Thoughts
- The balance of power looks about the same in this conference as last year, with the Suns taking the place of the Thunder. I think the Suns will be about as good as the Thunder were.
- The Lakers improved their bench but they exchanged some defensive players for some players who don't play defense. That may not matter but it puts more pressure on LeBron and especially AD to perform defensively.
- The Clippers still look really good on paper; problem is it needs to translate onto the court.
- The Thunder may be decent if George Hill and Al Horford play significant roles and stay with the team the whole year. If those guys "rest" a lot instead, or get traded, the Thunder could be at the bottom of the league.
- I liked the Timberwolves' addition of Ricky Rubio. They still need more in the way of defensive role players. It's a very young and offense-forward roster built around core guys who are young and do a lot more scoring than defending. I expect them to be bad again.
- The Warriors are depending on James Wiseman performing like a number one pick and Andrew Wiggins being able to carry a secondary scoring load without being super inefficient or gumming up the offense. That seems like a big ask, but it's not insane. If they get that and both Curry and Dray have a throwback year, they could be in the mix for a 4th seed or better in the West. I could also see them hanging around .500.
- The Rockets seem like they'll be really bad if and when they trade Harden, unless John Wall has a miraculous comeback.
- The Pelicans are a super weird team with a bench of unproven guys. The NBA really wants to make the Pelicans a thing but I'm skeptical that the collection of guys they have is going to work. I guess we'll see.
- I really want to see the Kings succeed, but they basically brought back the same group with Tyrese Haliburton in place of Bogdanovic and adding Hassan Whiteside to the bench. I seriously question the wisdom of adding Hassan Whiteside to an already young and immature team, with a coach who has a questionable hold on the locker room. Kangz gonna Kangz.
- Add the Spurs to the list of teams that brought back basically the same exact team despite mediocre results last year. They've become the Pacers of the West.
- I feel like people haven't made enough of the addition of Robert Covington to the Blazers. He's exactly what they needed, at least on paper. But I guess he hasn't performed super well in the playoffs recently. I don't love their bench, though. Rodney Hood is coming off a significant injury and wasn't a great defender before that, while Kanter is Kanter. Zach Collins is an injury risk and hasn't really lived up to his potential yet.
Topic: NBA Reset 2021: Western Conference (Read 1712 times)