Here we are trudging through the slowest days of the NBA offseason and I ran across an interesting article entitled, ‘Offseason Power Rankings: Bucks return to the top of the East’, that I felt was worthy of discussion.
For those experienced NBA watchers, it seems like forever since the Eastern Conference was ‘better’ than the Western Conference. This was borne out year after year with the West having an overall better winning percentage against the East at the end of the regular season. So it was somewhat surprising to me to discover that the East has in fact had the larger winning percentage the last 2 years running with this past season, 2022-23, having the largest winning percentage for the East in 24 years at .524, games won at 236-214.
What surprised me even more was to realize that the team with the most wins in the last 7 years (including playoffs) hadn’t won a championship. We’re looking at you Boston Celtics. Given that statistic, I’ve begun to understand the thinking behind trading the heart of their team, Marcus Smart, for a potential increase in talent in the Unicorn, Kristaps Porziņģis, the 7’5” Latvian. It’s a giant risk though, as Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks discovered. Like a unicorn, he might just not exist as an allstar or have the ability to live up to what was once thought to be his potential. Whatever he is, Boston has 3 years of him and whatever ability he has to turn all those victories into a championship.
Beyond Boston in the East, we find two more teams with more victories last season than any team in the West: Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Imagine an Eastern Conference with 3 records better than anyone in the West. It’s been a long, long time. A long, long time that we had to hear the chant, ‘The East is the Least’, or ‘Let us feast on the East.’
So is it time to crow now that the ‘East is the Beast’, or the ‘West is undressed’? Perhaps not. The West did end up with the one thing they all wanted, the championship. And the net result in the East was a shake up in those very 3 teams. Boston loses Smart – and possibly smarts – the Bucks lose the winningest coach in the last 5 years in Bud, and in Philly, James Harden has demanded a trade and rumours are Joel Embiid is not happy. So no, not everything is terrific in the East and no one should expect that to change anytime soon.
Looking forward to this season,should we expect a repeat of the East beating the West? Let’s have a look at the West: Reigning champion Denver is only going to be better this year as the well oiled machine they are. Phoenix is going to have a full season to integrate a star studded lineup including Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. Memphis will still be dangerous, although what becomes of mercurial star Ja Morant after his second suspension in a matter of months for gun idiocy. Young Sacramento will only be better after finishing 4th, but most of the focus, at least early in the season, will be on the 2 LA teams, the Clippers and the Lakers. Not because they’ve done much in the offseason or have a great chance at progressing deep into the players, but rather because they are the darling of ESPN, the 800 pound gorilla of sports networks.
So no, after 2 years of dominance, don’t expect the East to beat the West again this year. Not only is there too much depth this year at the top of the Western Conference, but the 3 top Eastern seeds may well be in disarray for at least part of the early season.