The issue: The West, dominant for more than a decade, has been decimated.
Three young franchise players have gone East since the summer: Carmelo Anthony from Denver to New York, Deron Williams from Utah to New Jersey, Amare Stoudemire from Phoenix to New Jersey.
Add to that the career-threatening injuries to Yao Ming and Brandon Roy, as well as Greg Oden, which have foiled any intention Houston and Portland, respectively, had to contend.
So that’s five franchises forever changed.
And while the Mavericks, Lakers and Spurs remain strong, their best players are all in their 30s, from Dirk Nowitzki to Kobe Bryant to Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili.
With the best player on the Hornets (Chris Paul) likely to flee in 2012, and the Grizzlies looking likely to part ways with Zach Randolph, that leaves only the Thunder (Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook) and Clippers (Blake Griffin) as clearly ascendant.
Meanwhile, all of the top East free agents in 2010 (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson) remained in the East, even with James and Bosh switching teams. The biggest names heading from East to West since the 2010 trading deadline? Tyson Chandler, Vince Carter, David Lee, Michael Beasley and Caron Butler (now injured). That list is roughly equivalent to the secondary list of players going West to East, starting with Carlos Boozer, Chauncey Billups, Hedo Turkoglu and Jason Richardson.
The question: Which East franchise worries you most going forward?
Tags: Amare Stoudemire , Carmelo Anthony , Deron Williams , LeBron James , Miami Heat
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 at 4:22 pm and is filed under 2010-11 season . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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