NBA East: Quick Dropoff

Photo courtesy ESPN.

On Wednesday, I covered the NBA Western Conference playoff teams here. Today it's the Eastern Conference teams.

The unfortunate reality of the Eastern Conference the last few seasons has been the shallow pool of legitimate playoff contenders compared to the Western Conference. In the last few seasons, the sixth through eighth seeds of the East were .500 or below, meaning only half their games were won...or worse. By comparison, for a Western team to make the playoffs, a record over .600 is effectively required.

Photo courtesy the Orlando Sentinel.

The top dogs in the East continue to be the Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic, Atlanta Hawks, and the Boston Celtics. The Cavs have little room for error this postseason, given the pending contract expiration of superstar LeBron James, the overall expectations in Cleveland, and the level of talent around LeBron. Simply put, anything less than a championship for Cleveland is a disappointment. The Magic went to the Finals last year and may be even better this year. They've beaten some impressive teams recently, including Denver and Dallas. Ditto with the Hawks, who smashed the Lakers on Wednesday and beat Orlando last week. The Celtics have hobbled along recently, with critical losses to San Antonio, Utah, and Oklahoma City. The C's flat out look terrible right now, especially after getting booed off their home floor against the Spurs. The age of the Celtics, one of the oldest teams in the league, is catching up to them at the worst possible time.

But after these four teams, there's a significant dropoff in caliber of playoff teams. The Milwaukee Bucks are inconsistent, beating the likes of Boston, Utah, and Denver recently, but losing to Cleveland and squeaking out a win against Atlanta. Right behind the Bucks are the Miami Heat and Charlotte Bobcats, other inconsistent clubs. All of these teams play terribly on the road, which will be a huge factor come playoff time when they don't have home-court advantage. Of these clubs, expect the Heat to make a run for Milwaukee's hold on the fifth seed, since they have the easiest schedule remaining of the three and have the best road record of the three.

Photo courtesy the Toronto Star.

And then there's the Toronto Raptors, the very definition this season of mediocre. A .500 record, 5-5 in their last ten games, and a terrible road record to top it off. The scary part for the Raptors is that they have some tough games ahead and they have the Chicago Bulls hot on their heels. The same Bulls who in early March had a 10-game losing streak and have a losing record. An ugly sight at the bottom of the Eastern playoff picture.

So what makes the Eastern Conference so much weaker than the West? For starters, marquee teams like the New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons, and the Philadelphia 76ers are all having down years. (Or in NY's case, a down decade). Second, much of the player movement has been within the East (teams feeding off each other) or moved out West. Many of the Eastern teams have young talent, but are missing a few pieces to be legitimate title contenders. This summer's free agent class is unusually strong and a lot of the rumors involve East superstars swapping teams, so it could lead to more of the same. For example, should Dwyane Wade leave Miami for Chicago or some other East city, it'll help the Bulls or whoever gets Wade while hurting the Heat, effectively swapping fortunes.