A classic debate. The East is young right now and over history has more championships but right now the west has many elite teams. I think the east is very underrated though, the west may seem on a pillar above us right now but we are just starting to breath. I can see the east winning some very near championships agaist western teams on the rise. Basically the west wins more games but the east wins more titles.
I agree, teams like Cleveland, Chicago, Toronto, New Jersey, and Washington are all playoff-tested and competitive teams. They all have good, young players that will excel in the years to come. Not to mention they all have one star (LeBron, Deng, Bosh, VC, and Gil). Detroit will decline, and Miami will not do well with Shaq's injury problems as of late. They are both old teams, and they need to add some younger players to their rosters.There are also some teams that have good futures in the East - such as Charlotte, Orlando, Boston, Atlanta, etc.
We really lost out in the lottery, but we still have teams with tons of potential.Look at the West teams on the rise:-Dallas is not going anywhere. Josh Howard and Devin Harris are learning and improving.-Denver will improve, since they will have AI for a full season with AI.-Phoenix will be there with Amare at full strength for the entire season (Nash may slow down next year though)-Utah has Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, and Andrei Kirilenko, whom are all young and improving.-New Orleans will get better with CP3 and a great young frontcourt.-Golden State will get better with Harrington and Jackson in Oakland for a full season-Portland and Seattle can only get better, with the first and second pick.-Memphis will have Pau Gasol for a whole season.-Houston can never be counted out, with Yao Ming hitting the early stages of his prime, and TMac not slowing down.-Minnesota will have Randy Foye and possibly Corey Brewer, great young sidekicks to KG.That's basically every team besides both Los Angeles teams, Sacramento, and San Antonio.The conference domination probably won't switch for a while.
How well would the East teams do if they played against the west for the majority if the season/playoffs. I dont think they would be as successful.I was about to say the East has Wade,LeBron, Bosh, Howard...bright future. But then I realized the two teams whoa re getting Oden and Durant are in the West, Amare, Barbosa, Howard, Melo are all in the west. I think in 7 or 8 years, the East and West will be pretty even.
not to mention that the East's two championships recently were due to a perfect storm of events for those teams.Detroit:Lakers beat Spurs on Fisher shot. Spurs would have beaten pistonsLakers beat Minnesota because Cassell is hurt. Minny probably would have beaten Pistons.Lakers get Malone injured. With him healthy they may have beaten the Pistons (because remember they had like a godly record with him and a not so good record without him)Miami:San Antonio, which would have murdered Miami, falls to Dallas in a series that literally could have gone either wayPhoenix, which would have murdered Miami, loses Raja Bell and therefore their chance at going to the finals.Dallas and Detroit both beat themselves, totally falling apart due to internal issues.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Kobebryant_24OWNEDME @ Jun 5 2007, 07:02 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>not to mention that the East's two championships recently were due to a perfect storm of events for those teams.Detroit:Lakers beat Spurs on Fisher shot. Spurs would have beaten pistonsLakers beat Minnesota because Cassell is hurt. Minny probably would have beaten Pistons.Lakers get Malone injured. With him healthy they may have beaten the Pistons (because remember they had like a godly record with him and a not so good record without him)Miami:San Antonio, which would have murdered Miami, falls to Dallas in a series that literally could have gone either wayPhoenix, which would have murdered Miami, loses Raja Bell and therefore their chance at going to the finals.Dallas and Detroit both beat themselves, totally falling apart due to internal issues.</div>You cant use that as an excuse why the east has won more titles lately. Thats just life.
The East has won because they have a cakewalk to the Finals while the West champion sometimes has to play two better teams before they reach the Finals. Nitro wrote his little article, I was going to comment on it, but I'll just say what I think here. I think the way it's set up now, it's really unfair to the Western Conference. They should make the playoff seeds 1-16 and go from there so the two best teams actually do meet up in the Finals.
Miami and Detroit winning championships doesn't do anything to argue the East is equal and/or better than the west. The only thing that shows is that the top of the East can rival the top of the West but what it does not show is how bad the rest of the East is compared to the rest of the West.
My point was to people who say ''playing in the eastern conference is so easy'' then most of the time we beat the west in the finals besides Lakers and Spurs lately. So if its easy why if an eastern team makes it to the finals they say it was a cakewalk(while this year it was for lebron compared to the bulls and pistons paths) and then those teams win it all. means we are even more competitive just not with as many big names. It's a really tight conference but interesting because the games matter somewhat more.
Eh right now the west is definitely a better conference. That is right now. All of the best teams out west have older rosters, and all of the best teams in the east are extremely young. I think next year (if the Cavs don't win it all this year), the power is going to start to shift back over to the east. It doesn't help though that two west teams are getting Oden and Durant.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PrimeTime @ Jun 5 2007, 04:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>You cant use that as an excuse why the east has won more titles lately. Thats just life.</div>Why don't you, fancy this, give a reason for one of your opinions whether than just postulating that you can't use a valid point as a valid point?The east has had two champions recently, it has never had the best team in the league. By best team I don't mean recordwise, I mean how good the team is. The East's two champions were each about the fourth best team in the league and a got lucky, so them winning the championship doesn't say that much.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Pronk48 @ Jun 6 2007, 06:46 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Eh right now the west is definitely a better conference. That is right now. All of the best teams out west have older rosters, and all of the best teams in the east are extremely young. I think next year (if the Cavs don't win it all this year), the power is going to start to shift back over to the east. It doesn't help though that two west teams are getting Oden and Durant.</div>Not next year because, like you said, the West got Oden or Durant. The Pistons are going to be worse too wso the East is going to hit an all-time low but they will go back up soon.Yeah...2 East championships in what, 9 years? is nothing to be proud of. Most of the time the 2nd or 3rd West team is better than the #1 East team.
All of the league's young superstars (minus Carmelo) are in the east though, and soon will be hitting their peak years. Cleveland, Miami and Toronto will always be contenders, the Bulls are also ready, and soon, if the Magic continue to build around Howard and he keeps improving, the Magic will become a title contender. Over in the west you have TD, KG, Kobe, Nash, Nowitzki...All of them are up there in age, so it's only a matter of time before the power shifts back to the superstars of the east.
Although the East seems to be rising, the West is better. In the regular season, the Pistons, who had the best record in the league, would have been 4th in the West. That just says a little something. The East has had some really good teams of late, such as the Pistons and the Heat, but both of these teams seem to be losing their spotlight. The Cavs and Bulls look to be teams that will be solid contenders, and the Raptors and Magic, even the Wizards could be there too with a piece added here or there.As a whole though, the West is better.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Pronk48 @ Jun 6 2007, 11:02 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>All of the league's young superstars (minus Carmelo) are in the east though, and soon will be hitting their peak years. Cleveland, Miami and Toronto will always be contenders, the Bulls are also ready, and soon, if the Magic continue to build around Howard and he keeps improving, the Magic will become a title contender. Over in the west you have TD, KG, Kobe, Nash, Nowitzki...All of them are up there in age, so it's only a matter of time before the power shifts back to the superstars of the east.</div>Well, you're also forgetting that Oden and Durant are both landing the West, so, I wouldn't say all the power will shift.
Ya I pointed that out above. The Sonics will still be a bad team though. There defense is putrid, and Durant will not help with that at all, it doesn't really matter how many PPG he averages. The Blazers are a team with the addition of Oden, if they play out of their minds can challenge for a playoff spot, but it's doubtful. The Sonics/Blazers still have some work to do, whereas the Cavs/Bulls/Raptors look like they are all pretty much ready to come out.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Pronk48 @ Jun 6 2007, 01:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Ya I pointed that out above. The Sonics will still be a bad team though. There defense is putrid, and Durant will not help with that at all, it doesn't really matter how many PPG he averages. The Blazers are a team with the addition of Oden, if they play out of their minds can challenge for a playoff spot, but it's doubtful. The Sonics/Blazers still have some work to do, whereas the Cavs/Bulls/Raptors look like they are all pretty much ready to come out.</div>I don't think the Blazers will make the playoffs next season, but in a season or two, this team should be an automatic playoff team and should be going deep. They have LOADS of potential. If every player pans out to how they should be, with Oden downlow, this team should be a championship contender within 3-5 years.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PrimeTime @ Jun 6 2007, 12:39 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>My point was to people who say ''playing in the eastern conference is so easy'' then most of the time we beat the west in the finals besides Lakers and Spurs lately. So if its easy why if an eastern team makes it to the finals they say it was a cakewalk(while this year it was for lebron compared to the bulls and pistons paths) and then those teams win it all. means we are even more competitive just not with as many big names. It's a really tight conference but interesting because the games matter somewhat more.</div>No contest, the West wins hands down. Just because the East might win a championship doesn't make them a better conference on the whole. East teams have an easier path to the finals and an easier season. You put any of the East teams in the West for a regular season and they would have won 5/10 less games. If Phoenix were to have played in the Atlantic say this year they would have topped 70 wins without breaking a sweat. If you want to talk about who has the best players then answer this - how many East players were in the All NBA first team?It's also not like people have always said the West is better, its only really been the last few years so I'm not sure why you are going as far back as the Lakers Championships.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Milgod @ Jun 6 2007, 01:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>No contest, the West wins hands down. Just because the East might win a championship doesn't make them a better conference on the whole. East teams have an easier path to the finals and an easier season. You put any of the East teams in the West for a regular season and they would have won 5/10 less games. If Phoenix were to have played in the Atlantic say this year they would have topped 70 wins without breaking a sweat. If you want to talk about who has the best players then answer this - how many East players were in the All NBA first team?It's also not like people have always said the West is better, its only really been the last few years so I'm not sure why you are going as far back as the Lakers Championships.</div>Since MJ left has the East really done much?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ASUFan22 @ Jun 6 2007, 09:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Since MJ left has the East really done much?</div>Not really, but it has only really been the last 3/4 years that people have talked about the West being far superior.
The East in general are weaker than the West. But it's not by a large margin. Teams like Detroit and Cleveland would fare just as well playing in the Western Conference as they do in the East. This past regular season, the Cavs were 31-21 against the East and 19-11 against the West. Pretty similar records. I do think, however, that the bottom-feeders of the West are better than the bottom-feeders of the East. But teams like the Bulls, Cavs, and Pistons would all be playoff teams in the West.
