Don’t throw away those “Leastern Conference” jokes. They are likely to have utility for a while.

The events of the past few days have only emphasized how wobbly things are in the NBA’s Eastern Conference, which has been the demonstrably weaker half of the league for the better part of a quarter-century. The 64-win, top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers were eliminated in Game 5 by the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday. The defending-champion Boston Celtics are down 3-1 to the New York Knicks, with star Jayson Tatum out with a ruptured right Achilles tendon and a grim financial situation staring at them.

If that wasn’t enough, the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs got the top two picks in Monday’s draft lottery. If one of those picks comes back to the East, it might be because it’s part of trade compensation for Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

It’s a dark time for the East, but that could open avenues to contention for some under-the-radar teams. The Athletic’s Josh Robbins, Eric Koreen and Law Murray, the latter playing the part of Western Conference interloper, got together to talk about it.

1. With everything that has gone on over the last few days, what are your big-picture thoughts on the state of the East?

Koreen: The poor get poorer.

It seems like every year, we talk ourselves into the balancing of the conferences, and nine times out of 10 that ends up looking silly by, like, December. I remember thinking this way when Portland and Seattle landed the picks that became Greg Oden and Kevin Durant, respectively — and that was 18 lotteries ago.

More than that, it is the lack of stability that is stunning. Maybe this is just the new CBA working as it is supposed to, but who, other than the Indiana Pacers, seem like they a) are good; b) are good enough to withstand an injury; and c) will continue to be good for the next few years? I have real questions about every other team.

Murray: Absolute shambles. The NBA introduced conferences in 1970, the year the league expanded from 14 teams to 17. Since then, the only time that multiple 60-win teams in the same conference failed to make their respective conference respective finals was in 2007. That was when the 67-win Dallas Mavericks got “We Believed” by an eight-seed Golden State Warriors, and the 61-win Phoenix Suns got hip-checked out of the conference semifinals by the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs.

The 2025 Eastern Conference champion is facing that conclusion, with the Cavaliers already dispatched and the 61-win Celtics facing elimination. You had a 10th-seed Miami Heat eliminate Atlanta and Chicago. The 76ers got Paul George, only to need a blatant tank and lottery luck to keep their pick. Achilles injuries to Damian Lillard and Tatum are going to alter teams built to contend. And even the teams that needed the tank the most, Charlotte and Washington, couldn’t secure top-three draft picks.

Robbins: Is the East an inferior conference compared to the West? Yes. But this isn’t a new development.

Perhaps the best method to measure the relative strengths of the conferences is the results of interconference games. This past regular season, East teams went 592-638 against West teams, according to Basketball Reference.

Since the 2000-01 season, the East has posted a winning record only three times in interconference games, per Basketball Reference. Only three times! That’s amazing. Plus, the West has won the preponderance of NBA titles during that stretch.

The league would benefit from having more parity between the two conferences, but the lack of competitive balance is not new. Let’s not get too overdramatic about all this right now. The question is this: How much worse will the disparity get?

2. Assuming a void emerges, which teams do you think are best equipped to step up next year? How about long-term?

Koreen: Outside of the teams still playing basketball, the Toronto Raptors and Chicago Bulls could leap into the back end of the top six, or at least the top end of the Play-In, if things break right. Both of those lottery teams showed some nice things in the second half of the season and are generally more talented than they get credit for, even if both have been questionably assembled. Getting Jalen Johnson back would do wonders for Atlanta, too. The Pistons could break into the top four, certainly.

To me, the Orlando Magic remain the potential sleeping giant. I know, I know: They ranked in the bottom third in offensive rating for the 38th consecutive season. Their defense really is that good, however. They comported themselves well against the Celtics. They control all of their own firsts. If a team that wasn’t in the conference’s final four last year is in the conference finals next year, I’d bet on the Magic.

Murray: On the bright side, the time is now for Cade Cunningham and Paolo Banchero! These two players have become All-Stars after being drafted first in their respective drafts. It’s time for both to take the next steps as they enter their primes. Cunningham got a baptism by fire in these playoffs, but it is encouraging to see he could lead the Detroit Pistons to multiple road wins in New York. As for Banchero and the Magic, they already have the best defense in the East, and that’s despite the injuries that hit Orlando all year. There is plenty to build on for Detroit and Orlando, but they can’t get comfortable and stagnant.

Robbins: The Cavaliers aren’t going anywhere. I know they seem down and out at this moment, but they remain a superb team. The Knicks aren’t going anywhere, either.

The Magic have a chance to make a jump — if they don’t run into injury issues in 2025-26 and if their front office adds outside shooting and shot creation.

For the Pistons to take another step forward, they’ll need to re-sign key veteran free agents Malik Beasley, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dennis Schröder.

Truth is, I’m struggling to compile a list of East teams ready to make a jump to conference-title contention, and that speaks to the overall point of this roundtable.

3. If you were running the Milwaukee Bucks, do recent events make you more or less likely to want to trade Giannis?

Koreen: Clearly, it depends on what Antetokounmpo wants and what the offers are. Even in the East, it will be tough for Milwaukee to be a real contender with an injured Lillard eating up so much of the team’s flexibility and most of their draft picks belonging to other teams.

Still, the state of the East would nudge me toward keeping Antetokounmpo. True, I suggested the Bucks should consider that approach before Monday night, but it shouldn’t take much beyond a healthy and productive Antetokounmpo to make a run in the East. Get lucky with a few low-risk gambles and the Bucks could be relevant — even dangerous.

I would still anticipate (and understand) a trade, but the idea of continuing this partnership should be appealing to the Bucks. It could still lead to many, many wins in the East.

Murray: Less likely. Milwaukee is not in any position to tank, given the first-round picks the team has doled out over the years. The Bucks should be trying to stay in the mix and compete until they get their draft capital back, and they have a star who is worth showing up to see play regularly. The Bucks know what it was like before Antetokounmpo broke through, and that was done with draft capital.

Robbins: The state of the East would not factor into my thinking on what to do about Giannis. The critical question revolves around whether he will want to re-sign with Milwaukee beyond the 2026-27 season. If the answer to that question is no, it would be best to trade him now, when there’s the opportunity to obtain the best-possible value in draft picks and young players.

4. How real is the risk of teams overreacting to a moment when the East looks particularly weak and reaching for competitiveness too quickly?

Koreen: My answer to the above question informs this one. Yes, this could lead to some bad decisions.

There are a finite number of games available to be won, so not all decisions will work out, regardless of the context. Executives get impatient, though. While there is a danger of being too conservative, NBA executives are incredibly competitive people. Most of them have limited time to build a winner, or they will be out of a job.

The stacked Western Conference hasn’t caused a handful of teams to go all in on losing, so I doubt the opposite situation in the East will suddenly cause six also-rans to suddenly go for it. I expect there to be one or two surprise buyers, though.

Murray: There’s always risk. Look at last year’s 76ers. They didn’t have to give up an All-Star while acquiring an All-Star in George. They were rewarded by being the only 2024 playoff team in the East that didn’t make it back to the postseason. But if there is a chance to put a special team together, you do it.

That doesn’t always have to come in the form of overpaying a star. The Knicks went all out to trade draft picks for Mikal Bridges, who is not a star in the conventional sense. The regular-season results weren’t inspiring. Fortune favors the bold sometimes, and New York is emerging as a possible contender as a result. I’ll always say that teams should make the move and figure the rest out on the court. Scared money don’t make none.

Robbins: That’s an interesting question. Because of the punitive aprons created in the still-newish collective bargaining agreement, the risk of going all in prematurely or locking yourself into big, long-term contracts has never been greater. If you’re an East front office, you better be certain you have the right nucleus in place before you go into win-now mode.

5. Is it time to get rid of conferences in playoff seeding and just go 1-16? Is there any other format you’d prefer?

Koreen: I know how most Western Conference executives would vote here. I also understand the practical issues working against a change. We don’t need to add more travel in April and May given the number of serious injuries we’re already seeing. Ultimately, I don’t think Eastern Conference teams are trying to build poorly, so I don’t think changing the incentives would necessarily change the results. We just got done with a year in which there were more teams out East that accepted bad records than there were out West. Over time, I don’t think that has been the case. I know of some executives who disagree, but I don’t see it like that.

I like the conferences, and the current breakdown of the playoffs. I think the league has bigger issues to fix than that.

Murray: Absolutely not. This would be one of the worst things the NBA could do, and even suggesting it is insulting. It’s not just the travel part that makes this ridiculous. Every year, we see the schedule that comes out. Every team plays 52 games against their own conference and 30 against the opposite conference. The playoff field is about determining who is the best in each conference. It doesn’t make sense to have a team play 41 games against the West and then 41 games against the East, so it doesn’t make sense to play a conference-heavy schedule just to dismiss that when it comes time to determine who qualifies for the postseason.

Also, we give the Western Conference too much credit. We shouldn’t be rewarding teams like the 2025 Sacramento Kings and Dallas Mavericks with playoff spots just because they were closer to .500 than their East counterparts. And we shouldn’t be feeling sorry for any team that can’t finish in the top six of their own conference; if you’re a Play-In Tournament team in either conference, just be thankful you get to even have a chance at the postseason.

Robbins: Heck no! It’s not time to get rid of the current playoff seeding and matchup system. The travel between, say, an Atlanta and Golden State first-round playoff series would be obscene!

Ditching the current playoff system would be an overreaction. Again, the disparity between the conferences is not new. Have the last 25 or so years of imbalance between the conferences taken away that much, if at all, from those postseasons? I don’t think so.