An Eastern uprising would be short-lived. (NBA Playoffs Insider).

After the Nets won 10 straight playoff games, including sweeps over the Celtics in the conference semifinals and the Pistons in the East finals, some folks seized the notion that New Jersey can make this year's Finals more than a Western Conference crowning ceremony--that a good showing, or a title, by the Nets could swing the balance of power back toward the East.

Well, maybe not. The Nets could give the West champs a series, but don't be fooled into thinking that would make things right in the East. The West still dominates the NBA, thanks to executives who are more forward-thinking, and that's not going to change for years.

One transaction last summer summed up the East's problem: The Celtics dealt Kenny Andersen, primarily, to the Sonics for Vin Baker. Anderson's contract expires this summer and would have created more than $9 million in salary-cap room for Boston. Instead, the Celtics are saddled with Baker through 2006 at a cost of nearly $44 million. This is how East teams are built: They take on huge, unwieldy contracts in hopes of immediate benefit, which kills their chances for long-term improvement. It's how things were done in the 1990s, when the luxury tax didn't exist, gaudy free-agent deals were the norm and the ills of bad contracts were cured by three-team trades.

Times have changed, ...