I'd take Sexton and StanJohn over Franc.
Interesting how there is almost no difference between 8 & 9 and in fact 9 looks better almost every year. None of those 10 has broken out yet, though Poetl looks solid and is closest to a legit starter.
For a few years folks were hand-wringing about the weak East and wanted to reformat the playoffs eliminating conferences. And of course that overreaction has dried up as balance has returned.
Currently there are 7 East team above .500 and 3 losing teams battling for 8th. But if you look out West there are 8 winning teams playoff bound and 9th place is currently .500.
And if WASh had played to potential or Dragic had been hamstrung in MIA you'd likely have 8 winning East teams. Anyway, tradition is good in some cases. Short-term fixes aren't always good or necessary. Even in some previous unbalanced years, you know that conference Top 8 = playoffs. And the other conference standings don't matter to you. Simple and effective.
Anyone notice the proliferation of ads on and around courtside? Nearly all courts have the name of the stadium sponsor on the floor rather large, on each end. The sidelines now frequently have a large company name in front of the benches (Draftkings for the Knix). State Farm has been on the basket arm for a number of years now in most cities, but now there are often one or two other adverts crammed on the support arm as well. The latest is under the seats of the bench there are adverts, mostly a big G for Gatorade, but one or two places have KIA. Shows up between seated players legs. A few teams have backrest covers on the bench chairs with ads too.
The top edge of the backboard became common recently for teams to place their website address, as sky cameras became common. But now perhaps half the team have ads on there. Think about it, the top edge of the backboard has become its own ad space. And there seems to be more ads throughout the arena that gets on to TV or into fans brains. Have to say being bombarded with advertising isn't what I want when paying $50 and up or whatever to see an NBA game.
It's even starting to turn me off to watching on TV.
I'm actually usually excellent at tuning out ads and not noticing them, but the NBA courtside and TV experience is so crammed with ads its distracting and hard to miss.
And of course in the televised feed, every stat and replay seems to have its own sponsor and pays to get its name mentioned. Unpleasant. I guess the NBA is a hot commodity and is looking to squeeze out extra revenue while it can. But it detracts from the experience.
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