For context, that net efficiency number would be good for 11th in the league this year, far ahead of a handful of current playoff teams. In 2008-09, the Suns finished with a 46-36 record and a net efficiency of +3.1 points per 100 possessions yet fell two games shy of the 8 seed. The Rockets and Suns have been particularly victimized by the strength of the West, each having three such seasons since 2004 in which they won more games than they lost but still didn’t earn a playoff berth. 500 or better record and missed the playoffs, compared to just 4 in the East. Conversely, 16 teams in the West have finished with a. 500 have made the playoffs in the East, compared to just 1 in the West (2019-20 Trail Blazers, who squeezed into the playoffs in the bubble). The table above shows that since 2004, 13 teams that finished under. For years making the playoffs in the East has been viewed as a less impressive feat than making it in the West because the 7 or 8 seed in the East has typically had a worse record than their counterparts in the West. It would mark Embiid and DeRozan’s first First-Team honor, and the first time in over a decade that three players are chosen from the Eastern Conference, signaling that the tide has turned Eastward, at least in 2021-22.Ĭonference Depth: How Good Was the 8 Seed?Īnother way to evaluate conference strength is to look at the depth of quality teams. Embiid has the toughest path of the three, as he’ll either have to beat out Nikola Jokic for the center spot or make the team as a forward thanks to some manipulation of the positions. If the season ended today, there’s a very strong chance that DeMar DeRozan, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid would all represent the East on the All-NBA First Team. However, things could look very different in 2022. From an individual performance perspective, the cream of the crop has primarily come from the Western Conference. Only once since 2013 has there been more than one Eastern Conference player selected to the All-NBA First Team. The West’s superiority has been even more pronounced recently. That gap is primarily due to a dominance in the 21st century, with 70% of the players selected being from the West, including two clean sweeps in 20, the only of their kind since 1982. Overall, the West has a commanding lead, with 123 honorees to 77 from the East. The chart above tracks the All-NBA First Team selections since 1982, sorted by conference. It’s an exciting narrative for the league that the East is “back.” But back from what? How can conference strength be defined over seasons, decades and generations? To what extent has the West really reigned supreme over the East in recent years? We decided to look at a few historical measurements to try to find some answers.Īll-NBA First Team: Which Conference Has More Star Power? Familiar faces like the Heat, 76ers and Bucks have matched expectations as serious championship contenders, and a fully healthy Brooklyn team is still a force to be reckoned with. A lot of that is thanks to the emergence of the Cavaliers and Bulls, perhaps the two most positively surprising teams in the league this season, as well as recent surges from the Celtics and Raptors, who have been two of the NBA’s best teams in 2022. That sentiment has not been without merit, as I’ll highlight below, but it’d be wrong to not acknowledge this year’s East as a considerable deviation from the historical trend. For years, it’s been a common belief that the West is king and the East plays second fiddle. The balance of power favoring the East represents, at least narratively, a shift from the norm that’s been established throughout recent memory. There is an excess of exceptional teams in the East, and the race to the playoffs and beyond should be quite fun. In total, 10 of the top 15 most efficient offensive teams in the league are in the East. That long list of talented teams does not even include the 9th-place Hornets, who score the most points per game in the league at 114.1, and the 10th-place Hawks, who finished just two wins away from the NBA Finals a season ago. The Nets, who were the preseason favorites to win the championship, currently sit at 8th in the East standings behind the Heat, Bulls, 76ers, Bucks, Cavaliers, Celtics and Raptors. Coming out of a busy trade deadline that featured a blockbuster swap between the 76ers and Nets and valuable pieces added to the Bucks, Cavaliers, and Celtics, one defining storyline has become the strength and depth of a newly loaded Eastern Conference. The All-Star break is behind us, rosters are taking their full form and the playoff (and play-in) teams are gearing up for the thrills of the stretch run. The fourth quarter of the 2021-22 NBA regular season has begun.
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