The [del]Bullets[/del] Wizards trounce the Clippers tonight. Great win for them; they never trailed. I gotta work tomorrow, but it was worth going downtown to see. It’s just one win, but they’re now 4-1 vs The West (granted, the Clippers were the first West team with a winning record that they beat), and they just might be legit.
I look forward to the rest of the season with cautious optimism for the first time in quite a while; even those mid-00s Arenas-Butler-Jamison teams were pretty shaky. Unlike that team, the current version is at least above average across the entire starting lineup and have a deep bench that can deliver.
Well, I did expect them to win the Atlantic by a mile.
It’s interesting to note the advanced metrics claim Demar Derozan is a wildly overrated player, and in fairness that matches my subjective impression of him… But the team is visibly not as good since he was injured.
The East has several teams that have been completely mismanaged and have little hope of improving in the next half decade or so. I’m looking at you NY and BK. Then it has some other teams that have been mismanaged for years and are now finally starting to get on the right track, but they are still not going to be good for a while. Like Atlanta or Philly. Philly gave away all their young talent for a rental of an injured Bynum, they have a plan now but honestly i don’t see it working out that great unless Embiid turns out to be a bonafide star.
Would the NBA benefit from a reshuffling of conferences? If they did like the NFL and MLB and did not separate conferences based on geography, I think it would at least help the West/East disparity in the short term. Not sure if it’s worth it, though. They’d also have to get rid of the lottery system, as noted above.
If you reshuffle conferences, you’ll just have the same problem in five years. The dominance of one conference or division over another is simply a matter of random chance and there’s no getting away from it. The NHL’s Western conference is better than the East. The American League was clearly better than the National for years. We all remember the NFC’s dominance of the AFC. It’s just one of those things that, statistically, must happen.
In three years it could be totally different. If the Sixers are no longer putrid, the Knicks are no longer run by idiots and the Raptors and Bullets keep getting better, that right there would go a long way to making things look more even.
They’re loading up, Rondo’s going to help a lot. You’ve got Monta for scoring and Rondo can fill up the stat sheets like no point guard I’ve seen in a long time. Dallas is definitely trying to shore up their team for a long run through the playoffs. I think they’re legit now, the West has like 7 teams that can conceivably win the WCF.
It looks like my earlier prediction of the Thunder possibly missing the playoffs were a bit premature. They’ve been on a tear since Westbrook and Durant came back, especially Westbrook who’s become an even better player than he was last year. But right now they’re still sitting in10th place. They’ll catch Phoenix and New Orleans for sure, but are they going to leapfrog San Antonio? and forget about getting into the top 4, I don’t think they are 7.5 games better than #4 Portland. #1 through #7 could all fall between 55-60 games and I wouldn’t be the least surprised
No more Rondo makes me sad. Glad I went to a game last and caught him on his way out. A great Boston Celtic, for all that it was up and down at times. Return is probably about right for Boston, I’d have liked more but the reality is that point guard is stacked in the NBA right now and while Rondo has the potential to be a top 5 type PG, he’s much more situation/teammate dependent than everyone else in that category, and he’s been running through the motions all too often this year.
I think he’ll fit in great with Dallas. I believe in Rick Carlisle to fix anything re: the changes in the offense, and he addresses probably their biggest issue: he’s immediately the second best rebounder on the team after Chandler.
My only complaint with the NBA this year is that all the good games are after I go to bed. I was all excited with the new Cleveland, the healthy Chicago, and the developing Toronto, and there’s been disappointments everywhere. Let’s make the East worth watching again!
Well Cleveland’s still much much better than they are. They could be like Miami that first year and go 9-8 then win like 21 games in a row. I think the Cavs team you see in March and April will be light years better and we’ll be talking about them as the favorites coming out of the East.
From what I know, Chicago’s not too bad. They’ve missed Rose definitely, but isn’t Gasol doing pretty good? As a Lakers fan, I was sad to lose him, I know in the right situation he can still be great. He’s a good guy and a good player and I wish him well
The Pistons cut Josh Smith. Interesting, if not quite shocking development for a guy who has the talent to be a top-10 player, and yet somehow is just not a very good basketball player.
Probably the bad situation in Detroit did him in. Who would want to play there? Now he’s going to Houston and has something to play for, though I don’t know if they needed a PF.
Christmas day games, love it! Now the NBA season can really start!
Too bad about Varejao, I was looking forward to Cleveland making the finals.
Portland is doing well this season, but it’s getting to the point where you only have to tune in late in the 4th quarter to see some good action. They seem to play like they don’t give a crap for at least three quarters of the game. With all of the turnovers and missed shots, it’s a wonder they stay as close as they do. The game against the Lakers last night was a prime example. I’m impatiently waiting for Ro-Lo to get healthy again, as Freeland is just too much of a klutz.
Smith has had a couple of good games with Houston, but mostly just so-so, but he has cut down on the boneheaded plays; Detroit OTOH hasn’t lost since the trade (granted, they beat the Pacers, Cleveland without Irving, the Magic, Knicks, and Kings), so it looks like a win for everyone so far.
The Cavs finally unloaded Dion Waiters. I don’t think he got along with the core of that team, Kyrie and LeBron. They got a pretty good return in JR Smith and Iman Shumpert. Shump can play defense and Smith is at least as good, if not better, on offense than Waiters.
The Knicks got some nobodies in return, Waiters went to OKC.
I don’t know if this move puts the Cavs over the edge. They’re in a better position, for sure, but they’ve still got serious issues. Love just seems like he’s not sure how to operate in their offense when Kyrie and LeBron are both in the lineup.
What a weird trade that was. I think Cleveland comes out pretty well ahead in the deal, though - Iman Shumpert is, I think, a somewhat better player than he’s ever been given a chance to be with the Kicks - and honestly, I also believe that the hand-wringing over the Cavs issues is overstated. I remember a lot of the same things being said during the first half of James’ first season in Miami - oh, they don’t mesh, they don’t know how to play together, blah blah blah - and then the playoffs started and the best player in basketball was the best player in basketball and they rolled to the Finals (and that was in a somewhat stronger East than the one the Cavs are dealing with now).
I guess the Knicks are just going to knock it all down. I wonder how Carmelo Anthony feels about that.
He made his choice. He had a chance to go home to Chicago and win, but he chose the money. I’m not judging him for it, but he made it clear where his priority lies.
This lets the Knicks free up some cap space. So they can spend on whom, you may ask? Beats me.
I would agree that this Cavs team’s issues will eventually smooth out. I think the big 3 will find a rhythm that works for them. However, there’s no denying that there are some issues at present. I don’t think the team liked Waiters and his ego even last year, which is at least partially why he never cracked the starting lineup. Dumping him might help some.
Ahem, Atlanta Hawks fan chiming in here, and no, not a bandwagon jumper either. I have a Mookie Blaylock jersey in the closet as proof!!
So, what is this east/west disparity you speak of? Hawks coming back from a 4 game West Conference road trip. Let’s see, what was their record? Hmm, let me find it. Oh, here it is, oh, it was 4-0. So far we have played and beaten the Blazers, the Mavericks, the jazz, the Clippers, on and on. We have not played the Warriors yet, that will be a huge game. Everyone said we would come down to earth when we played the Mavericks. Nope, beat them. Well them, the Blazers will for sure. Nope, beat them.
On and on. Easy team to root for as well. They actually seem like, I don’t know, an actual team? Is that what they are called? Good article here.
No doubt, the East has a couple very good teams and the Hawks are one of them. But look at the bottom teams. They are the worst of the worst. Philly and New York look clueless. The current 7 and 8 seeded teams would have losing records as of today. In the West PHX would be the 8 seed and they are 20-16.
This won’t last forever, I’m sure. As RickJay indicated, these spurts come and go in cycles. Same as every sport.
The NBA is dead to me until the Sonics return. DEAD.
That said, I am pleased to see that the Trail Blazers are having a decent season (currently: 27-8, 1st in the Northwest Division), and beat the hated Lakers last night.
I was all excited with the new Cleveland, the healthy Chicago, and the developing Toronto, and there’s been disappointments everywhere. Let’s make the East worth watching again!