West vs. East Which Confernce is Better?

You may have heard ESPN analysts claim that the Eastern and Western Conferences are as close in talent as they have ever been. They like to point out that while the West has nine above average teams, they also have six of the worst teams in the NBA. They claim that the Eastern Conference, while not as top heavy, does not have many terrible teams, so the conferences are fairly even this year. This bothers me to no end. The Western Conference is much better that the Eastern conference and this is why three teams from the Eastern Conference, the Cavs, Celtics, and Magic, have ridiculous records.

The NBA schedule is created by following a few rules. First, each team will play each team from the other conference twice, 30 games. Each team will play ten teams from their own conference 4 times, with teams within their division always being one of these, 40 games. The four remaining teams from the conference will be played three times each, 12 games. These games add up to the 82 that make up the regular season. As you can see, a team from the West will play 52 out of their 82 games against other teams from the West.

Now, let’s take a look at the makeup of each conference. In the West, you have nine superior teams and six inferior teams. The superior teams are the Lakers, Spurs, Rockets, Nuggets, Hornets, Trailblazers, Jazz, Mavericks, and Suns. The inferior teams are the Warriors, Thunder, Timber Wolves, Clippers, Grizzlies and Kings. For argument’s sake, let us assume that every time an inferior team played a superior team, they lost. And when an inferior team played an inferior team or when a superior team played a superior team, they split games. What you would have is exactly what the Western Conference records reflect. The nine superior teams have good records, but nothing extraordinary, because there are nine superior teams all splitting games with each other. The six inferior team’s records are horrible because they cannot beat the nine superior teams, and only have five other inferior teams to split games with. (Note, the Lakers are an anomaly because they stole an All Star, Pau Gasol, from the Grizzlies and gave nothing in return. Their team is loaded with talent.)

In the East, you have three superior teams, and twelve inferior teams. Using the same logic, how would this play out? Well, the three superior teams would have outstanding records, since there are only two other teams they face that they split games with, and twelve inferior teams that they can beat consistently. The twelve inferior teams would have mediocre records, because they spilt with each other, and only face three superior teams that they cannot beat.

Given this logic, it is ridiculous to say that the Western and Eastern conferences are equal. The true measure a conference is the number of superior teams in the conference. The West has nine, while the East has three. It would be more correct to say the West is three times better than the East, than it would be to say the conferences are equal.