NBA Notes: Eastern Conference is a reason for change

By Mike Walsh

There has never been a better argument to change the current playoff format in the NBA than this: The Eastern Conference. While the overall talent of the top four teams in the East is better this season, the conference as a whole is miserable.
If I were in charge of the NBA I would make the NBA playoffs more like March Madness, in that the team with the best record in each conference would be given the number one seed in each half of the bracket and then every other team, no matter the conference, would be given a seed based on records alone. There might have to be some scheduling adjustments or strength of schedule factors, but I think it could work.
The West is loaded.
It’s very exciting, but the problem is that each series in each round is going to feel like the conference championship. By the time the Lakers/Spurs/Jazz get out of the West, they are going to be exhausted. Meanwhile the tops four seeds in the East will most likely sweep their first round opponents. I am so confident of this that I feel like only four teams deserve to be talked about as Eastern Conference contenders.

Pistons-I hate them. Nothing changes with them. A few parts here and there, but the nucleus remains, the unexciting play remains and the “not quite good enough” factor remains this year. They have the same team as last year, and that team lost to the fighting Lebron’s. How will they beat two out of the three threats this year? They won’t.

Celtics-As long as Sam Cassell passes his physical (it might be difficult to prove that his ginormous gonads aren’t tumors), he will give the Celtics the crunch time player that will make them the prohibitive favorite. He might be old, but which point guard in the east is going to exploit that? Chauncey Billups isn’t quick, he’s wily. Cassell has more wily in his giant left nut that Billups has in his whole body. Who are you going to key on if the Celts come out for a last shot with Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Sam Cassell??? They also signed PJ Brown’s rotting corpse. Whatever. They are going to be really tough.

Orlando-They are who I thought they were! Dwight Howard is a stud and is only going to get better. Hedo Turkoglu has been underrated his entire career and is finally shining. Rashard Lewis is still the enigmatic character that we all knew he would be. And they have horrible guards. No surprises. When the game slows down in the playoffs they can’t feed it to Howard down low because he’s not a great back to the basket player yet. They can’t rely on Lewis and every other team has someone who can slow down Hedo. Look for Orlando to leap frog Detroit in the coming years though.

Cleveland-Lebron would be the MVP this year hands down if Kobe wasn’t…well, Kobe. Still, Lebron keeps getting better. He is a better defender, better jump shooter and better crunch time scorer this year. We knew he was a better raw athlete than Kobe, but Kobe had the intense desire, hyper-competitive nature to go along with great athleticism and ice water for blood. Now that Lebron is figuring that part out, his ceiling just became “unknown”. The Cavs were the only team in the East to really shake their roster up in a positive way. I was in the minority, but I really liked what Cleveland did, adding an emerging point guard in Delonte West, adding consistent outside shooting (from someone other than their point guard) in Wally Sczerbiak, adding beef down low with Wallace and getting Joe Smith. Smith is a post player that can knock down the 15 footer all day. The Cavs can do a lot more on offense with these acquisitions.

Everyone else-The rest of the east is a cluster of subpar teams that are all difficult to talk about. The only other team that can look like a quality team is Toronto, but they are too flawed to beat one of the top four in a series. As for everyone else…. yikes. The Bulls are dysfunctional and no one can really pinpoint exactly why. The Hawks are the Hawks, the Wiz are injury plagued and have bad chemistry, the Pacers cannot rely on Jermaine O’Neal or Mike Dunleavy night in and night out, the Sixers (who I watched in person get blown out by Golden State) are all smoke and mirrors. Their only bright spot is Sweet Lou Williams. And the Nets, Gold bless ‘em, they traded away Kidd and brought in Devon Harris to deal with Vince Carter. Bad times.
I will be shocked if one of the top four teams gets knocked off in the first round. Although, come to think of it, the Cleveland-Toronto first round match-up could be interesting. I need to stop thinking before I change my mind.

Speaking of the Wizards: Washington might be getting the boost it needs to hang on to one of the final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference as Gilbert Arenas has been cleared to return to practice.
Arenas has had three procedures on his injured left knee in less than a year, including two of them just three and a half months ago.
Still, with Arenas helping a team that has been decimated by injuries other than to their star guard, he could come to the rescue just in time.
He told the AP he was cleared to go full speed, but also said he was a big weary of getting hurt again.
As of now, there is no timetable for his return to game action.