rock digger wrote:HotelVitale wrote:
West is probably better still, but things have obviously changed. The competition for the 8th seed in the West should be much worse in the West and much better in the East. Out West, the Lakers are done, the Jazz are done, and the Mavs got worse. Neither the Blazers nor the Wolves really got better, either, and after that you're looking at New Orleans and a bunch of Wiggins-ing teams. The 8th seed should be at or below .500 next year in the west.
I don't know about you but in my opinion having a healthy Love is getting better...it's reasonable that they end with something like a 45-37 record. The top 7 seeds in the west are all very good (as we've all seen) so the only real question mark is the 8 seed, who projects to be good.
On the other hand in the east, we have 3 spots that are major question marks and could all end up around 41-41 rather than the 1 spot in the west. The "competition" in the east for the 8th spot is mainly due to the fact that it's so attainable. If you want to argue that the east has more competition for the 8th spot, that's fine, I agree with you that it is much more competitive for that 8th spot. It's much easier to compete for the playoffs when the goal is a <.500 record. There won't be nearly as much competition in the west because the 8th spot is going to be much harder to compete for since the 8th spot will demand more wins.
Let me just say that y'all were talking as though nothing had changed from last year, which left out the Lakers' loss of Kobe and D12 and the Jazz's demise, plus the improvements of us, the Wiz and the Cavs.
Good point about Love and the Wolves, though. I would still put them at 42-44 wins--they have solid talent all around but it's middle-heavy. Not a particularly strong defensive team, and their offense falls into that weird category of 'options 2-10 on their team are all about as good as one another.' It's true that Rubio could finally break through this year, but they also lost AK47 who was their best overall player last year. If everything goes right, they could knock on 50 wins; I wouldn't be shocked if they got there but I wouldn't bet on it. (I also wonder why people see them as a huge threat to be a quality team but don't think the Cavs could be. Huge question marks with their front line's health, but at least as much talent there than as the Wolves, right?)
If I was betting, I'd say that the 8th seed in the West wins 43 games and the 8th seed in the East wins 40. And after the Wolves, what's the competition for the 8th? Pelicans, Blazers, and Lakers? I'd guess the Wiz end up with about as good a record as any of them, especially since they get to beat up on Charlotte, Boston; and Orlando. The West is still a deeper conference, but the wide gap from last year has narrowed.
