J.R. Smith's Comments About Cavs Bring Up A Great Question: Does the NBA Eastern Conference Stink?
"After a 113-99 loss to the Washington Wizards on Sunday, Cleveland Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith said his level of concern is "extremely high" regarding his team, which has lost three of its past four games. "We can't play basketball like this going down the stretch," Smith said of the Cavs, whose lead over the Toronto Raptors for the top seed in the Eastern Conference sits at 1½ games. "There's 24, 25 games left in the year and you talk about contending, being a championship contender, and get blown out by a team. ... After losing a game to the No. 2 team in the East, then you come out and get thrashed and make it look good at the end. "We can't do that. If we're serious about who we're supposed to be, then we can't do this."" ESPN
If there's one thing NBA players love to do in the past 5-8 years besides be buddies with everyone else in the league and make way too many signature shoes that no one cares about, it's talk about the state of their team after losses. So it's nothing out of the ordinary to see J.R. "I either make a ton of 3's or shit the bed" Smith point out the the Cavs "can't do this" if they want to win the title, which honestly, maybe they don't even want to do. We can't just assume that every team wants to win the championship. After all, that certainly doesn't go along with the "Hey! Guy in a different uniform than me, after the game let's take some Instagram pictures together of us wearing thick-rimmed glasses" mentality that seems to just be basketball-mentality overall nowadays (outside of SA and GS).
J.R. "I guess I'm a piece of this puzzle we call the Cleveland Cavaliers" Smith's comments don't just raise the questions: Can the Cavs actually win? and Do the Cavs even want to win? His comments also raise the question:
Does the NBA Eastern Conference stink?
Let's take a look at the Western Conference:
You know what? Let's summarize the Western Conference:
Now let's take a look at the Eastern Conference. It really does ask the question: Does the NBA Eastern Conference Stink?
Yes. The NBA Eastern Conference stinks.