The big story in the NBA right now is the power of the small market teams that have attracted some of the top free agents and look to be potential contenders in their conference. The highly coveted free agents turned down two of the historically best basketball organizations, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, as well as spurning the New York Knicks that has a rich basketball history as well as a giant market. Although this is a notable story and something that has been a big surprise this season, a huge story that is being neglected by some is the fact that the Eastern and Western Conferences are so far apart in talent and competition.
The Golden State Warriors won 67 games last year to win the Western Conference, while the Atlanta Hawks won 60 to win the East. Spots 2-7 in the West finished with 50 or more wins, while only spots 2 and 3 finished with 50 or more wins. The rest of the East that made the playoffs were full of mediocrity that would not have competed in the West, with the 8th seed actually finishing with less than 40 wins. That compares to the 9th seed in the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder, which did not make the playoffs and finished with 45 wins.
With last year over, many NBA fans were hoping free agency and the draft would even out the conferences a little more. Four out of the first ten picks in the NBA draft this year belonged to Western Conference teams, including the first two picks which probably makes it more of a draw. Unfortunately for the East, CBS Sports reported a list of winners and losers of the draft that included three winners in the West, two winners in the East, one loser in the West, and three losers in the East. The list of winners and losers are all based on opinion and projections that no one can truly support, making them not that valuable in this case but could be a sign for concern for the East.
Even though the draft is extremely important in building a strong ball club, rookies usually never have the kind of impact that will make a strong difference in a season. The place to look for an immediate change in the balance of the league is free agency. This year the NBA had a number of expiring contracts that belonged to all-stars, giving them the ability to change teams or re-sign with the one they played with last season. Some of the biggest names fell as follows:
Kawhi Leonard, Tim Duncan, and Manu Ginobli stayed with the Spurs (West)
LaMarcus Aldridge went from the Blazers (West) to the Spurs (West)
David West went from the Pacers (East) to the Spurs (West)
Marc Gasol stayed with the Grizzlies (West)
Deandre Jordan stayed with the Clippers (West)
Draymond Green stayed with the Warriors (West)
Brandon Knight stayed with the Suns (West)
Lebron James and Kevin Love stayed with the Cavaliers (East)
Greg Monroe went from the Pistons (East) to the Bucks (East)
Jimmy Butler stayed with the Bulls (East)
Dwayne Wade and Goran Dragic stayed with the Heat (East)
Paul Millsap stayed with the Hawks (East)
Although there were plenty more moves that will impact the teams in each conference, these were the biggest signings that will make the most impact right away. There are two huge takeaways from the list above: the West’s acquisitions outnumber the East’s, and the Spurs are going to be very very good this year. To get a better idea of how everything has shaped out thus far, Bovada has an updated odds list for next year’s NBA champions. Of the top ten teams with the best odds, seven of them are in the West. The team with the best odds to win it all next season is the Cleveland Cavaliers (East) at 11/4. To view the entire list and where each team stands according to Bovada, visit http://www.oddsshark.com/nba/nba-futures.
To close, there are some people that believe that we should remove the conferences from the NBA and have the top 16 teams make the playoffs no matter what conference or division they are in. There is going to be a very good Western Conference team that will not make the playoffs this upcoming year because everyone that made it this past season was extremely talented and that was with the Thunder out of the playoffs due to many injuries that hurt their season. They will return as one of the top teams in the league, bumping out one of the teams that made the playoffs this past season, while it seems that the East will continue to send mediocrity into the playoffs and almost assure LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers a spot in the NBA Finals.
