One of the biggest stories of the past NBA offseason was the decision of former Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant joining the Golden State Warriors, who lost in the NBA Finals in seven games to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Many people said Durant took the easy way out and it was wrong for him to join the team that beat his former team in the playoffs last season. ESPN pundit Stephen A. Smith claimed that Durant made the NBA regular season “meaningless” because the Warriors are most likely to going steam roll over the Western Conference and once again have the number one seed heading into the playoffs. However, the Warriors aren’t the only great team in the conference.
The West is still filled with great teams and this article will help preview a few of those and a couple of teams on the rise.
Before Steph Curry and the Warriors came along, the San Antonio Spurs were the gold standard in the West for many years. One of the franchise’s best players of all time, Tim Duncan retired this offseason.
He was a very unassuming player, but his stats and the team’s production did not show it. Duncan helped the Spurs win five NBA championships in his time there. Now the team is led by players like Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge and Tony Parker. The Spurs also signed Pau Gasol in the offseason to boost their roster. Even without Duncan, they should still finish the season as one of the top three teams in the West.
The team with possibly the most questions surrounding them in the West is the Thunder. When Durant was with the team, many sports personalities said that he and Russell Westbrook could not co-exist on the court, as Westbrook would shoot more than a normal point guard would. Now Westbrook is the sole superstar in Oklahoma City and he theoretically could shoot as much as he wants.
Besides Westbrook, there are not many big names on the Thunder. Victor Oladipo and Steven Adams seem to be the only other decent players on the roster. Westbrook will most likely have a great year in terms of scoring, but the team may struggle as a whole due to their lack of depth at other positions.
Other teams in the West, such as the Los Angeles Clippers, Dallas Mavericks, Portland Trail Blazers, and Memphis Grizzlies basically have the same teams as last year, so they should all be in the playoff mix when the time comes. However, there are a few sleeper teams in the conference that can have good regular season records and make a playoff push.
The Utah Jazz seem to be on the rise, with good players like Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors, Rudy Gobert, and Rodney Hood. They only missed the playoffs by one game last year, so the playoffs definitely seem like a possibility for this team.
The second sleeper team is the Minnesota Timberwolves. There are two players on this team who could turn out to be superstars in the next couple of years and they are Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. Towns was awarded Rookie of the Year last season, as he averaged 18.3 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. Wiggins also had a great year, as he averaged 20.7 points per game.
The Timberwolves are now coached by Tom Thibodeau, who is one of the best coaches in the NBA. If anyone can coach Towns and Wiggins effectively, it is him. The Timberwolves only won 29 games last year, but they should improve on that total this year and possibly make it to the playoffs, even though it may be tough in a crowded Western Conference.
It is obvious that the Warriors are the best team in the West. If all of their stars stay healthy throughout the year, they are most likely going to be the number one seed heading into the playoffs. Anything can happen in sports, so it is not pointless to watch the regular season. All of the top teams in the West should be interesting to watch this season, even if we already know the result of the top playoff seeds.
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