NBA - Power Shifting?

With the Kevin Garnett trade to the Boston Celtics nearly complete, one can only wonder how this will effect the balance of power between the Eastern and Western conferences in both the long and short term. Don't get me wrong, the Western conference is by far much more powerful than the Eastern conference. With major stars in Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Baron Davis, Tony Parker as well as the first two picks from this years draft in Kevin Durant and Greg Oden, the west is stacked with young grade A talent. This does give the advantage to the Western Conference as of right now.

But with Kevin Garnett most likely changing his address from Minnesota to Boston, could change the power from the west back to the east. The star power is not nearly as deep as the west but the potential is clearly there. To go along with Garnett; Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Shaq, Dwight Howard, Gilbert Arenas, the Chicago Bulls College All-star squad, Chris Bosh, Chancey Billups, Jason Kidd and Vince Carter all call the Eastern conference home. More interesting is the willingness of Eastern Conference teams to break the strangle hold the west has had on the league since Shaq moved from Orlando to LA.

With many big names hitting the free agent market in the next few years, it will be interesting to see if some of these names stay or move. Also while the Western stars are more established in their careers, many of the stars in the East are still learning how to play the game as well as how to develop their own games to reach their highest potential. With the Celtics trading for Ray Allen, deciding not to part ways with Paul Pierce and also trading for Kevin Garnett, it's clear that at least this Eastern Conference team has decided to actually try and win an NBA championship, who would join both the Pistons and Heat as the only true contenders in the Eastern Conference. Yes, Lebron led his team to the finals last year but the way in which they lost shows you that both Lebron was the only true big time player on that team and that it was probably more of a fluke then it was a team effort to reach the finals.

The financial situation of many teams in the Eastern conference also favors the 'stealing' of names from the West to come East. One of the teams with a potentially favorable cap situation is the Knicks. With a few heavy contracts expiring within the next few seasons, the Knicks who play with monopoly money could be heavy players in the free agent market in the upcoming seasons. Also, with Shaq retiring in probably a season or two, the Heat could be a player as they will look to find a wingman for Wade. If the Cavaliers can convince Lebron to stay in Cleveland, they too could hitting the free agent market to actually build a team around the NBA's self proclaimed King.

We can only wait and see how the trade of Garnett to the East will effect the balance of power between the conferences. If the Eastern conference franchises play their cards correctly, the balance of power could be switching back to the east.