Just because Boston and Cleveland are great people are talking about how the East is now better than the West.
I thinks not.
Number of teams above .500
East - 6
West - 9
Number of teams above .600
East - 3
West - 8
Team that would be #8 seed in the playoffs if they started today:
East - Milwaukee 28-33 (.459)
West - Dallas 35-23 (.603)
That one to me is the most telling. Dallas is so much better than Milwaukee. Also, the West has the team with the best record (Lakers).
The only counterpoint I have is that the West also has four teams with less than 20 wins and the East only has one. So you could argue that the West teams just beat up on those four crappy teams. Except that West plays East a lot, unlike Baseball or some other sports.
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6 comments:
Gotta agree, the east is still the least.
west is just so strong. too many powerhouses. like the lebron beta version (formerly known as Ron Artest)
i cant remember the exact quote, but hearing Artest say that lebron was like a new and improved version of himself was one of the highlights of the season for me.
lol, yeah i mentioned that artest quote in some other thread around here.
"Just because Boston and Cleveland are great people are talking about how the East is now better than the West."
I think you are greatly oversimplifying. Whatever pundits/journalists are saying East>West have likely considered more than 2 of the 30 teams before coming to that point.
Honestly, i don't see why it matters which conference is the stronger if the point is at all debatable. I don't really have an opinion on which conference is better. But, since we are talking about it, i will play devil's avocado. :D
You seem to be picking only the stats that lend credence to your argument and ignoring the others. Why not weigh in with more scope. This is, after all, a comparison of the entire conferences.
You left out teams over .800
west - 1
east - 0
teams over .700
west - 1
East - 3
Teams over .400
West - 9
East - 13
Teams under .400
West - 6
East - 2
Teams under .300
West - 4
East - 1
Worst of all (logic-wise), is deciding that the best indicator of which conference is stronger is a comparison only involving two teams. Dallas is definitely better than Milwaukee, what that has to do with which entire conference is very little. That is like saying i am stronger than Monkey cause my pinkie fingers are stronger(from decades of piano, i'm buff!)
Cross conference play is something like 27 games, and inter-conference is something like 55 games. So even though "West play East a lot" there is still plenty of games to beat up on that cellar in the west. So, wouldn't it be more telling if we excluded inter-conference games when comparing numbers?
Well, good news! I did some quick adding and subtraction last night and i got it for ya. (these records are from 2-28-09)
East
1. 19-4
2. 16-9
3. 19-7
4. 10-11
5. 12-13
6. 11-10
7. 10-13
8. 11-13
9. 11-12
10. 13-12
11. 10-14
12. 9-12
13. 12-11
14. 9-16
15. 7-12
179-169
West
1. 17-6
2. 14-10
3. 16-9
4. 14-11
5. 18-5
6. 14-8
7. 11-12
8. 16-7
9. 14-11
10. 9-16
11. 9-14
12. 6-15
13. 6-15
14. 5-17
15. 0-23
169-179
Though this is almost an entirely subjective argument. If we are going to look at anything as an indicator, i can't really think of a better one than overall conference records. However, 179 and 169 are pretty damn even.
Now, i could say, "the one that is the most telling is East's number 13 seed (which was Charlotte on 2-28) is 12-11 vs the west." However, it is not the most telling. This is just the stats of one team. One of 30.
I think one of the reasons this debate exist each year is to determine how easily a team in each respective conference can get to the finals. I think the west has come on stronger as of late. But, for much of the season the top 10 and top 4,in subjective rankings like power rankings, have been dominated by the east. For much of the season the top four has largely been considered to be LAL, CLE, BOS, and ORL. Orlando has not been as strong lately though.
all that was just for the sake of argument. My own personal opinion is that it is going to be tough to reach the finals no matter what conference you are in this year. Detroit friggin coasted to the EFC for years. The west, overall, was definitively stronger. But now, you have to play outstanding to make it to June no matter where you live.
I would also like to know every teams record vs +.500 and +.600 teams. Now that i think of it. That would probably be an even better indicator than cross conference records. Cause, really, who cares what happens in game involving sacramento or washington.
And, i am kinda shocked Toronto is as bad as they are. What they heck it up there?
There are 3 "great" teams in the East. The rest are "garbage".
The West has the team with the best record and more "quality" teams. Although I will admit that the West has more teams at the very bottom.
Basically I'm saying that the East is not a normal curve. Very few good teams and lots of crap. The West has some good, some mediocre and some crap.
I guess i don't understand if you want to compare the entire conferences, or just compare the teams on one side of a stopping point.
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