WHAT IF?: West vs East

scorbutic · Jan 15, 2004

Disclaimer: Obviously this isn't going to represent the truth if these teams were to switch conferences, nothing in here is to be seen more than it is, FANTASY!

I always see this West bias, and how the East sucks, blah blah blah. I agree, but I've known this for years... I'm from the West, I always think the west is best, in all aspects of all sports!! But I'm tired of everybody jumping on the bandwagon when it comes to the NBA... so here are the standings IF east teams played the west teams more, and vica versa. All I did was take East team's winning percentage against west teams, and multiplied that to the number of games they've played the east teams... hence you should get a close represenation (logically at least) of what their record would look like had they played the west as many times as the east, and vica versa.

So the percentages are the same, just the amount of games are flipped for ALL teams... of course because of decimals, I had to do a lot of rounding, that's why certain teams will have played more/less games then they really have. I didn't work it out for the whole season, cause obviously the numbers will be different, but this is theorhetically what the standings would look like IF the teams played more games against the other conference.

TEAM | VS EAST | VS WEST | OVERALL
Indiana | (11-3) | (17-9) | (28-11) (.718)
Detroit | (10-4) | (16-9) | (26-13) (.666)
New Jersey | (10-6) | (10-11) | (20-17) (.540)
Boston | (6-9) | (16-10) | (22-19) (.536)
Toronto | (9-7) | (10-11) | (19-18) (.513)
New Orleans | (8-5) | (12-14) | (20-21) (.488)
Milwaukee | (10-4) | (9-16) | (19-20) (.487)
Philadelphia | (8-6) | (7-18) | (15-24) (.385)
New York | (7-8) | (6-19) | (15-27) (.357)
Miami | (8-8) | (5-17) | (13-25) (.342)
Cleveland | (5-8) | (6-19) | (11-27) (.289)
Atlanta | (4-12) | (7-17) | (11-29) (.275)
Washington | (3-10) | (7-17) | (10-27) (.270)
Chicago | (7-8) | (2-22) | (9-30) (.231)
Orlando | (4-10) | (4-21) | (8-31) (.205)

Sacramento | (19-3) | (10-4) | (29-7) (.805)
LA Lakers | (18-3) | (8-6) | (26-9) (.743)
Minnesota | (16-4) | (10-7) | (26-11) (.703)
San Antonio | (18-3) | (9-9) | (27-12) (.692)
Houston | (17-5) | (7-9) | (24-14) (.632)
Dallas | (14-9) | (8-7) | (22-16) (.579)
Utah | (13-8) | (8-8) | (21-16) (.568)
Memphis | (14-8) | (7-9) | (21-17) (.553)
Denver | (13-12) | (9-6) | (22-18) (.550)
LA Clippers | (12-11) | (5-8) | (17-19) (.472)
Portland | (11-9) | (6-10) | (17-19) (.472)
Seattle | (8-13) | (9-6) | (17-21) (.447)
Golden State | (10-12) | (5-10) | (15-22) (.405)
Phoenix | (7-13) | (5-13) | (13-26) (.333)

Although only 5 of the East teams (currently there are 6) are over .500, the West also loses a .500 team (Seattle) but they have 9, so that speaks for itself. But the point of this graph is Indiana and Detriot could make the playoffs in either conference... so to say ANY West team could beat ANY East team is stretching it. I may even make the argument, Indiana has a real shot if they make the Finals (and it's almost a lock as they are in the East) but it depends on any moves they decide to make, and how the season winds down for them.

If you compare this with the current standings, a lot of the West still has similar records (the exceptions are Lakers and Rockets who went up, and Seattle who fell), the East pretty much all dropped in win percentage. So although this all but proves the West's dominance, I think it also shows a few teams out of the East are good enough to play in the West, 2 who I believe would contend.

Mez · Jan 15, 2004

confused.... wtf? haha

scorbutic · Jan 15, 2004

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Phreeze:</div><div class="quote_post">confused.... wtf? haha</div>
Are you really? It's pretty simple... let's take a look at 1 team, and make sense of this...

If you'd like to figure out what Chicago's record would be if they played in the WEST, you'd have to make Chicago play more West games, that's the key to the conferences, each West teams plays 52 games a year against western teams, and only 30 (2 games per team) against the Eastern teams. So what I did was figure out what Chicago's win % was against west teams, and figured out their record if they played as many games against the West as they currently do against the East.

Chicago is 11-13 (.458) against the East and 1-14 (.067) against the West. So I take the .067 win percentage and multiply it with the 24 games they've played against East teams... that is rounded up to 2 games, so Chicago would logically be 2-22 against West teams, and just reverse the math, .458 * 15 = 7, so they'd be 7-8 against East teams (remember if they play the West now they play East teams as much as they currently play West teams). Now you know their record against Eastern and Western teams had they played in the West, just add 'em together for the grand total of 9-30 (.231) which their current record of 12-27 beats, proving Chicago wouldn't be as good were they moved to the Western conference.

Hope I made more sense... it was my original plan to show that Eastern teams weren't the push-overs we all make them out to be... but I just ended up proving the point more, with the exception of a few teams.

Depth · Jan 15, 2004

Nice quality post... I'm tired as hell and here just to keep active as possible... so I didnt read the whole thing. But west will win again...East cant compare-

Tmac
Kidd
AI
Wallace
Pierce
Starbury
Baron

Those are the only huge players from the east I cant think of (remember, im sleepy)

Kobe
Shaq
Francis
Duncan
KG
Ray Allen
Marion
Rasheed
Payton
Novitski(sp)

Not that everyone there will make it..just pointing out the West has more talent....*yawn*

starman85 · Jan 15, 2004

scorbutic - This was very well done! I had to read what you did carefully to understand where you were coming from, but you basically proved with numbers what most East fans would try to justify anyway, that a few East teams would do quite well in the West, and that the difference between the conferences isn't as great as most make it out to be.

Crossover · Jan 16, 2004

I think New Orleans should count as a good contender if they were in the West (and next year, they will be).

But yeah, you did prove the point more. Look at what positions run each conference - guards in the East and Centers and Forwards in the West. It seems that Forwards and Centers are the key to success overall in the NBA. Baron Davis has carried his team so far into the season, and he's big of a point guard, but he still plays that position, and apparently, he's getting tired (dropped several of their past few games and only 10 points against Toronto tonight). The West thrives in the KGs, the Duncans, the Yaos, and the Shaqs. Look at every Western team, and you see a notable center or forward on the team.

Indiana and Detroit can compete so well because they have those. Indiana has Artest and Jermaine O'Neal, and Detroit has Big Ben and Prince (he's upcoming).

ludacris06 · Jan 16, 2004

Detroit has 10 great players under Larry Brown. I think New Orleans, Indiana, and Detroit can beat any of the west coast teams.

Crossover · Jan 16, 2004

As much as I don't want to, I can agree to that. They're tough teams, and hold some pretty tight defense, as well.

And we'll see a good one with Indiana at home against the Spurs, tonight.

jump · Jan 16, 2004

Nice post scorbutic. Must of taken a fair bit of time! Proved a nice point here.

BenWallace3 · Jan 17, 2004

A few days ago on Around the Horn a stupid collumist said that the top 10 West teams could beat ANY East team, probably the dumbest comment ever. The Pistons and Pacers could hang with any team in the West.

P_Stojakovic16 · Jan 19, 2004

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Depth:</div><div class="quote_post">Nice quality post... I'm tired as hell and here just to keep active as possible... so I didnt read the whole thing. But west will win again...East cant compare-

Tmac
Kidd
AI
Wallace
Pierce
Starbury
Baron

Those are the only huge players from the east I cant think of (remember, im sleepy)

Kobe
Shaq
Francis
Duncan
KG
Ray Allen
Marion
Rasheed
Payton
Novitski(sp)

Not that everyone there will make it..just pointing out the West has more talent....*yawn*</div>

I am sorry for getting off of the topic about this...but I dont see how people forget about Peja Stojakovic when mentioning the elite players in the NBA....he has the Highest ppg average in the western conferenc (3rd in the NBA) and the second best fg percentage among perimiter players in the NBA

Not to mention that he should definitely be an MVP candidate this year
Sorry to go on a feud about this guys

Crossover · Jan 19, 2004

Peja is a great player, but all he really does, for the most part, is shoot.

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