Toughness: Eastern Conference Rankings

I stole this idea from Clipperblog. Measure how your NBA team is doing based on the ability to protect its home court and to win on the road. It makes for a simple formula that is easy to track. It closely matches won/lost records, but does point out that Chicago is probably a top 4, and Atlanta and Miami are worse off than their record. Road Wins - Home Losses = "Toughness."

The rankings for the Eastern Conference as of today:

Team	Wins	Losses		PCT		Road Wins	Home Losses	Toughness
Orlando	13	5		0.722		6	1	5
Detroit	11	6		0.647		5	2	3
Indiana	9	9		0.500		5	2	3
Chicago	7	9		0.438		3	1	2
Cleveland	10	7		0.588		3	2	1
Toronto	7	10		0.412		2	2	0
Milwaukee	6	10		0.375		4	4	0
Atlanta	7	8		0.467		3	4	-1
New Jersey	7	9		0.438		3	4	-1
Philadelphia	5	11		0.313		2	3	-1
Miami	7	9		0.438		4	6	-2
Washington	6	10		0.375		0	2	-2
New York	6	13		0.316		5	7	-2
Charlotte	5	12		0.294		2	5	-3
Boston	5	10		0.333		2	6	-4

Last season final rankings:

Rank	Team	Wins	Losses	PCT	Road Wins	Home Losses	Toughness
1	Detroit	64	18	0.780	- 27	4	23
2	Miami	52	30	0.634	- 21	10	11
3	Cleveland	50	32	0.610	- 19	10	9
4	New Jersey	49	33	0.598	- 20	12	8
5	Washington	42	40	0.512	- 15	14	1
6	Indiana	41	41	0.500	- 14	14	0
7	Chicago	41	41	0.500	- 20	20	0
8	Milwaukee	40	42	0.488	- 15	16	-1
9	Philadelphia	38	44	0.463	- 15	18	-3
10	Orlando	36	46	0.439	- 10	15	-5
11	Boston	33	49	0.402	- 12	20	-8
12	Toronto	27	55	0.329	- 12	26	-14
13	Charlotte	26	56	0.317	- 9	24	-15
14	Atlanta	26	56	0.317	- 8	23	-15
15	New York	23	59	0.280	- 8	26	-18

5 East teams had positive numbers last year, and 5 are positive so far this season. -1 earned the last playoff spot. Nice to see Magic leading the East in road wins and in home losses.

The Magic ended last year with the 7th best home record in the East and fourth worst road record. Only the top 2 teams in the East had winning road records last year. Magic 6-4 road record is best in the East so far this year and a huge improvement over last year.