The West Has 2 All-Star Teams Better than the East

Interesting piece on ESPN by Tom Haberstroh:

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...eams-better-eastern-conference-tom-haberstroh

Isn't it about time that the NBA change it's format for picking the All-Stars other than East vs. West?

 

Yes. This east v. west divide is silly. Almost as silly as the division boundaries. Let's take it a step further and have the best teams make the playoffs.

 

I think it would be cool if the NBA were the first American sports league to ditch conferences and divisions. League-wide rankings, league-wide All Stars. Come up with some other way to divide the All Stars into teams for the exhibition game.

 

Crazy shit right there...

 

I think it'd be cool to divide up the All Star game by age. Older guys vs younger guys. You'd have a generational rivalry and scores to settle as the old guys fight off obsolescence and the new guys fight for their names. Experience vs athleticism, old-school midrange game vs 3 pointers. I'd have loved to see Kobe going head-to-head with Westbrook.

 

Separate the players by above or below the median age.

 

The NBA is going to have a major problem with its fan demographics if it doesn't figure out a way to get better teams in the East:

 

Wow that's a super interesting map.

Really highlights the "flyover" states.

 

Yeah, that would work.

I think it'd really present some interesting storylines for the NBA to talk about at All Star break. If you are the youngest or oldest person you'd have special prominence, and it'd highlight the evolving style of the game.

 

Yeah, I really like this map.

I had to use a really strong magnifying glass, but I'm pretty sure I spotted @dviss1 in the midst of all those blue dots in Oregon

 

I think the NHL has had some good ideas. They've had North America (make it just US for BBall) vs. Rest of World (like the Nike Hoop Summit) and they've also had a 4-team mini-playoffs.

Maybe combine the two: have 4 teams, one of which is "rest of the world," because still the vast majority of NBA players are US-born. Maybe East Coast, West Coast, Flyover Country, Rest of World? (Although I just realized that seems to mix up two kinds of classification: where you play and where you're from. Maybe have "East Coast" mean not your team (e.g. Knicks) but where you're from (so Carmelo Anthony would still be EC because he's from Baltimore.)

Or East Coast, West Coast, RoW, winner of the "Rising Stars" game? That wouldn't help with the West Coast dominance, though.

 

This is how I'm leaning. Just get rid of it.

 

Top two vote getters are captains and choose teams?

 

Make it like the Ultimate Fighter. The two coaches with the best records pick their players, one by one. Off of the NBA roster. No voting. Let the coaches pick and run the team.

 

I think the real question is whether the East can put together an All-Star team that's better than the worst team in the West.

 

Oh and the best thing about this is that they had Dame at #10 best NBA player!

 

Yeah, I'd love to watch Popovich or Kerr pick all their own players.

 

Add to It. Cant pick more than one player from every team. Each team offers up their best player and the coaches have one player from each team to choose from. regardless of position. That would create some forced strategy in the picking of players.

 

I'm tired of seeing the same top coaches coach the all star team year in and year out. I say the all star coaches should come from the teams with the worst records at the break. Give them something to look forward to besides their pending termination, and see what they can do when they actually have some talent to work with.

BNM

 

East still has best player (LeBron), best young player (Gianni's), the last two #1 picks, IT/Hayward, and Wall. It's not all bad except when you consider the Warriors alone are an All Star team.