NBA: The West Still Completely Owns The East

We live in a world where professional sports are supposed to be the pinnacle of competition.  It’s supposed to be the transformation of college athletes seeing a relatively even playing field in the NCAA, to the same even playing field in the NBA.

For the last 15 years, it hasn’t been equitable in the NBA’s product.  What we’ve witnessed, for majority of the last two decades, is pure supremacy of the Western Conference over the fragile Eastern Conference.

Pretty, delightful, fair, or surprising wouldn’t be terms to describe the outcome of what’s happened with the East and the West.  Amusing and entertaining, however, would fit perfectly.

Last season, we nearly had to get the trash can for vomiting purposes.  The East was that horrific, only being able to win 556 total games throughout the season.

To put it in perspective, there are 1,230 combined games that can be played in a season (if there’s no lockout).  556 wins is just 45.2 percent of that amount.  For the West, however, they completely thrashed the East with that total.  The West finished with a record-breaking 674 wins, which turned out to be 55 percent of the total games played.

To think there hasn’t been a substantial disparity would just mean you live in the East, and refuse to see the truth.

While some of it may have went unnoticed or overlooked, this season is actually setting up to be worse than last year.  The West has been brutal to a new extent, and it’s showing in the win columns across the conference.  With 166 current victories, the West is on pace for 697 total wins by the end of the year.  That should shatter last year’s total (which was an historic record) of 674.  Of course, the West has to stay on their pace, and not regress because of injuries or basic struggles.

If you examine the East, that leaves them with just 533 total victories by the end of the season, significantly less than their 556 total from last year.

Perhaps the reason why people haven’t noticed the lopsided conferences to a huge extent this season is all the storylines out East.

Cleveland has the best “big three” in basketball, and everyone knew they were going to take some time to adjust to one another.  They also have a coach that’s only directed an NBA team for 18 career games, in David Blatt.  Add Chicago, a team that’s dropped to fifth in the standings after an unexpected 5-5 rut.  Tom Thibodeau has dealt with too many injuries during his time as a head coach, and you can just envision him screaming in his raspy voice for one thing — consistency.

Throw Toronto into that mix as well.  They are supposed to be the clear front-runners for the top seed, mainly because they play in the Atlantic Division.  Have you ever walked past a homeless person on the street, scavenging through garbage cans?  Well, the Atlantic Division envies the trash cans.  Piled up waste actually looks and smells better than the Atlantic, and it’s not changing.  But, the Raptors may not have a chance to maximize their potential for wins, since their leading scorer (DeMar DeRozan) went down with a scary groin injury and could be sidelined for a month.

Thus far, the Atlantic is 12-28 against West teams, and 35-61 overall on the season.  Take Toronto (15-5) out of the equation, and the Atlantic is 20-56 (.263).  Then, understand that Toronto must play each of their Atlantic foes (Knicks, Nets, Celtics, and 76ers) four times each.  They’re already 2-0 against Atlantic opponents, and that number could reach 16-0 if they survive without DeRozan.  It’s beyond putrid, and doesn’t resonate with the terms “professional league.”  Why should the NBA, that’s trying to inch closer to the NFL in terms of popularity, be home to terrible divisions, and ultimately a horrible conference?

Even looking at straight head-to-head competition will favor the West in a risible manner.

More than a month into a season, the West is an impressive 74-35 against the East, which is a winning percentage of 67.8.  Considering the East can only win 35 out of 109 games against the West, at this point, means the league’s system is ridiculous.

The only part everyone cares about, however, is the differences in the East and West playoffs.  April seems to be the time of year where everyone jumps on the NBA bandwagon, fan or not, and indulges in the playoffs for two strong months.

It’s not uncommon to have the West’s seven and eight seeds complaining about the toughness of the conference.  But what about the West teams finishing at 9th and 10th?  This year, there’s going to be an uproar.

The Sacramento Kings, currently 9th in the West, are on pace for a 41-41 season.  That number will even rise when they get DeMarcus Cousins back from injury.  The Phoenix Suns are likely going to finish around the 46-49 win mark, and could miss out on the playoffs because of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook bringing the Thunder to life.

What’s a great illustration of how jacked up the playoff system is?  Merry Christmas:

So far, the East’s top eight teams — the playoff picture — have a combined record of 91-61 (.598).  It includes one team that’s barely above .500 (Milwaukee), and two that are below .500 (Miami and Brooklyn).  For the West, their top eight have a combined record of 119-39 (.753) and are completely destroying teams when they’re matched against inferior talent.

Against the East, those top eight West teams are a laughable 53-9.  Let me repeat that:  The top eight West teams are 53-9 versus the East.  If that’s not a number that should scare Adam Silver into making some sort of change, nothing will ever be.  Golden State, Houston, and Portland are undefeated (22-0) against the East combined.

It calls for disappointment, embarrassment, and most importantly, the desire for adjustments.

We should all believe that average point differential is a key indicator of what type of team you are.  It’s one of the few team statistics that can sum up a group in one number, and one that Hubie Brown will tell you means the most in basketball.  How many points do you allow on defense, compared to how many you actually score on offense?

Well, for the East and West, it’s been two completely different stories in terms of point differential.

For the top eight “playoff” teams out West currently, their combined average point differential is +54.2, meaning they outscore their opponents by a combined 54.2 points on an average basis.  On top of that, five of those eight are above +7.0 for the season.

*Please turn away if you don’t want to see the cringe-worthy results of the East* 

Out East, the average point differential for the top eight teams is only +23.5 combined.  Of those eight, only one is above +7.0 for the season.

How about the entire conference’s point differential?

If you totaled all 15 teams out West in average point differential, you would get a figure of +25.1, which is still incredibly great for a conference.  After all, there’s only three terrible teams in the West (Timberwolves, Lakers, and Jazz) and nobody truly knows if they would be closer to .500 if you threw them in the East.  I’m not ruling it out.

In the East, if you totaled all 15 teams in average point differential, it would be -23.2, meaning they get outscored by 23.2 points per game.  Some of that has to do with Philadelphia’s mark of -12.1, which would be the worst point differential since the 2010-11 season (Charlotte at -13.9).

The time for a switch-up in conferences is more than just overdue.  It’s necessary, and imperative, for the NBA to become a product all ages want to tune in to and follow every day.  Some adults, as I’ve noticed from personal experience, are turned off by the idea of the league becoming so predictable.

Most of those adults aren’t aware of the East and West discrepancy, but they always know a LeBron-led team is 95 percent likely to win the East.  In the last five years, how many times has LeBron marched to the Finals?   Four.  If you want to shake things up out East, figure out a way to split up the conferences.  Figure out a way to put a couple of those Texas juggernauts in the East, since it wouldn’t hurt the travel factor too terribly much.

I’m not the expert on how to do it.  That’s the commissioner’s job.

But, I do have eyes and a brain.  There’s no other way to make it more fascinating than to shake up the conferences, which should’ve been done before 2014.