With the West arms race continuing, who is the most screwed next year?

[Godymas]

OKC - defending champions, locked down their incredible young core, should get better based on experience alone

Houston - upgraded Jalen Green to KD, swapped out Dillon Brooks for DFS and expects a leap out of Jabari Smith Jr., Reed Sheppard, Tari Eason, Amen Thompson, Sengun, etc. Also added even more big man depth with Clint Capela

Denver - swapped out MPJ for the younger Cam Johnson, reunited with Bruce Brown.

Dallas - Cooper Flagg and added DLo for PG depth

Clippers - retains group and adds in Brook Lopez to backup their underrated Zubac

Memphis - adds Cole Anthony, KCP and Ty Jerome (sneaky signing here), loses Bane, but will retool the offense around Jaren and Ja with bigger roles for guys like Aldama.

TWolves - Retains everyone on extensions, has a continuing to improve Anthony Edwards, can look to potentially trade Gobert

New Orleans - Swaps McCollum out for the younger and now underrated Jordan Poole, adds Saddiq Bey, Kevon Looney, and drafts Jeremiah Fears and Derik Queen. Will have a healthy Murray and Zion as well as a heavily improved Trey Murphy, a sleeper team in terms of depth, once again.

Phoenix - Drops KD, adds much needed depth with Dillon Brooks, Mark Williams, Khaman Maluach via draft. Still has Jalen Green to potentially deal out, or could deal out Bradley Beal. More to follow, but the beefed up size and defense will make them better.

Portland - addition by subtraction with DeAndre Ayton. Jrue Holiday who could potentially be moved (maybe a deal with Phoenix that sends over Jalen Green?)

San Antonio - Adds the criminally underrated Luke Kornet, drafts the incredibly hyped Dylan Harper to pair with their back to back ROTY core (could they potentially 3 peat ROTY?)

Imo these are the teams that have made good moves so far this off-season

Now a few more mentions

Golden State - Loses Looney, has to fill a gap at C, team will be healthy and vibing. Truthfully, expect a deal for Vucevic who was heavily rumored at the deadline.

Sacramento - Adds..Dennis Schroder, still has the same group, just by logic they should be a Vucevic favorite.

Lakers - added Jake LaRavia, have a 40 year old guy that can't defend like he used to making $52 million, might still be a transition year. Potentially an Ayton team, still unsure what they do in the off-season.

Utah - finally breaking things up, lost Clarkson and Sexton. Looking to potentially bottom out and be a bad team again. Could look to move Lauri, Walker Kessler.


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Imo, there are 3 teams that look the most screwed next year

1. Sacramento - What the **** are they doing, they're not making the playoffs, trade DeMar somewhere, LaVine can be your tank commander, it's all he did in Chicago anyways. Oh and get the **** off Sabonis, ship him out east somewhere.

2. Golden State - Looney leaving really screwed them, they are obviously going to have to trade for a guy like Vucevic because no one else makes sense. Maybe they are a team looking to sign DeAndre Ayton.

3. LA Lakers - Lost DFS to FA, team is objectively worse, have to address their C position with..maybe Ayton? The idea that they are contending this year seems far fetched.


Those stick out so clearly, but I want to highlight a few more

Minnesota - still confused about the future with this team. They have their same core, but it's hard to know how they really get better. Imo Rudy is done, you're better off finding a cheaper center that can defend 50% of what Gobert does but gives 50% more on offense. Gobert's inability to finish consistently, to be a lob threat, to do anything on offense in the playoffs was a liability. I think the ship has sailed on Gobert ever winning a ring as a main guy on a team, you cannot win with Gobert being paid a ton of money in the playoffs.

New Orleans - I think this team is underrated, a lot of trash talking for a team that's now opened up amazingly around Zion with guys who are consistently great shooters. Only thing I hate is their draft day stuff, the rest of the roster is really nice.

OKC - The West just got harder, so now is the year that they can prove to be this decades team or they are just another single year champion like every other team.

Phoenix - Look the obvious issue is they have too many SGs, but every other move has been awesome. Brooks, underrated. Getting two Duke centers, one who really is going to be a great player, and the other who has shown today that he might be the next great player, is awesome for Phoenix. Booker might actually get a chance to open up his game some more with no KD. Hopefully they can find a way to move Beal.

[UcanUwill]

New Orleans I think is most screwed since they unbelievably traded their 2026 first round pick, putting no protection on it. And just look at it, they might not even be in play in...

Suns are screwed, but it has less to do with West being strong, but rather their owner being a clown. This team is no position to compete.

[Wargreymon]

Pelicans. I hope Queen becomes an all star one day for the sake of that fanbase…

[ropjhk]

My seeding predictions as of now:

OKC
Houston
Denver
Minny
San Antonio
LAC
Dallas
LAL
GS
New Orleans


IF New Orleans can stay healthy then I expect they will finish higher but I've lost faith in Zion getting fit and staying healthy at this point. I think Luka will be good enough to keep the Lakers in the playoffs. Dallas is a bit of a wildcard for me as I'm not quite sure what impact Flagg will have in his first year and how well will Irving recover from injury. GS will continue its slow decline. I expect San Antonio to make a leap, but Wemby needs to come back strong. LAC will load manage their way into a playoff spot.