East and West balanced?

[andreusito]

http://www.nba.com/standings/team_record_comparison/conferenceNew_Std_Cnf.html

 

It's obvious the West is still stronger overall, but I think we can say the league is more less balanced again.

Edited February 2, 2010 by andreusito

[Poe]

I was actually going to make a thread about this. I guess you beat me to it.

 

 

When looking at the top 8 teams, the win margin between each conference is almost identical. Maybe two or three wins favoring the West in the 5-8 seed.

 

The West have the clear advantage when it comes to non-playoff teams, though. In the East, it's already pretty clear who will most likely make the playoffs, but in the West the race goes all the way through the 11th place team.

 

The fact that the East have the luxury of playing lesser teams more often in their schedule may actually make the West stronger despite a similar record in the top 8 teams, though. Kind of vise versa from last year with the top West records inflated from the extra bad teams in their schedule.

[Check my Stats]

The balance has definitely been restored, the East is definitely better up top than the West is, that is evidenced by the fact that there isn't a single team that anyone expects to make it out, unlike the West where let's be honest, no one has pegged any team not named the Lakers as the team to come out of the West.

 

I think the depth of the West is more, but the West has 1 contender, and the East has 3, 4 if you count the Hawks but they haven't accomplished enough to be called contenders IMO.

 

There are 8 really good teams in the East though, none of the teams that are going to make it are undeserving IMO, all of them are rock solid, just like the West.

 

I think the conferences are about as balanced now as you could hope for or expect.