The Eastern Conference came into the season carrying a lot of noise, but the early results haven’t matched the buildup.
All summer, the conversation was about how much stronger the East was supposed to be. Philadelphia, Boston, Toronto, Cleveland and Indiana all made additions or were expected to get key players back from injury, and the conference looked loaded on paper. That led plenty of national voices to predict the Pistons would slide backward, a message Detroit’s players heard loud and clear.
Not everyone bought into that take, though. The Pistons were picked by some to finish first in the East, and while that race is nowhere near settled, the conference itself has clearly not delivered the kind of early-season chaos people expected.
Right now, only four teams in the East have winning records. The 76ers are on top at 8-1, followed by the Pistons and Celtics at 6-2, with the Hawks sitting fourth at 5-4.
Behind them, the Knicks, Wizards and Cavaliers are all at 4-4. After that, the drop-off gets ugly fast, with seven teams already below .500.
The Bucks, Bulls and Nets have been especially rough, and the idea that the East would be stronger because there weren’t any obvious “tankers” hasn’t held up. Those three teams have combined for just six wins so far. They don’t have to tank, they suck.
Some of the other struggling teams have a different excuse. The Magic and Pacers are dealing with major injuries to their best players, leaving them to try to survive until Haliburton, Banchero et al. return.
Then there’s Miami and Charlotte, two teams that have looked flat out of the gate and seem closer to being a year away than real contenders. Miami could still climb out of its 3-6 start, but the lack of depth is a problem, and the early returns on the Giannis/Bam pairing haven’t been positive.
The Knicks and Cavaliers should rise as the season goes on, which would help the overall picture. Even so, that still leaves the East with only five teams that can be called good, while the rest sit somewhere between average and bad.
The contrast with the West is hard to ignore. The Western Conference has nine teams with winning records and only four with losing records. Those four are all bad, but the West still runs 11 deep with teams that look capable of fighting for a play-in spot.
None of this is final. The sample size is tiny, and things can shift quickly once the schedule deepens. But for now, the East hasn’t come close to matching the hype it built over the summer.
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