The chatter about the NBA's conference imbalance has been a fine distraction this season, turning critical eyes away from the even more ridiculous (and similarly unfair) construct of divisions.
There are six divisions in the Association, each containing five teams.
The equality stops there.
Some divisions, like the Atlantic, feature just one decent team. Others, like the Southwest, boast five quality clubs. The Pacific is top-heavy, flashy and highly entertaining, while the Central is a plodding slogfest distinguished by a single high-visibility superstar.
We can't do much about realignment, but we can rank the divisions in an effort to highlight the distinct variances in quality and character. To do so, we'll rely on two main factors: how teams have fared outside the confines of their own divisions and simple ratings.
The Simple Rating System (SRS) comes from Basketball-Reference.com, and it smooths out distractions like the unbalanced slate (which favors East teams who only see the West a combined 30 times a year) by factoring in strength of schedule and margin of victory. A positive simple rating is good; negative ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Grant Hughes
Ranking the NBA’s Divisions for the 2014-15 Season
March 24th, 2015 by Grant Hughes Leave a reply »
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