1. Playoff Meanderings: On an overall level, the Eastern Conference has caught up the West. Three of the top four teams are in the East and they have been pretty effective against the West. Nevertheless, the West is absolutely flying in terms of playoff position. Right now, the West’s top eight have winning percentages of .600 or better (projecting to 49-50 wins) and Phoenix is ninth with a .557 winning percentage (which projects to about 46 wins). Now, we’ve looked at the playoffs a lot over the years, finding the best eight seeds of All-Time and the Mavs/Suns have a very good shot of beating out the 2007-08 Nuggets (50-32) as having the most wins for an eight seed.
In the East, we have the potential of the bottom four playoff teams being .500 or under (though that number is more likely to be only two). Miami and Detroit should stay above water, if barely. Just to satisfy all of our curiosity, here are the number of .500 or under playoff teams per season since the playoffs were expanded in 1983-84:
-2007-08, East: 1 .500 team, 2 under .500 teams
West: 0
-2006-07, East: 2 .500 teams, 1 under .500 team
West: 0
-2005-06, East: 2 .500 teams, 1 under .500 team
West: 0
-2004-05, East: 0
West: 0
-2003-04, East: 2 .500 teams, 2 under .500 teams
West: 0
-2002-03, East: 0
West: 0
-2001-02, East: 0
West: 0
-2000-01, East: 1 .500 team
West: 0
-1999-00, East: 0
West: 0
-1998-99, East: 0
West: 1 .500 team
-1997-98, East: 0
West: 1 .500 team
-1996-97, East: 0
West: 3 under .500 teams
-1995-96, East: 0
West: 1 .500 team, 1 under .500 team
-1994-95, East: 1 under .500 team
West: 1 .500 team
-1993-94, East: 0
West: 0
-1992-93, East: 1 .500 team
West: 1 .500 team, 1 under .500 team
-1991-92, East: 3 under .500 teams
West: 0
-1990-91, East: 1 .500 team, 1 under .500 team
West: 1 .500 team
-1989-90, East: 0
West: 1 .500 team
-1988-89, East: 0
West: 1 under .500 team
-1987-88, East: 2 under .500 teams
West: 1 under .500 team
-1986-87, East: 2 under .500 teams
West: 2 under .500 teams
-1985-86, East: 3 under .500 teams
West: 3 under .500 teams
-1984-85, East: 3 under .500 teams
West: 2 .500 teams, 1 under .500 team
-1983-84, East: 2 under .500 teams
West: 1 .500 team, 2 under .500 teams
The .500 and under playoffs teams are generally a rare occurrence. The West hasn’t had one since 1998-99. The East, on the other hand, has had plenty of mediocre playoff teams. This fact hasn’t actually indicated overall strength of conference either, as the East hasn’t had too many tough teams in that span. Getting three under .500 teams in playoffs is also quite rare. This has only happened once per conference since the end of the 1980s. The 1991-92 East had Indiana (40-42), New Jersey (40-42), and Miami (38-44), all of which were young promising teams:
-Indiana had Reggie Miller, Chuck Person, Rik Smits, and Detlef Schrempf.
-The Nets had Derrick Coleman, Mookie Blaylock, Drazen Petrovic, and Kenny Anderson.
-Miami had Steve Smith, Glen Rice, and Rony Seikaly.
All three teams were dispatched pretty quickly, with only the Nets winning a single game.
The other quasi-recent scenario like this was the 1996-97 West, where the Suns (40-42), T-Wolves (40-42) and Clipps (36-46) all made it. As with the 1991-92 team, the below .500 teams were somewhat interesting. The Suns had started out 0-13 and rallied to make the playoffs and were much better than the looked. With Kevin Johnson, Jason Kidd, Ced Ceballos, Rex Chapman, and Danny Manning this team could score a lot (if not defend) and they took Seattle to the limit in the first round before losing. The Wolves were Minnesota’s first playoff team (second-year pro Kevin Garnett, rookie Stephon Marbury, and Tom Gugliotta) got them in before they were swept by the Olajuwon-Drexler-Barkley Rockets. The Clippers were a crappy non-descript Bill Fitch coached team (Loy Vaught and Malik Sealy led the team) that really wouldn’t have made the playoffs in any conference with normal depth (18th in offense and 16th in defense).
Another interesting data point on the list is how many under .500 teams were making the playoffs in the 1980s. Since 1989, there hasn’t a single season where both conference have had an under .500 playoff team. In the 1980s, it happened each of the first five seasons after the playoff system was expanded. As great as the Celtics and Lakers were of that era and however much we wax poetic about the time before the league was watered down, this seems to me as evidence that there was not great depth in the league. Now poor playoffs teams could be read as proof of how dominant the Lakers and Celtics were but most of these under .500 teams were seriously mediocre for the most part and were not teams building to something matter. I see this more as proof that base line of NBA teams has improved since the 1980s.