out of the 15 teams in the east, only four have winning records, and one (washington wizards) has a .500 record. thats five teams out of the whole 15 teams of the east without a losing record. eastern conference seeds 5-8 wouldnt even make the playoffs if they were in the west! thats pretty sad if you ask me.
What else is new? The East today is better than it was a couple years ago. Which is sad. Eastern Conf. ball has arguably sucked comparatively to the West since the Jordan 90s.
The top 3 seeds are really the only ones that will compete with the West IMO. New Jersey will suprise a lot of people I think.
I only have Detroit or Miami (if they can turn it on, or have anything to turn on) down as serious contenders -- and I think Detroit will go all the way. Jersey? I think they're little better than they're Finals years, that time being the absolute nadir of the Eastern Conference's existence and a sad joke for or on the NBA and its fanbase; I sometimes doubt whether they would have even made the playoffs in the West those years.
The East have a bunch of JV teams. If it wasn't for Detroit, the East would look even weaker. The last time the East were dominating the NBA is the Jordan's Bulls era. Also this kinda show that only players whose team is in the top 3 seed in the East should be qualify for MVP race.
Although, I agree with most of you that the Eastern Conference is incredibly weak. I don’t think it is as bad as some people make it out to be, in other words it’s on the upswing rather than the other way around. It has good young teams which will likely be contenders within the next few years, Bulls, Wizards, Orlando, and even the Celtics if their young talent develops as expected. Every decade or so you see a shift in power take place between the two conferences. I think you will see the east take back the control of that power within the next five years.
wow.. If utah would've been in Eastern Conference they would've been 6th seed in Eastern Conference. And since they are in Western Conference they wont even make the playoffs! West is too much better than East. The last 4 seeds for EC are below .500. The last 4 seeds for West are above .525! The last 3 seeds for East are .488! That is unfair for west. I wish rockets were in East they would've been 3rd seed in the east last year! and home court advantage!. thats unfair. Too Bad rockets are in West! Well newyaz! East is weak and has 3 teams that have a losing record that are going to the playoffs! While West has 1 team that would've made playoffs if they were in East (UTAH)..
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting kobe4life:</div><div class="quote_post">The East have a bunch of JV teams. If it wasn't for Detroit, the East would look even weaker. The last time the East were dominating the NBA is the Jordan's Bulls era.</div> And the only reason the East was dominant then was because of Jordan's Bulls. The West was the overall better conference back in Jordan's time as well.
One other problem is that year after year, the East has some teams who are below average making the playoffs. So with that, they're unable to get lottery picks in the draft. The West on the other hand has some teams who are only bad because of injury, or are above .500 teams, but not enough to make it. They get in the lottery, and become even better, maintaining the West having an advantage.
The East has some potential though. Toronto - Bosh and Villanueva Atlanta - Johnson and Marvin Williams Orlando - Howard and Darko Charlotte - Felton and Wallace Chicago - they have a whole bunch of young talent Not to mention all these teams will have high draft picks. In 3-5 years, the East could be just as good as the West.
The east is on the come up, and has been, but the West maintains the gap by improving at a similar pace, or maintianng their teams(see: og15's comments)
