10 East Teams Would Currently Be In Playoffs If NBA Had Eliminated Conferences

Post #1 » by **RealGM Wiretap** » Mon Dec 7, 2015 8:46 pm

With the Western Conference having so many quality teams in recent seasons, there had been a push in some circles to eliminate conferences altogether for the sake of taking the 16 teams with the best records to the playoffs.

The Eastern Conference, however, has had a bit of a renaissance this season. Seven of the top-10 teams in efficiency differential are in the Eastern Conference.

If the NBA had eliminated conferences for the playoffs, there would be 10 teams from the East and just six from the West.

1. Warriors vs. 16. Magic
2. Spurs vs. 15. Celtics
3. Heat vs. 14. Clippers
4. Cavs vs. 13. Mavericks
5. Bulls vs. 12. Pistons
6. Pacers vs. 11. Grizzlies
7. Thunder vs. 10. Raptors
8. Hawks vs. 9. Hornets

Via RealGM Staff Report

masgi · Post #2 » by **masgi** » Mon Dec 7, 2015 10:45 pm

There goes the narrative!

Sam195 · Post #3 » by **Sam195** » Mon Dec 7, 2015 11:05 pm

masgi wrote:There goes the narrative!

This is happening because of the earlier conference disparity - those awful east teams ended up with lottery picks that are beginning to emerge into superstars like Andre Drummond in Detroit and Bradley Beal in Washington. Knicks get lightning in a bottle with Porzingis who looks like he will be a top 10 player next year. Porzingis is going to be voted in as an allstar starter this year ( he has huge fan support in Latvia and NYC) and win rookie of the year (most writers who vote live in the East Coast and work for NY affiliated media). West is also home to two of the most dominant teams in the league in the warriors (offensively) and Spurs (defensively) who are handing out many losses to other teams in their conference at a high clip because they play them more frequently. East on the other hand has one of the worse teams in nba history in the sixers who are just handing out wins to fellow teams in their own conference who they play more frequently.

prophet_of_rage · Post #4 » by **prophet_of_rage** » Tue Dec 8, 2015 3:46 am

Sam195 wrote:
masgi wrote:There goes the narrative!

This is happening because of the earlier conference disparity - those awful east teams ended up with lottery picks that are beginning to emerge into superstars like Andre Drummond in Detroit and Bradley Beal in Washington. Knicks get lightning in a bottle with Porzingis who looks like he will be a top 10 player next year. Porzingis is going to be voted in as an allstar starter this year ( he has huge fan support in Latvia and NYC) and win rookie of the year (most writers who vote live in the East Coast and work for NY affiliated media). West is also home to two of the most dominant teams in the league in the warriors (offensively) and Spurs (defensively) who are handing out many losses to other teams in their conference at a high clip because they play them more frequently. East on the other hand has one of the worse teams in nba history in the sixers who are just handing out wins to fellow teams in their own conference who they play more frequently.

And that is exactly how the West rose to prominence back in the day. But East teams are beating West teAms head to head. It was just a matter of time.