Has parity in the league become such a reality that this season will be one of or the overall most competitive season we’ve seen in the league in the last few decades? Will injuries to key players (like Boston, Indiana; two teams from last years playoffs) open the door for other fully capable teams to make the playoffs and potentially make a run in them? Or do injuries like these have an overall negative impact on the competitiveness of the league? Is the depth of talent in the league at the peak we’ve seen it at for a long time/maybe ever? Is there actually a clear favorite, and is it OKC to repeat? If OKC is the favorite to win the championship - Does that go against the argument of parity? Or are they that good in a league which is that deep? I think that the league has a pretty good dispersal of talent across it. Where maybe 10-15 years ago you would see 3-5 teams which you thought could really compete and have potential to win the championship; now it feels like there are at least 8 teams which could win under the right circumstance.
Maybe in the West but the East looks like it'll be hot garbage this upcoming season. The Celtics don't have Tatum so they sold off a few of their other key contributors and will be average. I guess the Cavs will be what they were last season and maybe they get a little better. The Knicks will not be as good under Mike Brown as they were under Thibs. Indy lost their best player. The Bucks lost their second best player. Maybe Detroit will take a big step forward this season but would that make them good enough to make the playoffs in the West? People are excited about the Hawks but they have been before and a bunch of role players even really good ones just hasn't ever got the job done. I could say the same thing about the Magic as I did the Pistons. The West still has several contenders so that should make things interesting but no, I don't even think the West will be historically competitive. Maybe I'm wrong and we won't see any 60 win teams out West this upcoming season but I think the Thunder will be extremely scary... that group hasn't even reached it's peak (if healthy).
A lot will be determined by how ageing superstars look on some western teams...age will catch up with some of these expensive vets in the west. The other factor is which young up and coming stars pop this season. That's going to make some predictions look silly come allstar break. I think this season will surprise a lot of talking heads talking hoops.
The West is definitely going to be deep. We will see the same thing as always, some teams sliding back and other teams improving. Like you would expect Houston to match or increase their wins this season, and then on paper you’d expect the Suns to decrease their wins. Maybe it won’t be a historically deep and competitive season, but then could we see the West beat up on the East in an unprecedented way? I also agree that the East is looking weak with injuries and changes. The Bucks could be alright with Giannis and Turner given injuries to other teams in the East. But on a game by game basis I feel like the wins are harder to come by, no matter who you are playing. It used to feel like you could look at any given game and say “yeah, this team is definitely going to win”, but I don’t feel that same way as much any more. I actually wonder what the best record is that the west has put up against the east between all teams during the regular season. I’m gonna try googling that to see what I can find and get back to this… Quick search I found this which says that in the last 20 years the best that the West has done against the East is 674 Wins and 556 losses, .548 in the 2013/14 season. Perhaps more surprising is that in those 20 years the Eastern conference has had the better winning percentage only 3 times. You have to go back to the 90’s and 80’s to see the Eastern conference dominating the West. The Eastern conference had the better winning percentage every season from 1979-1988. 2 of the 3 seasons the East have had the better winning percentage have been in the last five years (2021/22; 2022/23). The west won the championship both of those years. Modern era would be the 2003/04 season where the West won 630-518, .549. Interestingly East have had the most dominant seasons, but most of those are coming from the earlier era of the league when there weren’t as many games in the season or teams in the league. The East technically having the season with the best conference win percentage. Back in the 1959/60 season - 180 Wins Vs 120 losses, .60.
Yeah, we could see the West have a historically good season versus the East. The Cavs also might really run up a lot of wins in their games against Eastern Conference compitiion. All of that said there's always some shit I don't see coming and some shit that I think I know but I'm dead wrong about, so we'll have to wait and see.
