Think about how poor some of the front offices are for those eastern conference teams over say the past 5 years.
Think of how Atlanta has been unable to rebuild. New York has the worst front office in the league bar none. New Jersey has been putting off rebuilding for a while now. Indiana's front office sealed their fate coughing up much better players to Golden State for average/decent players.
Now look at the western conference front offices and what they have been able to do.
SA - Excellent at finding new talent and securing vets. Did an excellent job of putting together a core of players and they treat them well enough to keep them around.
Dallas - Has no real problem keeping players around or getting new ones to join the fold.
Denver - Has done a pretty good job of getting Carmelo and finding guys to put around him. Even with injuries to some players that could really push this team up a notch they did an excellent job of landing AI.
GS - Pulled the rug out from under Indiana and have been able to retain Baron Davis.
NO - Are on the come up and drafted probably the best pure point guard in the league with some young talent around him.
Utah - Did an excellent job of rebuilding after the Stockton/Malone era ended. I actually don't think they get enough props for how good of a rebuilding job they did. They snatched up Boozer, drafted Deron/AK/Okur, and have been able to get guys like Paul Millsap and Matt Hughes who bring that tough, hustle mentality.
LA - Made the smart move of keeping Kobe and dumping off Shaq. Everyone said it was a dumb idea. 4 seasons later Shaq can barely play and the Lakers are one of the best teams in the league. They did a solid job in drafting over the past few years with Bynum and Farmar. They also did a few key pick ups in Derek Fisher and Trevor Ariza this season.
