Poll: Which conference is deeper

[Moranis]

East shaved a game last week, West now has 3 more wins.  Top 3 teams in the West, next 6 are in the East though as Utah has really fallen back the last couple of weeks (2-8 in last ten).  9 of the top 16 in East (including Boston again, finally).  2 worst in the East still.  No teams are below .200 any more so much more in line with history on that front, though Phoenix is still above .800 the other way.

[celticsclay]

East shaved a game last week, West now has 3 more wins.  Top 3 teams in the West, next 6 are in the East though as Utah has really fallen back the last couple of weeks (2-8 in last ten).  9 of the top 16 in East (including Boston again, finally).  2 worst in the East still.  No teams are below .200 any more so much more in line with history on that front, though Phoenix is still above .800 the other way.

Just out of curiosity does this include yesterdays 4-0 for the east? Or is the east actually ahead now.

[Moranis]

East shaved a game last week, West now has 3 more wins.  Top 3 teams in the West, next 6 are in the East though as Utah has really fallen back the last couple of weeks (2-8 in last ten).  9 of the top 16 in East (including Boston again, finally).  2 worst in the East still.  No teams are below .200 any more so much more in line with history on that front, though Phoenix is still above .800 the other way.

Just out of curiosity does this include yesterdays 4-0 for the east? Or is the east actually ahead now.

East is ahead after last night.

[celticsclay]

East shaved a game last week, West now has 3 more wins.  Top 3 teams in the West, next 6 are in the East though as Utah has really fallen back the last couple of weeks (2-8 in last ten).  9 of the top 16 in East (including Boston again, finally).  2 worst in the East still.  No teams are below .200 any more so much more in line with history on that front, though Phoenix is still above .800 the other way.

Just out of curiosity does this include yesterdays 4-0 for the east? Or is the east actually ahead now.

East is ahead after last night.

This is kind of in line what I was expecting before COVID really ripped through all the rosters in the east in December and got the west up 10 or 11 games. Both conferences now have some really good players out with Durant being the best player, but George, Lilliard, Mitchell, Gobert have all missed some time (a large part of Utah's swoon). Beal, Hayward, Green, Sabonis, Lebron, SGA are all also out. If these guys don't improve in the next few weeks will make for some pretty interesting all-star rosters.

[Moranis]

East shaved a game last week, West now has 3 more wins.  Top 3 teams in the West, next 6 are in the East though as Utah has really fallen back the last couple of weeks (2-8 in last ten).  9 of the top 16 in East (including Boston again, finally).  2 worst in the East still.  No teams are below .200 any more so much more in line with history on that front, though Phoenix is still above .800 the other way.

Just out of curiosity does this include yesterdays 4-0 for the east? Or is the east actually ahead now.

East is ahead after last night.

This is kind of in line what I was expecting before COVID really ripped through all the rosters in the east in December and got the west up 10 or 11 games. Both conferences now have some really good players out with Durant being the best player, but George, Lilliard, Mitchell, Gobert have all missed some time (a large part of Utah's swoon). Beal, Hayward, Green, Sabonis, Lebron, SGA are all also out. If these guys don't improve in the next few weeks will make for some pretty interesting all-star rosters.

Maybe, but in all 4 interconference games yesterday the Eastern Conference team was home and the only one where the Western team had an appreciably better record was the Clippers at Pacers.  There are 2 games today, Pelicans at Pistons and Nets at Suns.  Detroit and Phoenix are favored, but Detroit is so bad I wouldn't be surprised at all to see New Orleans beat them (who obviously also isn't very good). 

[celticsclay]

I think the East will really separate head to head the last two months of the season. There are really only 3 flat out bad teams in the east that would be sellers at the trade deadline. The magic really don't have much to sell aside from Ross. The pistons have actually been playing a lot better since they started getting a few of their vets back (KO, Grant) and development from Bey and Cunningham. After literally being on pace for the worst record in league history they have passed the magic and have almost caught the Rockets. However they could regress to all time bad levels if they do dump Grant and KO. The pacers would like to mix it up, but I am not really sure what they can do since their tradable players are currently injured. The other mediocre teams, a level above bad, like the knicks and wizards are going to be in competition for the playin all year long.

The west, well there is just a mess of really bad teams there now, and some of them are going to have to give up on the pipe dream of making the playoffs soon (looking at you sacramento). Though marginally better than the Pistons and Magic. Houston, OKC, New Orleans, Sacramento, Spurs, Blazers (especially with no Lillard), Clippers without George or Leonard (and rumored to be sellers at deadline)  is a pretty shocking amount of bad teams. A good amount of these teams are going to shut down some players the last month of the season to try and improve their odds (we saw houston and okc do this last year so they will most likely do it again). I don't really know how someone can look at the amount of bad teams in the West (it has become worse because of the injuries to George, Lillard and zion not coming back) and not accept the East is a deeper conference at this time.

[RodyTur10]

Currently Charlotte, Boston, Toronto and Atlanta are in the play-in seeds. That says enough about how deep the conference is. The East is probably deeper than it has ever been this century. With Brooklyn sliding down these play-in games are going to be high profile and the playoffs are going to be unpredictable.

[celticsclay]

Currently Charlotte, Boston, Toronto and Atlanta are in the play-in seeds. That says enough about how deep the conference is. The East is probably deeper than it has ever been this century. With Brooklyn sliding down these play-in games are going to be high profile and the playoffs are going to be unpredictable.

Yeah I agree. The play in teams in the west are currently clippers (most likely without george and leonard for rest of season), blazers with whatever they have left past the deadline and lillard out indefinitely), Minnesota and the Lakers. Lakers if every healthy are the only team that can scare you of that group to win a playoff series (barring unforseen comebacks from George or Leonard, but from the rumors of them selling off some vets for a reload that seems unlikely).

[Moranis]

West has won the last 5 erasing the Monday games and actually picking up a game so far this week.

And of the 8 teams in the play in, the 4 teams out West have a better record than the teams in the East in actual head to head against each other.  The Blazers and Clippers have done really well, the Lakers are even, and the Wolves have done poorly. 

And that illustrates my larger point that a whole bunch of mediocrity isn't depth, it is just mediocrity.  Depth implies quality and the East has less quality teams, which is why the West has a better record in the head to head despite the East having better records in the middle of the conferences.

[celticsclay]

West has won the last 5 erasing the Monday games and actually picking up a game so far this week.

And of the 8 teams in the play in, the 4 teams out West have a better record than the teams in the East in actual head to head against each other.  The Blazers and Clippers have done really well, the Lakers are even, and the Wolves have done poorly. 

And that illustrates my larger point that a whole bunch of mediocrity isn't depth, it is just mediocrity.  Depth implies quality and the East has less quality teams, which is why the West has a better record in the head to head despite the East having better records in the middle of the conferences.

After the season ending or near season ending injuries to lillard and George you are just being silly. Brooklyn is definitely hard core struggling with Durant out but he is expected back. Are you gonna really resort to changing the definition of depth again?

[Moranis]

My definition matches the traditional sports notion of quality.  Parity and depth are not equivalent terms.  The East has more parity but the West is deeper because the West has better teams. 

For an example from college football, which Big Ten football division was deeper the East or West using the conference record only (since non con and bowls has a great disparity in opponent)?  https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/conferences/big-ten/2021.html

I'd pretty easily say the East was the deeper division since they had the better teams, but by using your logic here you'd have to say the West since Wisconsin and Illinois were better in conference than Penn St. and Maryland.

[celticsclay]

My definition matches the traditional sports notion of quality.  Parity and depth are not equivalent terms.  The East has more parity but the West is deeper because the West has better teams. 

For an example from college football, which Big Ten football division was deeper the East or West using the conference record only (since non con and bowls has a great disparity in opponent)?  https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/conferences/big-ten/2021.html

I'd pretty easily say the East was the deeper division since they had the better teams, but by using your logic here you'd have to say the West since Wisconsin and Illinois were better in conference than Penn St. and Maryland.

You are one odd duck mo. Not even sure what your point is with the big ten conference here, kind of out of left field. But I don’t want to get off in the weeds on some random football conference. I guess the only thing we can agree on is head to head is a good determinant. I expect the east to lose a few more games this week, but then make another charge as some of the awful teams from the west make their east trips and there will be a lot more tanking teams in the west.

[Moranis]

My definition matches the traditional sports notion of quality.  Parity and depth are not equivalent terms.  The East has more parity but the West is deeper because the West has better teams. 

For an example from college football, which Big Ten football division was deeper the East or West using the conference record only (since non con and bowls has a great disparity in opponent)?  https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/conferences/big-ten/2021.html

I'd pretty easily say the East was the deeper division since they had the better teams, but by using your logic here you'd have to say the West since Wisconsin and Illinois were better in conference than Penn St. and Maryland.

You are one odd duck mo. Not even sure what your point is with the big ten conference here, kind of out of left field. But I don’t want to get off in the weeds on some random football conference. I guess the only thing we can agree on is head to head is a good determinant. I expect the east to lose a few more games this week, but then make another charge as some of the awful teams from the west make their east trips and there will be a lot more tanking teams in the west.

you said I had some weird definition of depth, which just isn't accurate and I tried to illustrate that point with the Big Ten as I thought it applied. I take it from you not answering that direct question that you agree with me that the Big Ten East was the deeper better division this year.

[celticsclay]

My definition matches the traditional sports notion of quality.  Parity and depth are not equivalent terms.  The East has more parity but the West is deeper because the West has better teams. 

For an example from college football, which Big Ten football division was deeper the East or West using the conference record only (since non con and bowls has a great disparity in opponent)?  https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/conferences/big-ten/2021.html

I'd pretty easily say the East was the deeper division since they had the better teams, but by using your logic here you'd have to say the West since Wisconsin and Illinois were better in conference than Penn St. and Maryland.

You are one odd duck mo. Not even sure what your point is with the big ten conference here, kind of out of left field. But I don’t want to get off in the weeds on some random football conference. I guess the only thing we can agree on is head to head is a good determinant. I expect the east to lose a few more games this week, but then make another charge as some of the awful teams from the west make their east trips and there will be a lot more tanking teams in the west.

you said I had some weird definition of depth, which just isn't accurate and I tried to illustrate that point with the Big Ten as I thought it applied. I take it from you not answering that direct question that you agree with me that the Big Ten East was the deeper better division this year.

I literally don’t know what you are trying to argue here. You are kind of making the argument I have been trying to make. The east was deeper cause it had 5 times over .500 compared to 4 for the west. This is partly the same reason the east is deeper than west in nba. More above .500 teams. Very odd way of doing it, but thank you for finally admitting it.

[Moranis]

My definition matches the traditional sports notion of quality.  Parity and depth are not equivalent terms.  The East has more parity but the West is deeper because the West has better teams. 

For an example from college football, which Big Ten football division was deeper the East or West using the conference record only (since non con and bowls has a great disparity in opponent)?  https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/conferences/big-ten/2021.html

I'd pretty easily say the East was the deeper division since they had the better teams, but by using your logic here you'd have to say the West since Wisconsin and Illinois were better in conference than Penn St. and Maryland.

You are one odd duck mo. Not even sure what your point is with the big ten conference here, kind of out of left field. But I don’t want to get off in the weeds on some random football conference. I guess the only thing we can agree on is head to head is a good determinant. I expect the east to lose a few more games this week, but then make another charge as some of the awful teams from the west make their east trips and there will be a lot more tanking teams in the west.

you said I had some weird definition of depth, which just isn't accurate and I tried to illustrate that point with the Big Ten as I thought it applied. I take it from you not answering that direct question that you agree with me that the Big Ten East was the deeper better division this year.

I literally don’t know what you are trying to argue here. You are kind of making the argument I have been trying to make. The east was deeper cause it had 5 times over .500 compared to 4 for the west. This is partly the same reason the east is deeper than west in nba. More above .500 teams. Very odd way of doing it, but thank you for finally admitting it.

I said conference records because post season and non-con are different

Regular Season conference records
Big Ten East
8-1
8-1
7-2
4-5
3-6
2-7
0-9

Big Ten West
7-2
6-3
6-3
6-3
4-5
1-8
1-8

Your definition the West is deeper, but we all know the East was the deeper better division.

More parity, does not make a conference/division deep, if the parity is a result of a bunch of mediocre teams and not good ones.