CHART: The NBA's Eastern Conference Is Horrible But It Is About To Get A Lot Better
With the Chicago Bulls losing Derrick Rose to another season-ending injury and both the Knicks (3-10) and Nets (4-10) off to horrible starts, the Eastern Conference is already a 2-team race between the Pacers and Heat and there is nobody else even close.
The chart below is a look at the Simple Rating System (SRS; via Basketball-Reference.com) which measures each team's average scoring margin and adjusts that based on the team's strength of schedule.
The Eastern Conference has two of the top three teams. However, the Heat and Pacers are the only teams from the East among the top 11 and the East also has 12 of the 14 worst teams. The good news for the East is that means many of the top players in next year's loaded draft will end up on Eastern Conference teams and the competition for the Heat is about to get much better...
