West is just so tired. Yeah the West is the stronger conference, been that way for a little while. I think there have been a couple years here and there when the East was actually stronger, maybe a couple other years when they were about the same, and honestly, the best in the East have been just as good as the best in the West, so outside of a tougher 1st round matchup in the West, the playoff competition has been about the same.

The east had 3/5 first team all NBA and 8/15 of the all nba players this season. The narrative was much more true in the 2010s when the east often only had 1/5 first team and 3-5/15 all nba than it is now. There’s even an argument to be made the east was the stronger conference this year, 2/3 top regular season teams and neither one even made it out of the second round in their conference.

Yeah, people don’t want to talk about how weak the west was this year outside of OKC. But they are the only western conference team who would’ve made it out of round one in the east.

I wouldn't say that.

Reckon the Clips, Wolves and Nuggets would make it out of the first round in the East. Maybe the Lakers too (If Luka wasn't ill)

[doogie_hauser]

Needs to be said the Celtics probably would have beaten the Lakers in 2010 if Perkins didn't get injured.

Not saying we definitely would have (and Kobe was magnificent in that game 7) but it's something I have often wondered about..

I think the East has more brighter, younger teams than the West (aside from the Spurs)

Pacers, Pistons, Magic all look like being top 4 ish East seeds for the next decade.

Doesn't help when the best player in this year's draft goes to a West team though (in fairness the Wizards or Hornets deserved Cooper Flagg a lot more than the Mave)

[bledredwine]

The east is weak and has been for a long time. The Celtics were outliers.

[cgf]

The east had 3/5 first team all NBA and 8/15 of the all nba players this season. The narrative was much more true in the 2010s when the east often only had 1/5 first team and 3-5/15 all nba than it is now. There’s even an argument to be made the east was the stronger conference this year, 2/3 top regular season teams and neither one even made it out of the second round in their conference.

Yeah, people don’t want to talk about how weak the west was this year outside of OKC. But they are the only western conference team who would’ve made it out of round one in the east.

I wouldn't say that.

Reckon the Clips, Wolves and Nuggets would make it out of the first round in the East. Maybe the Lakers too (If Luka wasn't ill)

Minnesota is the only one of those teams I see having a realistic chance to beat Cleveland, Boston, New York, or Indiana. Denver & the LA teams just aren’t good enough & have too glaring of weaknesses.

Not sure the Lakers even get past Detroit or Orlando.

[Celts17Pride]

Needs to be said the Celtics probably would have beaten the Lakers in 2010 if Perkins didn't get injured.

Not saying we definitely would have (and Kobe was magnificent in that game 7) but it's something I have often wondered about..

I think the East has more brighter, younger teams than the West (aside from the Spurs)

Pacers, Pistons, Magic all look like being top 4 ish East seeds for the next decade.

Doesn't help when the best player in this year's draft goes to a West team though (in fairness the Wizards or Hornets deserved Cooper Flagg a lot more than the Mave)

Kobe was 6 for 24 in Game 7. Artest and Bynum is who killed the Celtics that game

[rand]

And yet, 4 of the top 6 teams this year were in the east. Balance of power has shifted.

4 of the top 6 teams by what measure?

By record, the East had only 3 of the top-5 teams and then there were 4 teams tied for 6th with 50 wins each. But records are biased because the West is tougher top-to-bottom than the East so the top West teams had a more difficult in-conference schedule. By SRS, the East had only 2 of the top-8 teams.

Moreover, the trajectory for the East going forward is not promising. Boston is entering massive decline, Cleveland has to prove it's not a paper tiger after losing in the semis to a team which won 14 fewer games, Milwaukee has been in decline for awhile and now might lose Giannis, New York is mid, Philly can't get their sh*t together and while Orlando and Detroit are promising young teams, both have yet to win a playoff series.

[Tha Cynic]

Warm weather advantage?

[bledredwine]

Needs to be said the Celtics probably would have beaten the Lakers in 2010 if Perkins didn't get injured.

Not saying we definitely would have (and Kobe was magnificent in that game 7) but it's something I have often wondered about..

I think the East has more brighter, younger teams than the West (aside from the Spurs)

Pacers, Pistons, Magic all look like being top 4 ish East seeds for the next decade.

Doesn't help when the best player in this year's draft goes to a West team though (in fairness the Wizards or Hornets deserved Cooper Flagg a lot more than the Mave)

Kobe was 6 for 24 in Game 7. Artest and Bynum is who killed the Celtics that game

I remember that game really well because i was rooting against Kobe. That was not a good game from him.

[Expoking]

The east is worse not only now but moving forwards too. The top teams in the east had a better record because they beat up on the crappy tanking teams which the east has more of. They really should abolish conferences then we'd really get to see which conference is superior, my guess is the west would destroy the east. It will only get more pronounced in time too with Wemby and Flagg in the west.

[cgf]

And yet, 4 of the top 6 teams this year were in the east. Balance of power has shifted.

4 of the top 6 teams by what measure?

By record, the East had only 3 of the top-5 teams and then there were 4 teams tied for 6th with 50 wins each. But records are biased because the West is tougher top-to-bottom than the East so the top West teams had a more difficult in-conference schedule. By SRS, the East had only 2 of the top-8 teams.

Moreover, the trajectory for the East going forward is not promising. Boston is entering massive decline, Cleveland has to prove it's not a paper tiger after losing in the semis to a team which won 14 fewer games, Milwaukee has been in decline for awhile and now might lose Giannis, New York is mid, Philly can't get their sh*t together and while Orlando and Detroit are promising young teams, both have yet to win a playoff series.

Folks can disagree…there’s only so many hours one can devote to watching the nba…but all season I said the top 6 teams were Boston / Cleveland / OKC & New York / Indiana / Minnesota. And the playoffs have only reinforced that conviction.

I am sympathetic to the desire to make this as objective a discussion as possible, but the nba’s format makes that an ultimately fruitless exercise because the purpose of the regular season isn’t to win as many games as possible to determine the champion…it is to best position yourself for the postseason tournament that decides the champion, and the postseason is too small a sample size.

So SRS will only ever tell us who had the best regular season performance on the whole, not who is the best team in a vacuum / best suited for the playoffs…especially as the gap between regular season and postseason officiating grows & the value of home court diminishes.

For example, SRS will miss teams who made big trades that they had to develop chemistry after, like New York & Minnesota this season, and Indiana last season. It will overvalue teams that go balls to the walls in the regular season like OKC and Houston, while undervaluing a banged up team that’s just trying to get into the tourney and get healthy for the tourney, like New York.

That’s why I said before the 2nd round that I thought both series in the east were toss ups, before any injuries, despite the metrics. Indiana was better than their 10-15 start made them look and we became a different team after getting healthy & having the Pistons toughen us up.

But the Knicks, pacers, and wolves showed all season that they had the pieces to contend against the top tier, if they were healthy and brought their a-game.

I’ll get back to respond about the future, as I think you continue to underestimate the Knicks & Cavs, while forgetting about Detroit / Orlando & even Atlanta if JJ can stay healthy…but my comment was just about this season.

[cgf]

The east is worse not only now but moving forwards too. The top teams in the east had a better record because they beat up on the crappy tanking teams which the east has more of. They really should abolish conferences then we'd really get to see which conference is superior, my guess is the west would destroy the east. It will only get more pronounced in time too with Wemby and Flagg in the west.

Then why did the pacers have a better record against the west? And the Knicks record was identical before Brunson got hurt at the start of a westcoast trip…

[Expoking]

The east is worse not only now but moving forwards too. The top teams in the east had a better record because they beat up on the crappy tanking teams which the east has more of. They really should abolish conferences then we'd really get to see which conference is superior, my guess is the west would destroy the east. It will only get more pronounced in time too with Wemby and Flagg in the west.

Then why did the pacers have a better record against the west? And the Knicks record was identical before Brunson got hurt at the start of a westcoast trip…

1 team having a better record Vs west over east is not conclusive proof. 6 of the top 8 teams in the west had better records against the east. The west overall had a superior h2h record against the east once again. The majority of top end players reside in the west as well.

[Optms]

6 of those titles were the result of guys signing with the Lakers or Warriors to make movies or ring chase.

Shaq signed with the Lakers.
Kobe demanded that the Lakers draft him.
KD signed with the Warriors.
LeBron signed with the Lakers.
AD demanded a trade to the Lakers.

That isn't shrewd management. It's having a market advantage over other cities.

What about New York, don’t they have a market advantage?

Warm weather. Same reason why players don't sign/demand trades to Chicago.

It's always Lakers, Warriors, more recently Clippers.

The only warm weather destination city in the East is Miami, who happen to have most of those Eastern titles.

Celtics having 2 titles and numerous Finals appearances punches holes all over these arguments.

And stop being disingenuous. Miami the only warm weather city in the East ? Stop awaiting for the goal post to move again.

[cgf]

The east is worse not only now but moving forwards too. The top teams in the east had a better record because they beat up on the crappy tanking teams which the east has more of. They really should abolish conferences then we'd really get to see which conference is superior, my guess is the west would destroy the east. It will only get more pronounced in time too with Wemby and Flagg in the west.

Then why did the pacers have a better record against the west? And the Knicks record was identical before Brunson got hurt at the start of a westcoast trip…

1 team having a better record Vs west over east is not conclusive proof. 6 of the top 8 teams in the west had better records against the east. The west overall had a superior h2h record against the east once again. The majority of top end players reside in the west as well.

You said the east’s top teams had inflated records “because they beat up on the crappy tanking teams which the east has more of”, you can’t then turn around and say that it doesn’t matter how the east’s top teams did against the west.

That’s 25% of your claim that is blatantly false with Indiana. Boston and Cleveland had an almost identical win% against both conferences…bringing your claim to 75% false.

Leaving New York as the only eastern conference team with a better win% against the east…and even they only did worse against the west because of the timing of the Brunson injury.

You can move the goalposts, but the bolded is just not true, despite the west having a lot more mid teams

[Quattro]

Since MJ's Bulls.. 1999 to 2024

West (17): 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023

East (9) : 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024


West has more ambitious newer owners, better GMs/ Front Offices, scouting and some luck in drafts I expect this trend to continue for some time especially if Giannis heads West. When will the league address this disparity in conferences?

Ya. Better front offices. Like the one that gave Doncic away and then was rewarded with cooper Flagg.

[dhsilv2]

6 of those titles were the result of guys signing with the Lakers or Warriors to make movies or ring chase.

Shaq signed with the Lakers.
Kobe demanded that the Lakers draft him.
KD signed with the Warriors.
LeBron signed with the Lakers.
AD demanded a trade to the Lakers.

That isn't shrewd management. It's having a market advantage over other cities.

Nothing against Shaq and Kobe and i guess maybe they are in the east in your alt world. But if we just make them vanish for a second. The west was going to win the 3 those two won together. The other titles are kinda toss ups. But those 3 aren't going to the east.

[maxpower8888]

Yeah but 15 of those 17 rings came from dynasties.

[Special_Puppy]

And yet, 4 of the top 6 teams this year were in the east. Balance of power has shifted.

West has won 55.1% of its games against the East this year https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/east_vs_west.html