For the first time in the last several seasons, the East can arguably match, if not beat the West in this category. The defending champion Detroit Pistons are one of these new Eastern big rigs, as they return their entire core group.
The Indiana Pacers, despite suffering early season injuries to Jermaine O’Neal and Reggie Miller, are 5-2, and assuming Ron Artest can control himself and not focus too much on his music career, they will continue to have success.
South Beach rounds out the top teams in the East as a revamped Miami Heat squad with Shaq at the helm looks dangerous early in the center-less East. The Heat are thin, but assuming they can be healthy come playoffs, this team has championship potential.
The Western Conference has seen the greatest shift take place as the Lakers have fallen from the team to beat to a question mark for the playoffs. Minnesota tops this deeper, but not as intimidating conference. At 3-2, the Timberwolves are the favorite to reach the Finals—that is if an aging Latrell Sprewell can be happy with 13 million dollars a season, instead of his demanded 15 million dollars.
Trailing the T-wolves are the not-so-usual suspects. Tim Duncan and the Spurs look to contend again, but the Lakers are mediocre at best. Dallas lost Steve Nash and still can’t play defense, and Sacramento is an older and flawed squad.
This could be the year teams such as Houston, Memphis, Denver, Phoenix and Utah make a push toward the top half of the conference. A face-lifted Houston team has the weapons in Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady who was acquired via trade for Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley while Denver, Phoenix, and Memphis all have loads of young and exciting talent.
