Zach Lowe's NBA Tiers- you gotta be kidding me

All these rankings are written to get clicks. Yesterday ESPN rated teams by how entertaining they are.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...omani-jones-preview-2018-19-nba-season-dramas

A couple of days ago, Zach Lowe ranked them in entertainment, a different way.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24846824/zach-lowe-2018-19-nba-league-pass-rankings-part-1

 

How sophomoric.

BNM

 

I don't know. I think Boston, Toronto, and Philly are legit teams that could hang with the West's top teams. But yes, then there's a big drop off.

 

This isn't college football. Rankings don't mean anything. I don't even read them anymore.

 

How did you appear here so fast, when you're over THERE?

 

Here's another statistical projection: https://fivethirtyeight.com/feature...e-knicks-how-were-predicting-the-2018-19-nba/

More Nuggets love. I just don't get it 50 wins in the west is no joke.

 

So, they are predicting our defense will drop from 8th best to 18th. They have obviously been reading this forum and adjusted their algorithm to factor in losing Ed Davis.

It does make me wonder though, why there is no corresponding improvement for BRK's defense (22nd last season, projected as 22nd this season):



BNM

 

So my 40-42 is pretty close to these guys prediction. I do’t know if thats good or not.

 

lol.
three 55+ win teams
eight 50 win teams.(5 west, 3 east)
five teams with 45 or better
On top of GSW winning 60+

These predictions might be logical if the teams didn't have to play one another.
Or
If they predicted one conference would be completely ass after the top couple of teams.

 

On the morning of the election, they gave Hillary an 83% chance of winning. So, yeah...

BNM

 

Also, the east is going to be HORRIBLE this season in my opinion.

 

You know I just watched the Trump interview on 60 Minutes last night. It is just baffling to me that guy is our “president”. Just doesn’t make any sense.

 

That's fine. You can have that opinion.
However these 'experts' are predicting the East has three 50 win teams.
Along with the Wiz getting to 48 and the Bucks getting to 47. That's not predicting the East being horrible.
Hell they're predicting all their playoff teams are above .500 except the Pistons who would be 40-42.
Again that's not horrible.

The West was less than +20 on the East last year iirc.
That's not a big gap.

These 'experts' are ass at predicting.

Also, pending Kevin Love's health. I'd be super surprised if the Cavs finished with only 30 wins.

 

The East only has a winning record vs. the West one time since the 1999-2000 season. Ten years ago, the East went 232 - 219 vs. the West. Last season, they were 213 - 237 (47.3%) vs. the West. That's actually better than their 19-year average winning percentage of 43.3% vs. the West. The Eastern Conference has had multiple seasons where they won less than 40% of their games against the West. The worst being 2003-04 when the East only won 36.7% of their games against the West.



It's even worse at the top. If you just compare the playoff teams from both conferences, the East has had 19 straight losing seasons vs. the West. A 19-year average winning percentage of just 40.8%, with a low of 33.6% in 201-02.



The East being horrible is just business as usual.

BNM

 

The Western Conference is better no doubt.
But if you look at more recently history(past 3 years) in terms of East vs West.
It shows the East improving to not be complete dog shit.
Without the East being complete dog shit the West will struggle to field more than three 50 win teams.
These experts predict 5? along with every West playoff team being 45+ wins? Along with the Warriors getting to 60+ and two other West teams getting 55+?
No. That's just not going to happen. The east is garbage. But it's not garbage enough to make up for the West being a dog fight every night.

 

I really don't think its about East vs. West. I think it's more about parity between the 3 - 10 teams in the West. Just the season before last, there were 3 teams that won 55+ games (GSW = 67, SAS= 61, OKC = 55) and two more that won 51 games in the West. Since Western Conference teams only Eastern Conference teams twice a year, it was more a case of the top teams in the West feasting on the 7 - 15 teams in their own conference (which is why the Blazers made the playoffs with a 41-41 record).

The migration of all stars from East to West in the summer of 2017 created a lot more parity in the 3 - 9 seeds last year, and with LeBron joining LAL, there will be little separation between 3 - 10 in the West this year. That could go back to 3 - 9 if Jimmy Butler gets traded to the East. Without him, and assuming they don't get comparable talent in return, MIN drops down a notch.

BNM

 

Here you go..

 

As always, right on time

 

Common sense? lol. You've been wrong every year.

 

Actually I came the closet 3 years ago I believe.