February 18, 2025

Since Michael Jordan retired from the Bulls in 1998, the best basketball has generally been played in the NBA’s Western Conference, with the Spurs beginning their dynasty with Tim Duncan in 1999 and the Lakers beginning their own dynasty with Kobe Bryant in 2000. As Kobe and Tim faded from the scene in the mid-2010s, we had a new dynasty begin, also from the Western Conference, in Stephen Curry’s Golden State Warriors. In the 20 years since Jordan retired, the West went 14-6 against the East in the NBA Finals despite the East having this generation’s best player in LeBron James, who was responsible for half of the East’s championships in this time and notably reached eight straight Finals as a member of the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers. The 2000s also saw the rise of Dirk Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks, which played in two NBA Finals and might have played in more if the Spurs and Lakers weren’t a thing, and the 2010s saw the rise of Kevin Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder, which played in one Finals and might have played in one or two more if Durant didn’t make the weakest move in NBA history.

Overall, the West was clearly the better conference for two decades, and while they’ve gone 2-2 in the last four years with the Lakers and Warriors picking up an additional championship each, anyone following the NBA in that time can tell that there has been a changing of the guard, with Giannis Antetokounmpo elevating the Bucks into a yearly contender and the Celtics, Raptors, Heat, Nets, and of course, the Philadelphia 76ers having some great teams in these last several seasons as well, a refreshing change from the several seasons beforehand where the only true championship contender in this conference was whichever team LeBron was on. This conference has finally started to develop depth on par with what fans of Western Conference teams had gotten used to, and with young stars making the Cleveland Cavaliers good again and Julius Randle still getting to play half of his games on the road with the New York Knicks, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.

The West, meanwhile, has become a disaster. The Denver Nuggets, led by Nikola “Not My MVP” Jokic and the Memphis Grizzlies led by Ja Morant have been the class of the conference so far, with Zion Williamson’s New Orleans Pelicans right behind them. Behind those three teams, though, it’s like the lyrics of that Grinch song: stink, stank, and stunk. The Kings are five games over .500 for the first time since I was 10, and I’m happy for them, but them being fourth in the West isn’t a good look for the conference as a whole considering the Knicks at five games over .500 are sixth in the East. The Mavericks are also just five games over .500 despite Luka Doncic playing like prime Harden with them. The Warriors and Clippers, the teams with the best championship odds out of the conference when the season started, are at .500 each.

Then there’s the Suns. They had the conference’s third best preseason title odds, which seemed reasonable considering they finished top 2 in the conference each of the last two seasons, and at first, they seemed more than deserving of those odds. They were 15-6 at the end of the November and right there with New Orleans, Denver, and Memphis at the top of the Western Conference standings. Winter has not been kind to our friends from Arizona, however, with a 5-11 December and 1-6 start to January causing Phoenix to plummet to 10th in the West, just half a game above Oklahoma City and Portland. To be fair, they’ve struggled with injuries, just like the Warriors have and the Clippers have and the Lakers have (again (for the third time since LeBron went there (maybe he should have gone to Philly after all?🤔))).

Whatever the reason, the teams that were expected to be the best in the West have not lived up to their expectations while the teams in the East have mostly met or exceeded them. We’re only halfway through the season, and as obnoxious Boston fans like to remind us, the Celtics were 18-21 around this time last year, but I feel this year is different. I feel the Eastern Conference is truly the stronger and deeper conference now, the culmination of four years of work since LeBron decided he would no longer use our conference as his personal playground. Our pairing of Joel Embiid and James Harden, along with Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Cleveland’s Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, and Miami’s Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo should make for the most exciting and star-studded Eastern Conference playoffs since Jordan, Miller, Shaq, and Ewing duked it out, and I believe that whoever makes it out of this slugfest alive will be this year’s NBA Finals champion.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *