Western Conference Power Rankings: Preseason

The NBA flexed its muscles again on Saturday as the best professional sports league in the country.  It’s late September and on a college football Saturday, but the league’s biggest stars poked the bear that is our polarizing President and the long-rumored trade of Carmelo Anthony finally happened.  The trade sent Carmelo Anthony, a ten-time All-Star, to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott and a future second round pick back to the New York Knicks.

The trade figures to be the last of what has been an insane NBA summer of player movement.  While no player the likes of Kevin Durant or LeBron James changed teams, seven members of the 2017 All-Star rosters moved this offseason.  Of the seven, four moved over to the Western Conference, which figures to be an absolute dogfight this season.  

With the Mavericks kicking off training camp on Monday with Media Day, it’s officially basketball time and not too early to rank the teams in the Western Conference, right?  As a disclaimer, these rankings are of the author (Dylan Duell) and not of the entire Dallas Sports Fanatic staff.  So if you disagree with them, direct those charged social media comments towards the right person. 

Since the outcome at the top of the standings is much clearer than towards the bottom, we’ll go from best to worst.

1. Golden State Warriors
Last Season: 67-15
Added: Nick Young, Omri Casspi

The only thing dramatic about the Warriors regular season will be if they continue to wage indirect verbal war with President Trump.  They added some talent, brought virtually every key member of their team back and are still the best.  Will anyone be able to take down the champs?

2. Houston Rockets
Last Season: 55-27
Added: Chris Paul, P.J. Tucker

While they did lost a bit of the depth when they traded for Chris Paul, they also added a player in P.J. Tucker that any team in the league would love to have on their team in a tough-guy-off-the-bench-type role.  It will be interesting to see how the ball-dominant duo of Paul and James Harden blend together, but it will likely be fine over the course of the regular season.  Let’s check back and see how it works when the playing style shifts in the playoffs.

3. Oklahoma City Thunder
Last Season: 47-35
Added: Paul George, Carmelo Anthony

This is a team that will probably be can’t-miss TV.  If you thought the ball might not move around enough in Houston, what about here with three of the league’s best one-on-one players?  Adding George and Anthony to a team with the reigning MVP in Russell Westbrook is absolutely salivating.  How will Carmelo Anthony fit in as not only a second option, but possibly a third wheel?  At this point in his career, he knows his legacy isn’t the best.  He’ll fit in for the greater good and try to be a part of something big.

4. San Antonio Spurs
Last Season: 61-21
Added: Rudy Gay

It’s always the wrong move to try and bet against Gregg Popovich and the Spurs, but slowly but surely, things aren’t looking as certain down in San Antonio.  The rapid decline of Tony Parker will be accelerated by his devastating quadriceps injury that will keep him out through January.  They have lost some depth due to free agency and only added the wild card of Rudy Gay this summer.  Similar to the New England Patriots in the NFL, they’ll probably just plug some guys in and win 60 games, but it doesn’t look as bright as usual heading into the season.

5. Minnesota Timberwolves
Last Season: 31-51
Added: Jimmy Butler, Jamal Crawford, Taj Gibson, Jeff Teague

The Timberwolves needed to add a veteran presence to their blossoming young talent in Karl Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, but they went above and beyond this offseason.  This HAS to be the year the T-Wolves get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2004, right?

6. Denver Nuggets
Last Season: 40-42
Added: Paul Millsap

The Nuggets were actually in the playoff hunt until the final days of the season in 2016-2017, adding an All-Star in Paul Millsap to a young, talented roster with the likes of Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray should be enough to get them one of the West’s final playoff spots.

7. Portland Trail Blazers
Last Season: 41-41
Added: … Zach Collins?

The Blazers don’t deserve to be here based on their quiet offseason, but they have one of the best backcourts in the league with Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum.  They played pretty well down the stretch after adding Jusuf Nurkic to their big man fray at the trade deadline (who then averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds in 20 games with Portland).  I could easily see this team being one of the teams that falls out of the playoffs, but for now they’re in.

8. Dallas Mavericks
Last Season: 33-49
Added: Dennis Smith Jr.

Okay, okay, okay… call me a homer, but I really think the Mavericks could make the playoffs this season. Just look at the uncertainty of the teams behind them.  The Mavericks are basically bringing back the same young, up and coming roster and adding the favorite to win Rookie of the Year in Dennis Smith Jr.  Plus, Dirk Nowitzki basically missed the first two months last year and they more or less tanked the last few weeks of the season to severely hurt their win-loss record.  Better health from Dirk plus no tanking should mean around .500 for this team, right?

9. New Orleans Pelicans
Last Season: 34-48
Added: Tony Allen, Rajon Rondo

The Pelicans didn’t exactly light the world on fire after trading for Demarcus Cousins last February.  They had limited ways to improve the team this offseason with no first round picks or cap space, but they rolled the dice on Rajon Rondo and added elite defender Tony Allen.  Unlike the teams immediately behind them, they didn’t lose any major players and will just be building chemistry between Cousins, Anthony Davis and crew off last season.  Maybe this blows up… who knows.  For now, they seem like a .500 or so team that could make the playoffs.

10. Memphis Grizzlies
Last Season: 43-39
Added: Tyreke Evans, Ben McLemore

The Grizzlies probably deserve better than this spot considering they won 43 games last season and have two of the best 30 or so players in the league in Marc Gasol and Mike Conley Jr.  Unfortunately for them, there’s just nothing exciting about this team.  They lost their edge with the departures of veterans Zach Randolph, Vince Carter and Tony Allen.  They’re paying Chandler Parsons a trillion dollars to not do anything besides shoot his shot with girls on Instagram.  Why would anyone rush to the support of the Grizzlies?

11. Los Angeles Clippers
Last Season: 51-31
Added: Danilo Gallinari, Lou Williams

The Clippers lost the face of their franchise.  Their two best offensive players in Blake Griffin and Danilo Gallinari and dealing with injuries that are probably worse than they’re letting on.  Doc Rivers’ approval rating has been going down steadily the last few years.  Instead of one great up and coming player in their return in the Chris Paul, they opted to accept just several role players that won’t do anything major for them.  This team seems prime for an absolute dumpster fire that could include an in-season firing for Doc Rivers. Or… they could be just as good as last year because predictions always backfire on you.

12. Utah Jazz
Last Season: 51-31
Added: Ricky Rubio, Donovan Mitchell

So I have the teams that finished 4th and 5th in the West last season finishing 11th and 12th this season.  Predictions are fun.  The reasoning for the Jazz being here is that they not only lost the face of their franchise in Gordon Hayward, but also George Hill.  Who scores the points for them now?  Joe Johnson?  Rodney Hood who shot 40% from the field last season?  Defense is great, but you have to score points to win too.

13. Sacramento Kings
Last Season: 32-50.
Added: D’Aaron Fox, George Hill

The Kings will be interesting this year as they have added some major talent with the likes of Fox, Hill, Zach Randolph, Vince Carter and more.  However, the evidence is there that they’re still the same ol’ Kings since they drafted Fox at #5 and then signed George Hill to a massive multi-year contract two weeks later.  Why?  Who knows with this franchise.  The arrow is pointed up, but it might not mean major improvement this year.

14. Los Angeles Lakers
Last Season: 26-56
Added: Lonzo Ball, Brook Lopez, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

Another roster with a lot of talent, but just not enough intangibles in their favor.  The Lakers so far are an example of why tanking is overrated.  They have plenty of players they’ve taken high in the draft, but I’m not sure any of them are going to be All-Star type players.  The Lakers seem like they’re just waiting for the next unhappy superstar to voice his opinion and then they’ll jump in and trade for him at the deadline.  Until then, they won’t move up much in the standings.

15. Phoenix Suns
Last Season: 24-58
Added: Josh Jackson

The Suns are embracing their situation.  They’re going to be bad.  Devin Booker is awesome and Tyson Chandler deserves better.  Besides that, I wouldn’t expect this team to finish with more than 20 wins considering the ways the rest of the conference improved.

 

So there you have it.  To start the season, three of last year’s playoff teams fall out of the top 8 in the West.  The conference is really divided into three tiers: 

• 50 or more wins: Golden State, Houston, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Minnesota.
  
• Could go in any direction: Denver, Portland, Dallas, New Orleans, Memphis, Clippers, Utah, Sacramento, Lakers.
• This year won’t be fun: Phoenix

Preseason games begin in just a week, so let’s enjoy some NBA basketball!