in a year you want/expect them to be bad, it figures the East is pathetic and the Celtics, as bad as they are, have a legit chance to make the playoffs and miss out on a lottery pick.
but it's no different than when the East dominated in the 80s-90s. It's nothing more than a talking point amongst fans. All it means is a bunch of millionaires miss the playoffs because they were in a better conference.
The Celtics have a lot of options and chips to make a move next summer, that include keeping Rondo.
The core of that team just isn't bad. Certainly not good enough, but they are nowhere near bottom five or so in the NBA, and this is without their unquestionably best player not suiting up yet. They are much closer to a .500 team if they had Rondo from day one.
The Celtics would have to dump Green and to be bad enough for a lottery pick in the East.
Miami and Indy will meet in the ECF. At the same time theres probably about 80% certainty that barring injury its going to be SA and OKC out West. The NBA is relatively predictable, no news there. It's just more pronounced this year in the East than normal. The West has been deeper than the East for a long time now, this year its just way more highlighted
Its never good for a league to have such imbalanced conferences, but from a competitive advantage/disadvantage standpoint, the cream will likely still rise to the top at the end. SA and OKC will have tougher roads to a conference final than Miami, but theyre very likely to get there just the same. And in the end, that competition might even benefit them. I think it took Miami a bit to adapt to a rise in competition entering last years conference finals after spending a month with the hapless Bucks and injured Bulls.
The advantage for Miami and Indiana basically comes down to schedule and how that could impact home court in a conference final. They play 2/3 of their games against a clearly weaker conference, where the top dogs out West will be fighting every night. If a team out West finishes with overall best record, they earned it
is definitely terrible, but as long as there are a few good teams, it works out OK. It's definitely better than some of the years when there were zero legitimate title teams in the East. Miami and Indiana are as good as anybody, so the Finals and conference finals will still be really good despite the shallowness in the East.
When Lebron went to Miami he put a 4 year stamp on the conference. Indy has had basically everything go right from a personnel perspective, including a trio of homegrown guys all coming into their own around the same time. It's crazy to see how absolutely different those teams have been constructed. It's not even like Indy is made up of a bunch of top 10 picks either. I think the only top 10 pick on their roster is Paul George. They have been insanely patient in NBA terms to let their guys grow and bring in vets to supplement talent.
The Heat never put a 4 year stamp or lock on anything
Theyve been pushed to the tilt to make the runs they have made. They had to come back from a 3-2 deficit at some point to win both championships. They've had to play 3 game 7's in the last 2 years. For all their star power it is a flawed roster, which is why they run into troubles against any team with size. They play with a complete gimmick lineup with Bosh at the 5 and Oden the only Center on the roster. Also that star power of theirs outside of Lebron has had a habit of getting dinged up in the playoffs. These have not been stress free runs where they just coast on superior talent. The Heat looked dead at some point in each of the last 2 playoffs
This Miami team has many of the same flaws as the last two. No real Center which allows any decent center to immediately improve by about 200% when they're playing the Heat. Roy Hibbert looks like a god damn GOAT candidate whenever he sees them. They routinely get crushed on the glass. The Pacers are a major threat to them unless they can do something about Indys size. And barring a trade, the only way that happens is the minor miracle of Oden being able to give them some rotational minutes in a series against the Pacers
overall for a while now but it has never been this bad.
I'm a Celtics fan and I'm kind of torn on how to feel about how it's going so far. It's cool to see them winning some games and doing better than expected and to see Stevens doing well in his first year... but at the same time, this draft is awesome, they might not get a good lottery pick (or a lottery pick at all) and they won't make it past the second round of the playoffs if they do make it there. It would be sweet to see them somehow upset the Heat if they play them but the odds of that happening are like 0.01%. It's pretty sad that they'll more than likely have multiple shitty teams in the eastern conference making the playoffs though. I wouldn't be surprised if you do see teams like Boston, Chicago and Atlanta shipping out talent in an effort to miss the playoffs. But I think we'll see Brooklyn and New York start to pick it up in the coming weeks. It's not like they have to be amazing to make the playoffs in the east.
& yes, the Eastern Conference sucks. Rose getting injured took a lot of drama out of it all. Now everyone is just waiting for Indy-Miami ECF.
In the larger picture, it's been the weaker of the two conferences since Jordan left Chicago in '98.
And the Knicks are moronic for constantly trading away draft picks for shit. It's one if the main reasons why they have been mediocre for a while now.
I'd argue the Heat and Pacers have a better shot at a title than any team from the West.
But as for strength of conference no I agree Uconn, Miami is still the class of the NBA and Indy is playing as well as anyone.
The core of that team just isn't bad. Certainly not good enough, but they are nowhere near bottom five or so in the NBA, and this is without their unquestionably best player not suiting up yet. They are much closer to a .500 team if they had Rondo from day one.
The Celtics would have to dump Green and to be bad enough for a lottery pick in the East.
Its never good for a league to have such imbalanced conferences, but from a competitive advantage/disadvantage standpoint, the cream will likely still rise to the top at the end. SA and OKC will have tougher roads to a conference final than Miami, but theyre very likely to get there just the same. And in the end, that competition might even benefit them. I think it took Miami a bit to adapt to a rise in competition entering last years conference finals after spending a month with the hapless Bucks and injured Bulls.
The advantage for Miami and Indiana basically comes down to schedule and how that could impact home court in a conference final. They play 2/3 of their games against a clearly weaker conference, where the top dogs out West will be fighting every night. If a team out West finishes with overall best record, they earned it
This Miami team has many of the same flaws as the last two. No real Center which allows any decent center to immediately improve by about 200% when they're playing the Heat. Roy Hibbert looks like a god damn GOAT candidate whenever he sees them. They routinely get crushed on the glass. The Pacers are a major threat to them unless they can do something about Indys size. And barring a trade, the only way that happens is the minor miracle of Oden being able to give them some rotational minutes in a series against the Pacers
I can just picture it now.....
I'm a Celtics fan and I'm kind of torn on how to feel about how it's going so far. It's cool to see them winning some games and doing better than expected and to see Stevens doing well in his first year... but at the same time, this draft is awesome, they might not get a good lottery pick (or a lottery pick at all) and they won't make it past the second round of the playoffs if they do make it there. It would be sweet to see them somehow upset the Heat if they play them but the odds of that happening are like 0.01%. It's pretty sad that they'll more than likely have multiple shitty teams in the eastern conference making the playoffs though. I wouldn't be surprised if you do see teams like Boston, Chicago and Atlanta shipping out talent in an effort to miss the playoffs. But I think we'll see Brooklyn and New York start to pick it up in the coming weeks. It's not like they have to be amazing to make the playoffs in the east.