The East is Weak…again.

The Raptors championship is the first Eastern Conference champion since 2016 when Skip Bayless’s ex, LeBron James, led the comeback of all comebacks to beat the 73-9 Warriors. Of the last 15 years, 9 of the Championships have been won by Western Conference teams, and the East has widely been considered weaker than the West for a long time. Last season the East was considerably strong, with the top 5 squads being able to compete with anyone on any night. This offseason though, things have changed.

In 2018-19, the Eastern Conference standings looked like this:

1. Bucks: 60-22
2. Raptors: 58-24
3. Sixers: 51-31
4. Celtics: 49-33
5. Pacers: 48-34
6. Nets: 42-40
7. Magic: 42-40
8. Pistons: 41-41
9. Hornets: 39-43
10. Heat: 39-43
11. Wizards: 32-50
12. Hawks: 29:53
13. Bulls: 22-60
14. Cavs: 19-63
15. Knicks: 17-65

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk. The Bucks, Raptors, Sixers, Celtics, and Hornets all got arguably worse. Four of the five teams mentioned were in the playoffs and were top 5 seeds last season. Going into this season, The top 5 seeds are pretty much intact, but they actually got worse.

The Bucks

The Bucks still have Giannis, Brook, Middleton, and company but at the end of the day, they lost their young sharpshooter Malcolm Brogdon, and they gave Middleton way to much money. They still have pieces, and of course, Giannis, but they still got worse.

The Raptors

Obviously, we all know what happened. Kawhi is gone. Boohoo. Suck it up, the Raps still have a solid squad with a lot of depth and a lot of youth. Siakam is hopefully ready to take the leap to primary scorer and Norman Powell will hopefully live up to his contract. They did get worse though, and despite the bright side of the team, they just aren’t as good as last year, and will likely make a return trip to the playoffs, but not the finals.

The Sixers

Why is everyone so high on this Philly team? Let’s break it down. They have an injury-prone Embiid, a reliable double-double guy in Simmons, a streaky, massively overpaid bad defender in Tobias Harris, an aging Horford who while being very good, will hamstring them financially in a couple years, and a poor mans Jimmy Butler in Josh Richardson. Okay. What do I see? A team that’s not good enough. I don’t believe the Sixers can win the chip, I don’t believe they have what it takes to get past the Lakers, Clippers, or Nuggets, I just don’t see it. They failed to keep the best player on the team in Jimmy Butler, and made some interesting, but overall not good enough moves that for me, see’s them get worse.

The Celtics

The last two seasons at TD Garden could be described, if you’re Kyrie Irving as, “Imma ISO this fool real quick” and by everyone else as, “Is he really ISO’ing AGAIN?!” To put it simply, Kyrie turned this stable franchise into a Real Houswives set while limiting ball movement and failing to allow Tatum to blossom. But hey Boston, he’s gone, he’s going to go play for the Kni- sorry, that’s awkward, the Nets* where he can get angry watching KD take four pull-up three’s a game. AND, you got Kemba Walker, the man who has carried Michael Jordan’s ownership legacy and Nic Batum’s contract on his back for the last five years. The man who despite proving he can do everything on the court with little drama off the court, is snubbed in the point-guard conversation year after year. You got him. Good for you. But. You also lost Al Horford, who fathered Giannis for a game in the ECSF and then dipped to Philly. Despite the jokes, Al Horford is a massive loss, he was a defensive anchor and great lockerroom guy, and replacing him with Enes Kanter is like buying your son Rapala Pro Fishing Series 2018 for Christmas instead of COD like he asked for. The look on that kids face when he opens that present is going to be the look on every Celtics fans face when he loses his man in the pain after getting sucked out of position and they realize he’s not Al Horford.

The Hornets

Michael Jordan woke up one day and said, “I was a great basketball player, so I must be a great owner.” And in 2010 took controlling interest over the now Charlotte Hornets. Well, after almost a decade of nothing, MJ has finally done it, and he has put together yet another team of nothing. His most expensive player, Nic Batum, hasn’t done anything since he signed with the Hornets, and recently averaged 9 PPG last season despite earning $24,000,000. If we break it down, he scored exactly 699 points last season, meaning he made $34,334 per point. Not bad, right? Right, unless your MJ. After losing Kemba, MJ went out and got the Celtics disgruntled point guard, Terry Rozier. Yep, Terry Rozier. The Celtics bench point guard has been an explosive offensive juggernaut his whole career, but just hasn’t been able to find consistency on the scoresheet or on the court. But now he has. Rozier will play starting minutes as he tries to get the Hornets to score more than 60 points a game. Have fun Terry.

So yes, the East is bad, and it won’t be great again for a while, but for now, let’s enjoy Lakers fans and Knicks fans tear each other apart after the Lakers fail to win a chip and the Knicks sign another power forward.