NBA Free Agency: The day the Eastern Conference died

The landscape is changed. The King is in the West. LeBron James elected to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers in NBA Free Agency, and the Eastern Conference is a rotting corpse.

The first day of July in 2018. The day LeBron James really did THAT. The day Paul George stunned everyone and stayed in Oklahoma City, for four years no less. The day Chris Paul signed a contract that will pay him $40 million as a 38 year old. The day The Greek Freak became the face of the Eastern Conference.

The day the Eastern Conference died.

Adam Silver, the pressure is on to abandon the two-conference system. The Eastern Conference is coming off of a Renaissance type season, one where – top to bottom – it had been more competitive than perhaps anytime since Derrick Rose lost his knees. And it wasn’t enough to keep it alive.

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The most marketable player in the East is gone. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the best player in the conference, and most people can’t even say or spell his name. Last season, the eighth seeded Washington Wizards would have finished four games out of the playoffs had they played in the West (assuming they even win 43 games with a Western conference schedule, which we can safely assume they do not).

Of last year’s three NBA MVP finalists (James Harden, LeBron, Anthony Davis) only LeBron played in the East. In fact, since 2003, only five players have won league MVP from the Eastern Conference. Four of those were LeBron James (the other was Derrick Rose, you know, with knees).

It’s time to give up on the conferences. We are looking at a 2018-19 season in which the Eastern Conference could admit multiple teams of 40 or fewer wins into the postseason tournament. Not only does this make for series no one wants (who in their right mind wants to watch a 60 win Celtics team run a four game dress rehearsal against 37 win Charlotte or Detroit?) but it also spurns West teams like the Nuggets, Timberwolves, Spurs, Pelicans, or Jazz, any of which could reasonably be argued to miss the playoffs while winning 45 games.

The Eastern Conference is officially dead. While incredibly top heavy with a Celtics team that is so head and shoulders above the rest of the East that we can practically hang their Eastern Conference Championship banner already, the waters get murky fast for the other 15 teams.

Will the Raptors blow it up? Can the 76ers improve despite not adding any big pieces and seemingly being unable to pry Kawhi Leonard from San Antonio? Can Victor Oladipo average 23/5/4 again? Is the pairing of Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton really a force in this league?

How can we expect any of these teams to hold a candle to the cream of the West’s crop, when we can’t even expect them to compete with Boston? Is there any benefit to telling a 46-win Denver Nuggets team with a premier big man in Nikola Jokic that they have to watch the playoffs from the couch, while the likes of the Wizards and Heat are battling for the title of Super Mediocrity in the East?

The answer, resoundingly, is no. The Lakers won 35 games last year, they will make the playoffs this year by virtue of adding the second greatest player of all-time. None of the eight teams that made the playoffs in the West last year, even if the Spurs really do trade Leonard, are so much worse this year that they should drop enough wins to miss the playoffs.

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That means, in all likelihood, there will be at least three teams with winning records watching the playoffs from the couch in the West. Meanwhile, it’s very likely at least one team with a losing record will be awarded a spot in the East. It is, put simply, an embarrassment.

If the Eastern Conference isn’t dead already, it’s time we kill it. Bury it. Let the 16 best teams duke it out in the playoffs. The NBA should not be in the business of handing out participation trophies.

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