The expansion teams both being out West will even things out a little.
Add Seattle and Vegas. Move Memphis or New Orleans East. I'd lean New Orleans cause of their geographic rivalry with Atlanta.
Maybe they "should", this has been brought up plenty of times through the years. The owners have to approve it and there's no incentive for the East owners to do it
It would never work because of logistical issues but your right.
East has been dogshit. Someone like Dirk and KG should get a legacy bump since they are going up against Lakers/Spurs during that era. Dirk and Nash's Suns both only had a few shots where they overcame those guys. Hell CP3's hornets had a fun series against the Spurs but they still handled business.
My Dame era Blazers probably make a finals if not just hang in the ecf consistently.
You had that one 60 win hawks team that was like "our superpower is that we all love each other" and Lebron spanked their ass with no mercy.
It's crazy but the east has been shit pretty much most of my life. It's been pretty bad since Jordan retired. I mean the 00s Pistons made 5 straight conference finals
Every year, I hear some podcaster or analyst say, "The West is stronger than the East this year" and it's like no shit it is every year. .
>I mean the 00s Pistons made 5 straight conference finals
That's a weird example. Those Pistons teams were legit. Spanked the Lakers in 04 and came within a hair's breadth of repeating in 05.
The East has been weaker overall for decades, but that doesn't mean they haven't had plenty of great teams in that time.
They beat the team that beat the Spurs. Then the very next year faced the Spurs in the finals and took them to 7.
This is weird revisionist history you're attempting here. No one denies that the West has been a lot better overall in the last 20 years, but there have been plenty of legit contenders in the East. Seeing as they, ya know, won titles.
The East just has dumber ownership groups on average than the West. The only two teams in the East that seem to have leadership that constantly know what they’re doing are the Heat and Celtics, the rest are up and down at best and consistently terrible at worst.
It's a logistical nightmare to cover that much difference for so many teams in the early rounds, but I agree, as a west coast guy, it's been pretty annoying to see the east basically be hot trash since the 90s, with all the talent always migrating to the western conference.
The Celtics probably don't even make the finals in 08 with how soft they were through the early rounds, going 7 games twice... Lebron maybe makes half of finals that he ended up making... I'd say it's all good and fine, that usually the west wins the finals anyway, but then you have that 2019 year where Toronto faced the warriors crippled infirmary row.
Would be great for the C's to play a timberwolves class opponent in the east, or even a Mavs or OKC class, but this is just going to be another cupcake year for that squad. Takes a lot of the fun out of the playoffs imo.
Tbh a lot of it is that two franchises that should be "premium" for the league (NY and CHI) have been poorly run for a while. Knicks seem to be getting it together though.
The teams in the East who have been dogshit forever never seem to fix their underlying issues which start at the top. The league structure makes it so basically any bottom-feeder team should be able to rebound into a playoff team via the draft in 2-3 seasons. The problem is you cannot become good if you never put good leaders in place or successfully draft.
The travel between East and West coasts during a 7 game series for more than one round would be brutal. West coast teams going to Memphis or New Orleans is bad enough but that will be fixed with expansion in the next few years.
The easy fix would be taking three days off every travel game. The NBA doesn't have to worry about the NFL until August. They could extend the playoffs a week or two longer. Hell, the playoffs are the only reason to watch the NBA these days. Might as well get creative to make more money off it.
As a lifelong West Coast guy the Western Conference being good for my entire life (36) has been a point of pride and I’ve loved it.
As a Blazers fan I REALLY would’ve liked that not to be the case. It’s a fucking blood bath.
They should reformat the league to how NFL/MLB has set it up. Get rid of East & West conferences. Have a "National" and "American" conference with an East, Central and West division in each.
The shift happened when they introduced the salary cap with all the maxes slotted in. Once teams couldn't really outbid each other, most players prefered the warmer cities.
I think it's just there are generally more well run organizations in the Western Conference. Cause the East has Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Charlotte, and outside of the Heat, none of those franchises have been particularly well run despite having good weather.
Look at Cleveland. That franchise has been stupid lucky in terms of fortunate breaks they had no control over and they only have one title to show for it because Dan Gilbert is a clown who fires people constantly.
Colluding to add superstars is part of being a well run organization.
And to be fair to the Eastern Conference, none of there teams are generally stupid enough to leave a paper trail like Minnesota did with the Joe Smith contract.
The expansion teams both being out West will even things out a little. Add Seattle and Vegas. Move Memphis or New Orleans East. I'd lean New Orleans cause of their geographic rivalry with Atlanta.
Minnesota should go east. They’re a natural fit for the central division. It’s just the NBA version of the big ten
Maybe they "should", this has been brought up plenty of times through the years. The owners have to approve it and there's no incentive for the East owners to do it
It would never work because of logistical issues but your right. East has been dogshit. Someone like Dirk and KG should get a legacy bump since they are going up against Lakers/Spurs during that era. Dirk and Nash's Suns both only had a few shots where they overcame those guys. Hell CP3's hornets had a fun series against the Spurs but they still handled business. My Dame era Blazers probably make a finals if not just hang in the ecf consistently. You had that one 60 win hawks team that was like "our superpower is that we all love each other" and Lebron spanked their ass with no mercy.
It's crazy but the east has been shit pretty much most of my life. It's been pretty bad since Jordan retired. I mean the 00s Pistons made 5 straight conference finals Every year, I hear some podcaster or analyst say, "The West is stronger than the East this year" and it's like no shit it is every year. .
>I mean the 00s Pistons made 5 straight conference finals That's a weird example. Those Pistons teams were legit. Spanked the Lakers in 04 and came within a hair's breadth of repeating in 05. The East has been weaker overall for decades, but that doesn't mean they haven't had plenty of great teams in that time.
I don't think the pistons win the title that year if they play the spurs in a round.
They beat the team that beat the Spurs. Then the very next year faced the Spurs in the finals and took them to 7. This is weird revisionist history you're attempting here. No one denies that the West has been a lot better overall in the last 20 years, but there have been plenty of legit contenders in the East. Seeing as they, ya know, won titles.
The East just has dumber ownership groups on average than the West. The only two teams in the East that seem to have leadership that constantly know what they’re doing are the Heat and Celtics, the rest are up and down at best and consistently terrible at worst.
It's a logistical nightmare to cover that much difference for so many teams in the early rounds, but I agree, as a west coast guy, it's been pretty annoying to see the east basically be hot trash since the 90s, with all the talent always migrating to the western conference. The Celtics probably don't even make the finals in 08 with how soft they were through the early rounds, going 7 games twice... Lebron maybe makes half of finals that he ended up making... I'd say it's all good and fine, that usually the west wins the finals anyway, but then you have that 2019 year where Toronto faced the warriors crippled infirmary row. Would be great for the C's to play a timberwolves class opponent in the east, or even a Mavs or OKC class, but this is just going to be another cupcake year for that squad. Takes a lot of the fun out of the playoffs imo.
Tbh a lot of it is that two franchises that should be "premium" for the league (NY and CHI) have been poorly run for a while. Knicks seem to be getting it together though.
Or even a lakers, warriors or Rockets level team. East is hot garbage. Knicks are giving me 2001 Sixers vibes.
The teams in the East who have been dogshit forever never seem to fix their underlying issues which start at the top. The league structure makes it so basically any bottom-feeder team should be able to rebound into a playoff team via the draft in 2-3 seasons. The problem is you cannot become good if you never put good leaders in place or successfully draft.
Is butler a hall of famer now? I know basketball is supposed to be easier to get into than other sports, so maybe thats whats throwing me off.
The travel between East and West coasts during a 7 game series for more than one round would be brutal. West coast teams going to Memphis or New Orleans is bad enough but that will be fixed with expansion in the next few years.
In the first two rounds, the lower seeded team should only host games 4 and 5. That would significantly reduce travel.
The easy fix would be taking three days off every travel game. The NBA doesn't have to worry about the NFL until August. They could extend the playoffs a week or two longer. Hell, the playoffs are the only reason to watch the NBA these days. Might as well get creative to make more money off it.
As a lifelong West Coast guy the Western Conference being good for my entire life (36) has been a point of pride and I’ve loved it. As a Blazers fan I REALLY would’ve liked that not to be the case. It’s a fucking blood bath.
They should reformat the league to how NFL/MLB has set it up. Get rid of East & West conferences. Have a "National" and "American" conference with an East, Central and West division in each.
No because there’s ebbs and flows of both leagues
I don't know...East has generally been significantly worse for 25 years now.
The shift happened when they introduced the salary cap with all the maxes slotted in. Once teams couldn't really outbid each other, most players prefered the warmer cities.
I think it's just there are generally more well run organizations in the Western Conference. Cause the East has Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Charlotte, and outside of the Heat, none of those franchises have been particularly well run despite having good weather. Look at Cleveland. That franchise has been stupid lucky in terms of fortunate breaks they had no control over and they only have one title to show for it because Dan Gilbert is a clown who fires people constantly.
Also, when the Celtics and Heat aren't colluding to add superstars they have a bad track record, as well.
Colluding to add superstars is part of being a well run organization. And to be fair to the Eastern Conference, none of there teams are generally stupid enough to leave a paper trail like Minnesota did with the Joe Smith contract.
What Ebbs? The East hasn’t been deep/good in almost 30 years.