BrownRolo said:
You could say that about any sport though (except maybe baseball..I feel their playoffs you see the difference between a mediocre team and a great team more clearly from starting pitching to hitting..everything)
Watch an NBA game and tell me is it really that much different?
I don't think that's remotely true and I'm basing that off watching most of the basketball game last night. A pretty good NBA team isn't remotely on the same level as the Warriors or Rockets. There's far more separation from the middle of the pack in basketball and, in fact, when people complain about the NBA it's for the opposite reason. That there's too much separation from the rest of the pack and you get the same matchup of exceptional teams/players too often.
The final four NBA teams featured four players who've won 8 of the last 10 MVP awards(assuming one of James or Harden wins this year). By contrast, the NHL's final four teams had one player who'd won 2 of the last 10 MVP awards(having won 6 and 10 years ago). In the NBA the finals and conference finals you'll find teams a significant step above the rest featuring the game's greatest players.
For the most part this is broadly true of soccer as well. Near the end of the year you're far more likely to see teams like Man City or Barca or Munich who are significantly better than the mid-tier teams of their domestic leagues because they feature the best players in the world. Likewise, as you mention, this is true with Baseball. Similarly football tends to give us a steady diet of the Patriots year after year because they're a step above most teams.
It used to be true in hockey. When the best teams had multiple HOF calibre C's and defenders there wasn't a lot of comparing them to the also-rans. It's just not true anymore. I can say with some confidence that I don't think Washington is head and shoulders better than, say, the Bruins or Leafs. And likewise with Vegas and a fair number of teams in the West. I think hockey is pretty unique in that regard.