A lot of the scores I have seen lately have the east teams beating the west. I think the east teams have caught up with the mid level west teams. However I think that the Lakers, Dallas, Kings, and Spurs are still the best. Hopefully it will keep going like this though. East getting better and West getting a little worse. And at the same time Houston on the way up.
The West still have the best teams, but the East is probably deeper 1-8 than the West is. The Lakers should come back when Shaq returns, the Mavs are ripping it up, the Kings should go on tear when everybody gets back healthy. Robinson is finally showing some life for the Spurs, though they would still fall apart if Duncan got a serious injury. I think a team below .500 might squeeze in the playoffs in the West this year...