Phoenix Suns: NBA Conference Imbalance An Advantage

The Phoenix Suns have been front and center in the debate about how to solve the NBA’s imbalance of power between the Eastern and Western Conferences. Conference imbalance is nothing new, but with the changing of the guard that occurred at the commissioner’s office from David Stern to Adam Silver, people feel a little bit more free to be innovative.

A myriad of ideas have been discussed, among them scrapping conferences all together, but the 82-game schedule becomes an obstacle to any sort of major reform.

The main motivation behind changing the current format is that the 16 best teams are not making it into the playoffs. The last decade or so, Western Conference teams are being left out of the playoffs that would have made it had they played in the East.

Zach Lowe of Grantland writes,

"The ninth-place team in the West has ended up with a better record than about 2.5 Eastern Conference playoff teams on average since 2003."

The Suns have been the poster child for conference reform recently due to the fact that they missed the playoffs last season with a record of 48-34. If the Suns had played in the East, they would have tied with the fourth-place Chicago Bulls.

The Suns seemed poised to miss the playoffs for the second year in a row despite a record of 38-38 that would be better than both the Brooklyn Nets (35-40, seventh) and Miami Heat (34-41, eighth) in the East. The New Orleans Pelicans (41-34) would also be in the playoffs if they played in the East or if the top 16 teams were chosen to play regardless of conference.

On the face of it, it seems the Phoenix Suns deserve to be in the playoffs. While that it is true that they have amassed a better record than both Miami and Brooklyn and should be in the 2015 NBA playoffs, what if conference imbalance is actually helping the Suns in the long run?

Next: Good In The Long Run