Very strange year in the NBA with the west absolutely dominating. If the current trends continue, and we have already played 2/3 the NBA season so no reason to belief it will not, the lottery will have the west based grizzlies who will finish ten games over . 500 and it will exclude four teams from the east that finished the season under .500. This will cause the mediocre teams in the east to have an even more difficult road to being a legit contender. It will also make the #9 team in the west, currently Memphis have a far easier road to taking the next step forward to legit contender.
Think of the huge difference in talent between a team that finishes ten games over 500 in the west vs a team that finishes under 500 in the east! The west going into all star break was 196-111 vs the east this year a ridiculous .638 win percentage. The power rankings in the NBA top ten have two teams from the east and eight from the west. Factoring in the west dominance and obvious Memphis schedule strength compared to any east teams they are not just better, but in actuality infinitely better then the east teams not getting in the 2014 NBA lottery, yet they will be in with a chance at a huge college star and those east team will not.