NBA News - Yao out for season (incl. playoffs)
- Thread starter lawdawg02
- Start date
That really sucks and completely eliminates any effective half court game for the Rockets in the playoffs. Of course, when a .600 winning percentage is only eighth in the West, they may slip out them entirely. Hell, the eighth place team (Golden State) is only 5.5 games out of first. On the other side, Philly and their .439 winning percentage would make the playoffs in the east.
Why has the East sucked so bad for so long, as compared to the West? I don't keep up with the NBA too much, but the East has been mostly garbage since the Bulls' last 3-peat. Is it lack of talent? crappy organizations? or what is it? The two conferences have been severely unbalanced in terms of performance for a long time.
I don't know the exact reason, but to me, the organizations in the Western Conference are simply better managed. Perhaps some of it was circumstance. The Spurs drafted Duncan, the Lakers drafted Kobe, and then Shaq went to Los Angeles. Those 3 moves, along with some wise additions of role players, have accounted for 7 of the past 9 NBA champions. As a result, I think that most Western Conference teams had to get better in order to compete with them.
and the lakers traded vlade divac to get him, so your point is still valid. that sounds to me like a scouting/management issue. sure, that just happens sometimes, but it seems to be an overall theme in west v. east.
like centerz mentioned, there is an "arms race" feel to the competition too, with west teams loading up for the last however many years to compete with each other. teams in the east just can't get it together. also, for a long time, the east was the "more physical" conference, where the west was more finesse (offense oriented). the way the game is officiated (less handchecking, etc) has benefitted finesse teams more than those geared for banging and defense.
some of the spurs' success can be attributed to their international scouting, too. ginobili and parker were spotted overseas and deemed high priorities.
like centerz mentioned, there is an "arms race" feel to the competition too, with west teams loading up for the last however many years to compete with each other. teams in the east just can't get it together. also, for a long time, the east was the "more physical" conference, where the west was more finesse (offense oriented). the way the game is officiated (less handchecking, etc) has benefitted finesse teams more than those geared for banging and defense.
some of the spurs' success can be attributed to their international scouting, too. ginobili and parker were spotted overseas and deemed high priorities.
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