NBA life just got easier in the East

They may have been crying in Cleveland on Sunday night, but fans of the other 14 teams in the NBA’s Eastern Conference had cause for celebration.

LeBron James’ decision to leave the Cavaliers and sign a $153.3-million deal with the Lakers not only makes the Lakers relevant again, it completely changes the landscape in the East, where James’ presence has been an insurmountable roadblock to the NBA Finals for eight years.

James has been to the Finals eight consecutive seasons, four with Miami and four with Cleveland. His absence now paves the way for teams like Boston, Philadelphia and even Toronto, if they get their act together, to enter the season with the goal of making it to the Finals.

Boston, which came within a game of defeating James and Cleveland in the playoffs despite not having Kyrie Irving, is now the favorite to win the East. Interestingly, Westgate SuperBook gave identical 7/2 odds to the Lakers and the Celtics to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy this year. Both are far behind the Golden State Warriors, who sit at 10/11.

Yet, it’s not just the elite teams that have cause for celebration in the East. Any team with one All-Star and a decent supporting cast now has a shot to make the playoffs. Locally, the Knicks, with the injury to Kristaps Porzingis, don’t really have a hope of making the playoffs next season, but if things break right for the Nets, they might be able to sneak their way in.

That’s just how bad the East is. The West now has the best teams and most of the best players. With James in Los Angeles, six of the league’s top seven scorers from last year are now playing in the Western Conference with the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo being the East’s only representative.

Though Knicks fans long dreamed of The King playing at Madison Square Garden, his departure to the West means only good things for their team as it has the potential to kick their rebuild into high gear.

The Knicks have been setting themselves up to be major players in the 2019 free agent market. Now, the addition of one quality player — say a player like Irving — to a team that includes a healthy Porzingis and the Knicks suddenly have enough to be a contender in the East.

Of course, the biggest impact James’ defection could have is a change of the playoff system. You’re going to hear a lot of people crying about NBA Commissioner Adam Silver needing to reconfigure the playoff picture. Silver hinted this season that the league may take a look at the East-West format in the playoffs. The idea of taking the top eight teams from both the Eastern and Western Conferences and reseeding them 1-16 based on overall record is something that continues to get kicked around. The other option, if reform is the goal, is to ignore conference affiliation completely, taking the 16 best teams from the regular season.

This would be a little short sighted and would mess with a system that tends to correct itself over time. The strengths of the two conferences has long been cyclical — remember when no one could beat Michael Jordan and the Bulls — and the fact that the West is so loaded with top teams really hasn’t hurt viewership over the past couple of years.

Nor, is the fact that James probably won’t make it to the Finals next season. His rebuilding of the Lakers — who are riding a franchise-tying five-year playoff drought — will be a compelling narrative that lasts multiple seasons. And it will be a narrative that a lot of people want to watch.

Yes, there were plenty of losers and winners in James’ free agency move. The Cavaliers, who are now at 300-1 odds to win the Finals, are the biggest losers. And the Lakers, of course, are the biggest winners. But the 14 teams not named Cleveland in the Eastern Conference have a chance to end up as winners, too.