p0peye wrote:Man, playing in East doesn't give us proper perspective on what it means to be a contender. Eastern teams pad their records (win-pad?) and can easily endup in Finals while at the same time they might be a play-in caliber team in West. Pathetic.
If we want to actually win anytime in future, we need to measure ourselves against true contenders, not Cavs, Knicks or Sixers.
yep, and it has been that way ever since Jordan retired. Basically from 1998 to present day only 4 teams won that did not have Lebron ( or/and) Wade:
2004 Pistons
2008 Celtics
2019 Raptors ( injuries made a series)
2021 Bucks
That's it. Especially bad was streach of 13 years with 10 years o Western dominance as everybody knew "real" finals were Western Conference Finals.
if you rank top 10 nba teams , how many teams from East would get there?
My personal list would look something like
1) Nuggets
2) Wolves
3) Celtics
4) OKC
5) Mavs
6) Clippers
7) Lakers
8) Bucks
9) Pelicans
10) Warriors
Warriors on East would have been second best team. Didn't make it to playoffs on West.
When you compare wins vs conference it's sad and hilarious at once.
Knicks vs West 15-15
Magic vs West 15-15
Bucks vs West 15-15
Pacers vs West 15-15
Now other side around:
Okc vs East 21-9
Wolves vs East 21-9
Clippers vs East 21-9
Dallas vs East 19-11
But i guess that's gift and a curse, East is way easier , but because of it teams tend to be worst and aren't "battle tested " until finals, and they tend to lose in finals because that's first time they face serious competition.
On West you kill yourself to finals, but in finals you are usually favorite to win.
Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. -John Lennon
