![]() ![]() 8 seed ( Magic, 10-11) is better than not just the West No. That’s holding up again this year, as the East No. Last season was a leading indicator that the West wasn’t as deep as it used to be. 9 seed ( Kings, 39-43) were not better than the East No. This was actually telegraphed a bit last season as in a rare occasion the West No. The teams fighting for the low playoff seeds in the East at this early juncture are equal to or better than the teams fighting for the low playoff seeds in the West. It’s not wishful to think the East will have an advantage in the NBA Finals, not this year. 1 and 2 in preseason title odds, and the Bucks have probably overtaken them both in most analysts’ minds. In fact, including the Bucks and Lakers in the conversation, you’d probably give the nod to the East gauntlet. There’s no evidence that the group of West teams at the top of the table is any better than the East teams. Each conference has another set of really, really good teams ( Raptors, Sixers, Heat, Celtics in the East and Clippers, Nuggets, Rockets, Mavericks in the West). The East has one team standing decently above the rest right now: the Milwaukee Bucks. Let’s run down the key factors in conference balance. 8, more firepower at the top of the table.īut this year, seriously, for real, the East appears to have caught up in all but one category. In the end, the West always reigns supreme: greater competition for All-Star nods, a better No. West head-to-head records this is largely meaningless, especially just a quarter into the season. A popular statistic in these efforts is East vs. (That movement has stalled in favor of play-in games and an in-season tournament, though it appears the NBA is interested in reseeding the final four teams.)Įvery year around this time, an analyst or two will toss out a theory that conference imbalance is finally over, using some data point or another to prove their case. The disparity between depth of elite teams and overall conference depth has been the impetus behind the movement for universal playoff seeding, where the 16 best teams in the league regardless of conference make the postseason. While East teams have won championships in that time (seven of the last 20, a perfectly respectable rate), the West has typically had more elite teams at any given time, more star players, fewer truly bad teams, and far greater depth. For two decades, the NBA’s Western Conference has been superior to its Eastern Conference by multiple measures. ![]()
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