[Underdog]

Originally Posted by j0Shi

Time will tell. In theory, Brooklyn and the Knicks should be able to be competitive. Chicago is a major market. And there's Boston with its rich and proud history, so I would assume this year is just a very bad outlier. But I wouldn't rule out a general trend as well. As ESS noted correctly, teams that should get and would need a lottery pick don't receive one in the current system.

This paragraph from Strauss's article touches on that:

But this is a particularly bad season in the Eastern Conference, you might say. True, but at least one East team has made the playoffs at or below .500 in seven of the past eight postseasons; no West team can claim that since the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season. The NBA can say it all eventually balances out, that these things are cyclical, but it’s quite possible that Eastern Conference misery will continue indefinitely if unchecked.