I guess that main point is Portland is a weak ass Western Conference finalist.

It's basically the same Portland team that got swept in the first round last year by basically the same Pelican team that didn't even make the playoffs this year.

Did Portland really get that much better or is the conference worse?

And yeah despite a lot of hype Houston was nowhere near as good this year as they were last year.

Without the rise of Denver the conference is complete trash.