via Daily News
by Andy T
I spent a lot of time this year thinking about the Eastern Conference. I don’t know why. I was basically like a villain in Scooby Doo, all “THOSE MEDDLING KIDS”. I was just bitter.
And you know, when you’re prepared to be annoyed about something everything is annoying. You’re like a sprained wrist, walking around in the world. Suddenly the Heat are on TV and you’re angry. Very angry. You mutter to yourself.
There’s no good reason to be upset that the Heat have basically been gifted four straight Finals berths, in part because, unlike the Nets, or Cavs, or Magic, they’re good enough to get there anyway, they’re just not really getting tested in the playoffs like the Western teams are.
But there is a really good reason to get upset about one conference being mad worse than the other conference, and it’s the draft.
The thing is, you got these East apologists—they’re the worst. “Their winning percentages aren’t as bad as we thought they were going to be! Give us a cookie!”
And sometimes it’s like no one in the world realizes that winning percentage completely doesn’t matter. Know why? Because you play literally 22 extra games against your own conference. It’s a 52-30 split. So if your conference sucks, it makes your winning percentage look better than it is! If your conference is good, it makes your winning percentage etc., you can figure it out.
This effects everything. Storylines. People are talking about how the Wizards are a hot young team, and should re-up, and maybe they are. People were giving Joakim Noah some MVP buzz, and maybe they should. But, the Wiz went 11-19 against the West, and the Bulls went 13-17. It’s rudimentary math that doesn’t take into consideration WHICH East and West teams you play, but you figure an even split of games, at 41-41, the Bulls are 45-37, the Wiz 41-41. Not too bad for the Bulls, though you gotta add those three wins to Western team, too, for playing in a tough conference, and even without those three wins, that puts them at 10th place. But if you’re the Wiz, do you cap yourself out to lock down your .500 core? I say…no.
But the most important thing it effects is the draft and I literally can’t understand why this idea isn’t something that basically every NBA fan has in their hip pocket. The lottery system was literally invented to create parity but it evaluates it on two factors:
- Whether you make the playoffs.
- What your win percentage is.
Problem is, both of those things are completely f’d up by having a conference that is a flaming trash bag.
First of all, obviously the Phoenix Suns need a lottery pick considerably less than the 38-44 Atlanta Hawks (who, by the way, were 10-20 against the West). And if something had happened differently in the last two games of the season, the Hawks would still need it way more than the Mavericks or Grizzlies. But this isn’t about the difference between 14 and 15.
It’s about the fact that the Eastern teams habitually get less talent than they need and the Western teams more because of inflated and deflated win-loss records because of conference dependent play.
Sure, this year the third seeded Toronto Raptors would have missed the playoffs in the West. It was an egregious year. But it’s just really not the point.
Does anyone think the 25-win Jazz, last in the West, with Burke, Burks, Favors, Hayward and Kanter are no better than the 25-win Boston Celtics with 30 games of Rondo, Jeff Green, Avery Bradley, Sullinger and Olynyk? Does it seem like the 34-win Anthony Davis, Ryan Anderson, Eric Gordon, Tyreke Evans, Jrue Holiday Pelicans, even with big injury concerns, are just one game better than the Cleveland f***** Cavaliers? Worse than the Knicks?
This has been going on for years and the fact that the Pistons, Celtics and Heat have managed to win championships doesn’t’ change the fact that the East has been the lesser conference for over a decade. It’s not about having one or even three teams who can contend, it’s about who you play how often. And it is probably the single biggest reason that the East keeps being the way it is.
Because it’s not, again, about #1 picks. They obviously help. But the last guy drafted #1 to win a championship with team who drafted him is Tim Duncan (1997). When you’re that bad, as we keep seeing over and over, it’s prohibitively hard to get good enough again fast enough to keep your prize pick. Kevin Love will teach us all of that again for the 400th time pretty soon. And the whole 2003 draft class may be about to change teams for the 2nd time.
It’s about the #6 pick and the #10 pick. That’s what it’s about. The bottom of the East playoffs needs the lottery. The Suns don’t.
The current draft system literally exists to level the playing field and it is more or less doing the opposite. Because of wins against bad teams in one conference and losses to good teams in the other, the system is actually perpetuating the inequality it is supposed to correct.
In the days of hypermodern travel, and team planes, there is no real reason for conferences to exist. There are about 10 teams in the middle of the country who can host a game, while the Knicks are heading to play the Lakers and vice versa.
Do the right thing, Mr. Silver. Fix the system. You know, by getting rid of it.
It’s time for a conference-free NBA.
