<div class="quote_poster">TwinTowers Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">The East's best(Magic) beat the West's best(Jazz). Is this a sign?</div> Nope, the West still owns the East except for the fact that the Magic are the best team in the NBA.
Reminds me of 2004 when the East was extra wack. The Heat were 42-40 and had homecourt advantage. Pretty pitiful. But as Chutney said, chemistry needs to be built by some of the teams plus it's only the first month of the season. In a couple of months we'll have a more realistic impression of how the East is.
<div class="quote_poster">Swish15 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Nope, the West still owns the East except for the fact that the Magic are the best team in the NBA.</div> Better than the Spurs and Mavs? Dang!
The eastern teams may be weak this year, but they are going to be seriously good in a few years. Boston, Toronto, Charlotte, Atlanta and Chicago have very talented young players they're going to be good to great teams in a few years. Hell, Chicago is pretty good already, despite their record. Orlando and Cleveland are doing good right now and will be for a while. Orlando look like they're building a powerhouse team. Not to mention the Nets and Heat, who are off to weak starts but everybody knows they're going to get their act together sometime soon. NJ are one trade for a big man away from contention for the conference and Miami are, obviously, the champs and are going to get back on track soon. Indiana and Washington are going to be decent this season, but their future isn't looking too bright. They look like they're going to be .500 teams for the next few years unless they make a drastic change. That's them, along with the Knicks (terrible management has cost them) and Philly (they're going to start rebuilding sooner rather than later, they're going nowhere fast), who's future isn't looking too good. That leaves Milwaukee, who have the talent to make a run for the playoffs for the next few years, and Detroit, who may break apart if Billups leaves. The west, in a few years (without counting drastic trans-conference trades, of course) are going to be the weaker conference. The only teams with bright futures in the west are Portland, LAC and New Orleans. Minnesota, Seattle and Memphis are looking very bad and are due for rebuilding, which puts them out of contention for the next couple of years. The Lakers won't last long as a one-man team, but if they can make some good trades, they'll be contenders again, along with Denver and Houston, maybe even Sacramento will find themselves back in the mix. Utah are obviously not going to be the best in the league for long and it's hard to tell where they're going: are they going to seriously make a run for the title in the next 3-5 years, or are they going to stay as a 6th-8th seed playoff team? Same with Golden State. Basically, what I'm trying to say is, the east is raising better young talent than the west right now and those are the stars of the future (not to mention that the east has LeBron, Dwight Howard, Wade, Bosh to match the west's Carmelo, Amare (who will probably never be 100% again) and Chris Paul).
The Magic have destroyed pretty much all the Western Conference teams they've faced. Besides the Clippers. The East beats the West in the All-Star game because the West just give up and don't hold on to their leads. The East have a lot of talented wing players but the West have better big men.
<div class="quote_poster">CLos Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">The Magic have destroyed pretty much all the Western Conference teams they've faced. Besides the Clippers. The East beats the West in the All-Star game because the West just give up and don't hold on to their leads. The East have a lot of talented wing players but the West have better big men.</div> That's how it's been, but now with the emergence of Dwight and Bosh, the East has some bigs capable of playing with the West's bigs, while continuing to hold a slight advantage on the wings.
<div class="quote_poster">GatorsowntheNCAA Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">That's how it's been, but now with the emergence of Dwight and Bosh, the East has some bigs capable of playing with the West's bigs, while continuing to hold a slight advantage on the wings.</div> What you mean to say is the West's wings hold the advantage to the east's wings, right? Kobe, T-Mac, and Carmelo stomp on anything the east has to show.
<div class="quote_poster">igotask8board Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">What you mean to say is the West's wings hold the advantage to the east's wings, right? Kobe, T-Mac, and Carmelo stomp on anything the east has to show.</div> Wade, Lebron, Carter, and Pierce.
Not to mention AI, Arenas, Marbury/Francis (not playing well, but still talented) and Joe Johnson (who has been playing extremely well)
And then you seem to forget that the West also has Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis on the same team, Shawn Marion still resides out West and has played a lot of three this year, JRich is solid, Kobe, Melo, and TMac all are out West, Ginobli, none of those guys are slouches. And there's some PGs like Baron Davis, Tony Parker, and Jason Terry that can switch to the two if it weren't for lack of size. So, while the East might have a slew of good wings, the West does too. And despite the fact that Howard and Bosh are great, Duncan and Yao are still better than any center the East has to offer. Beyond that, Dirk is currently the best PF in the league, regardless of conference, Amare is also on the rise once again and has been great over the past two weeks. Zach Randolph is playing All Star calibur basketball at the moment. When healthy, Brad Miller is one of the top centers in the league as well. Did I mention that Carlos Boozer is probably the MVP of the league right now and is as good as most any PF in the East, and AK47 has more talent than pretty much any 3 or 4 in the East as well. KG still resides out West, and while he might not be as good as he was a couple years ago, he's still better than most any PF in the league. Chris Wilcox is having himself a good year. Kwame Brown is finally proving that he's worthy playing in this league. Oh, and Elton Brand, he's still a top 5 PF in the league. And one last name to throw out there, Lamar Odom. He's a triple double threat and the plays the 4. Only KG and AK47 are really capable of that. So, try as you may, but the West still has a TON more talent and better players than the East. The 2s and 3s might nto be as good as the big names out East, but they're still good. And the bigs don't even compare. The West is by and far the most dominant conference when it comes to big men, and there really isn't a question about that. Oh yea, and Andrew Bynum has shown flashes of brilliance this year, and when he gets some experience, he's going to be a beast in the league. And to whomever said the East has a better future than the West, I wouldn't go that far. Here's a few names that should be thrown out that are all young and talented: Monta Ellis Brandon Roy Chris Paul David West J.R. Smith Carmelo Anthony Kevin Martin Deron Williams All those guys are 23 and under if I'm correct, and all of them play out West. Those are just a few of the talented young names out West, so to say that the West is short on talent is ludicrous.
I never said that the West is short on young talent, I just said that the East has more. You listed some of the best of the West. What about the east's youth? LeBron James Dwayne Wade Chris Bosh Dwight Howard Darko Milicic Al Jefferson (big potential) Andrea Bargnani Adam Morrison David Lee Tyrus Thomas There are many more. IMO, the East has a better base for success in the future through it's youth, than the West.
The West has better big men, but the wings belong to the East. I mean Pierce, Wade, AI, LeBron, Redd, R.Jefferson, RIP. All these guys can come up big for their team and also make a run at the All-Star game. The West might have Steve Nash, but the East has a triple-double machine in Jason Kidd. Also, Kirk Hinrich is a good floor leader as well as Billups, TJ Ford, and even Arenas.
And even though great wings reside in the East, who makes the bigger difference on the game? The bigs. If you look at all the past NBA Champs as of the last decade or so, you see dominant bigs on the team. Duncan and Robinson on the Spurs, Shaq on the Lakers (and Miami, though hardly dominant), Big Ben on the Pistons (only defensively though). I think you get the picture. Prior to last year, the last team that was led by a dominant wing player to the Finals was when the Bulls won it all for the last time in 1998. Ever since then, it's about the bigs, and there's a reason why the Lakers and Spurs have won 6 of the last 8 NBA titles combined, and that's because they have or had a dominant big at that point in time.
Does anyone really care about the AS game? I don't watch it to root for a side, I watch it purely for entertainment. And the thing about it, if the West or the East actually cared about defense, it might be a lot different. No one plays defense, they just play it to entertain fans, which is why they play the way they do. Most people that watch it are casual fans anyways and they could care less who wins.
I don't think anyone's arguing that the West isn't more talented than the East, Moo. What they were saying is that (1) the East has more young talent that the West and (2) the East is finally getting some legit big men to complement their better wings.
We were talking about the All-Star game to begin with. Who has more talented wings?? Who has more talented big men?? Sure, the Western Conference is better but the East players are sick.
<div class="quote_poster">kobe23 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Miami, Washington, Boston and Milwaukee are all tied for 9th place in the Conf. with a 4 - 8 record each while Seattle the 2nd to the lowest seed in the West has a better record at 6-8... What's up?</div> The East has always been worst than the West. This is ancient history.
I believe the Bucks are 7-4 against the West this year Beat Portland Memphis Lakers Golden State Minnesota Seattle Sacramento Lost To Houston Utah X2 Phoenix
