If you believe in the East Coast bias, this is not the post for you.
Currently the Eastern Conference is reaching epically bad levels of struggles. Sure, it is early in the season and there probably is not much use in looking at standings quite yet. But just look at the standings:
After you get past Indiana and Miami and even Atlanta there does not seem to be a great team in the bunch. Brooklyn and New York's struggles have really put a wrench in the standings. Still, you would expect some team to race out to a fast start and look really good even if they were to fade later. This just seems like high levels of futility.
Just five teams sit at .500 and the third-seeded Hawks would be seventh out West. And I think we all know Golden State is going to improve.
This has been the way it has been for much of the past decade. Even though the Heat remain the favorite to win the championship, they will not have a rough ride to get to the Finals.
The real question is how much faith does anyone have in the teams currently in the East playoff picture to stay there or be much competition?
Philadelphia was expected to be historically bad. Toronto has its problems — namely the inefficient Rudy Gay — but is not an awful Playoff choice. Chicago will be without Derrick Rose. Charlotte is . . . Charlotte. Detroit has a lot of talent, but has not quite put it all together.
Cleveland, Washington, New York and Brooklyn continue to struggle. Eventually they might begin to put wins together. But nobody seems quite sure about it now that the season is starting to get into the grind.
The East just might be really bad. That will not be welcome news to those West teams just outside the final cut.
