which teams in the West did not get better though? I feel like it’s basically the clips and Pels but if they have any health they will be tougher. No dumpster fire teams like last year. I can’t think of an nba season with this many talented teams.
Well, my point was that every year, everybody says that like 14 of 15 teams in the West are better than the year before, and obviously that can't be true. But here, let me look:
Memphis is basically the same team as last year, except with 30-year-old Marcus Smart trying to replace 4100+ minutes of Dillon Brooks and Tyus Jones. He can't do that on his own, and I don't see anybody else new to help him. Besides, Ja has some interesting self-inflicted issues to deal with. Memphis is worse than last year.
Denver lost three of their top 10 in Bruce Brown, Jeff Green, and Bones Hyland. Green is ancient and maybe wasn't a huge loss other than holding down minutes, but Brown was huge for them. Together, that's 4200 minutes they have to replace, and I don't see anybody who looks like a real candidate unless somehow Bambi Watson is going to magically step up. A rookie Julian Strawther taken at #29 is just not sufficient. The core of the team is not that old, but unlike the Kings they've been together for a pretty long time and don't likely have a lot of gel-improvement left to find. Denver is still good, but they're worse than last year.
Dallas lost four of their top eight in Bullock, Dinwiddie, Wood, and Finney-Smith. Over 7000 minutes to replace in their rotation! Grant Williams will help, but he's one man. Seth Curry? The in-the-league, out-of-the-league Dante Exum? Richaun Holmes? And they've got to deal with the whole Kyrie Drama for the time being on top of that. If O-Max doesn't turn out to be an all-star in his rookie year (spoiler alert: he won't) Dallas is worse than last year.
Minnesota - man, following the absolute disaster that the Two Towers turned out to be last year, Rudy Gobert did everything he could to get forced out of town. He's still there. On top of that, Minnesota lost four of their top ten in D'Lo, Taurean, Austin Rivers, and a guy who is now in the Kings camp in Jaylen Nowell, for a total of about 5200 minutes they have to replace. Who's stepping up to fill that void? A 36-year old Mike Conley? Shake Milton? NA-W? Troy Brown? The Wolves are worse than last year and have internal strife on top of a mix of players that don't work together and don't like each other.
The Pelicans' biggest loss was Devonte Graham, but their biggest get was arguably...Cody Zeller? Dude barely played 200 minutes last season. So the Pelicans are the same team as last year, just hoping and praying for the health of a player
who has never been healthy. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...won't get fooled again. I'm not concerned.
The already long in the tooth Warriors swapped out their youth movement (Poole, DiVincenzo, Wiseman, 3300+ minutes from Poole and Donte alone) and several more rotation players (Anthony Lamb, Ty Jerome, JaMychal Green) - about 6400 minutes in all - for the husk of Chris Paul and Gary Payton II (who gave them about 16 minutes a game after they traded for him last year). I guess there's Dario Saric and Cory Joseph, but really they've got to rely on rookies Podziemski and TJD to give them big minutes. I don't see the Warriors being better this year. Perhaps they start strong, but I doubt they have the legs to finish.
The Thunder are basically the same team as last year, with the hope of bringing in a healthy Chet and the dream of bringing in a healthy Oladipo. But a year older, they're probably a year better. So chalk up the Thunder as one team that is likely to improve.
The Lakers are the ancient duo of LeBron and AD, the surprising meteor of Austin Reaves, and a huge plate of filler. A ton of that filler has changed (all told they've lost over 10000 minutes from last year's team!), but can Taurean Prince, Christian Wood and the thus-far disappointing Cam Reddish really replace all that they've lost? Can AD play a full season? Will LeBron look not-39-years-old? I can't see them being any better.
The Clippers are largely the same team as last year (the loss of 1300 minutes of Reggie Jackson probably doesn't hurt THAT much) and Kenyon Martin Jr. is a pretty good addition, but their season still rests entirely on the health of Kawhi and PG13. Those are some loaded dice. Are they better than last year? Only if everything goes right, and there's plenty of chance it all goes wrong.
The Suns are taking a big chance this year. I thought the plan of a big-4 of Booker, Beal, Durant, and Ayton was risky enough, and then they decided to ship off Ayton to bring back a downgrade in Nurkic. The rest of the team is filler. They were a well-oiled machine with Mikal and Cam Johnson supplementing Booker, Ayton, and CP3, but now they have no true point guard, their center position is worse, and there's only one ball for Booker, Beal, and Durant to not share. This could go very, very wrong. It probably doesn't go better than last year.
Portland, San Antonio, Utah, and Houston aren't contending.
So, by my count, the Thunder (and of course, the Kings) are the only teams in the West that matter and that are definitely better than last year.
