Gone are the days of the almighty Eastern Conference where there were competitive teams from top to bottom, and the West was often considered a cakewalk for a dominant Warriors team. 2025 has brought a new look NBA and with it, there has been a concerning trend regarding the Eastern Conference.
While there are certainly some very dominant teams in the East, being the Cavaliers and the Celtics, there is a lack of depth that would have to be alarming for Adam Silver.
The Eastern Conference is already very cut and defined for the playoffs with almost every grouping of teams settled. The top 6 is almost locked in with the Pistons sitting at 6, a huge 4.5 games ahead of the 7-seed Atlanta Hawks who are a game under .500 sitting at 35 – 36. The next 4 spots are also arguably locked in with the Heat who just lost 9 games in a row still sitting 6 games ahead of the 11th seed Raptors. While this is not alarming that teams are locked into their positions, it is that there is such a gap between these positions as there is little to no intrigue in the last weeks of the season where no teams are fighting for the last spots in the playoffs.
This differs hugely from the Western Conference where the top 8 teams are locked in a battle to finish the season and ensure they secure a guaranteed playoffs spot and avoid the play-in. The 2nd seed Houston Rockets are only 5 games ahead of the Clippers in 8th showing how even the top talent is.
(Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)
If you look just as the 8th seeds on both conferences you can see a stark difference in talent level. The Clippers are currently 9 games above .500 with a record of 40 and 31 while in the East the Magic are 5 games under .500 with a record of 33 and 38. To go along with this the Magic play more games against the weaker Eastern Conference so their record should be much closer to the mark that the Clippers have set.
While there are no direct ways to solve this issue the league needs to pray that NBA superstars choose Eastern Conference teams to balance the league. Next season the Western Conference will be even more loaded, with a healthy pairing of Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox lifting the Spurs, a healthy Mavericks teams all around with Anthony Davis and the Pelicans with another year under their belt and hopefully for their sake Zion playing most of the season. While Philadelphia should be stronger next season with a healthy lineup it is hard to see any other teams making a jump into the playoff picture unless whoever they draft turns out to be a young superstar.
While the NBA is certainly far from balanced hopefully the young teams in the East can grow quickly and turn the East from a top heavy wasteland to a thriving competitive conference.
James Miltonhttps://https://ift.tt/5sr4dPw is best : The alarming disparity between the Eastern and Western Conference in the NBA
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