Has the NBA's Eastern Conference finally caught up to the West?
Leastern Conference. Titanic Division. For the better part of two decades now, the NBA's Eastern Conference has been a punchline in comparison to the unfathomably competitive West.
While 50-win teams barely scrape by as playoff also-rans out West, losing teams simultaneously sneak into the postseason on the other side of the bracket.
Even as good West teams piled up lottery picks while mediocre East playoff teams failed to, we had to know that order, or at least some sort of balance, would eventually be restored. No one wants to play the fool when it comes to unsustainable early-season trends, but with nearly a fifth of the 2015-16 season already complete, perhaps it's time to recognize that day of reckoning has finally come.
Of the 17 teams currently sitting at .500 or better, 11 reside in the East, and following a season in which the West went 76 games above .500 in inter-conference play, the East actually holds a 38-37 advantage this year.
"It's great," LeBron James said of the East's surprising superior play. "It's great for the Eastern Conference. There's always been a lot of shade thrown at our conference for the last few years, so it's great to see that our side is definitely picking it up and playing at a high level."
For what it's worth, the East, which has been conquered by a James-led team in five straight seasons, hasn't won the inter-conference, head-to-head battle in seven years, with 2008-09 marking the only season of the last 17 that the East came out on top.
In addition to besting the West thus far, the East's depth and competitive balance have also been a welcome revelation.
As the Association breaks for Thanksgiving, the East's top nine teams, all of which boast winning records, are separated by a measly three games. Look further down the ladder and you'll find that only five games separate the conference's top 13 teams.
The defending East champion Cavaliers will pull away from the pack eventually, and a few other teams should join them, but early indications are that the conference could play host to the type of competitive and thrilling playoff race only West Coast fans can relate to.
The Bulls, Hawks, Heat, and Raptors - a combined 38-22 - all have designs on deep playoff runs. The Wizards bring back largely the same team that has advanced to the second round in consecutive seasons. The Pacers, bolstered by an elite defense and the return to MVP-caliber form of Paul George, sit at 9-5, with one of the league's top-five net ratings (+6.2 per 100 possessions).
The Hornets, 9-6, have rebounded from the loss of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist by shocking the NBA with a fourth-ranked offense. The Pistons, 8-7, have arguably the league's best center in Andre Drummond. The Celtics, a surprising playoff team last spring, have depth, youth, a boat load of attractive assets, and the brilliant Brad Stevens manning the sidelines.
The Knicks, awash in Porzingis Mania, are already nearly halfway to last season's win total. The Magic are as competitive as any losing team, having been outscored by a grand total of just 11 points in 15 games. The Bucks - the most disappointing East team thus far - have the talent and length to dig themselves out of a 6-9 hole, and they already have a win over the Cavs under their belts.
Look at the sample we have to work with, gaze up and down the East, and you'll quickly realize that the conference's only woeful teams reside in Philadelphia and Brooklyn, because the 76ers and Nets, especially, must be excluded from any conversations centered around hope.
"Unbeknownst to many, there's a lot of good teams in the East," Cavs coach David Blatt said following Wednesday's loss in Toronto, bristling at the notion that the competition could be early-season fool's gold.
"It is early," Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said before Wednesday's game. "But I dare people to say that the East is the Leastern Conference."
On a larger scale, the compacted East standings are a microcosm of what appears to be a more balanced NBA as a whole, as other than the Warriors, Spurs, and Cavs at the top, and the Sixers, Nets, and Lakers at the bottom, parity has reigned supreme early on this season.
Casey believes that the league is as competitively balanced as it has been in a long time. "Golden State's on a crazy tear, but other than that, it's a pretty balanced league."
For the first time in a generation, the Eastern Conference can take some credit for that.