The Wild Wild West

[Nicky Nix Nook]

With less than a month to go before train camps start, most of the major off season moves are essentially done. So in most cases we can see what the core will be for the rest of the West. Looking at what is there at this point, how do you see the West shaping up? Who screwed up the most with off season moves? Who helped themselves out the most? Who do you think has put themselves in position to be the surprise team out of the West and who will not live up to their hype? Finally, where do you see the Kings falling into this mix?

I thought it was good enough to have its own thread.

[Fola314]

Screwed up the most: T-Wolves?
Helped themselves: Spurs, Clippers
Could be suprise team: Clippers
Won't live up to hype: Clippers haha

Standings:

1.
2. Spurs
3. Mavs
4. Blazers
5. Nuggets
6. Hornets
7. Jazz
8. Suns
9. LAC
10.OKC
11.GS
12.Hou
13.Sac
14.Mem
15.Min

[Nicky Nix Nook]

Lakers- Still the team to beat. Adding Ron is somewhat risky, but him taking a pay cut is an obvious sign he wants to win. I think he'll buy into the system because of that. I really don't see any team in competition with the Lakers this year.

Nuggets- I think the Nuggets, although a playoff team, are really going to slip this season. Other teams got better they got worse if anything (losing Kleiza). They added Lawson and Afflalo who are really non-difference makers.

Blazers- Not only have the young players improved from last season (you can only assume) but they have also improved their roster with the addition of Andre Miller. Personally I thought Hinrich was the ideal fit, but they're are better regardless. I see them as a top 4 seed.

Spurs- Well for the last two season I have said the Spurs are done. They somehow find a way to prove me wrong. If they are healthy they are still contenders, if not, I'd say this is the last season of real contention. Jefferson was a great addition as well.

Rockets- If Tracy can't come back healthy they are in a lot of trouble. They might actually miss the playoffs this year. The only big addition was Ariza but he is tremendously overrated and soon people will see he was the product of a system.

Mavericks-This team could surprise some people. Then again maybe not. They made some nice acquisitions (Marion, Gooden) but I think they missed out on not getting Gortat. They could miss the playoffs but at the same time they could be like a 5 or 6 seed. They're pretty tough to judge.

Hornets- Okafor was obviously a great pickup for them. Maybe if Peja can stay healthy they could make some noise in the west.

Jazz- Hard to tell with the Boozer situation unresolved. They could be in jeopardy of missing the playoffs if Boozer isn't there.

Suns- I worry about their lack of depth, Amare's situation, etc. Won't be surprised if they miss the playoffs.

Warriors- Their youth will improve but the Nellie ball system will prevent them from being anything remotely serious. Curry will contend for ROY IMO because he is in a very good situation to do so.

Grizzlies- They got ZBo and probably Iverson. Two guys that can stunt the growth of their youth and ruin team chemistry. We'll see.

Wolves- Hard to see what direction they're going in with the signing of Sessions. I suppose they'll put him at the 2? Or start him over Flynn? I don't know but they drafted two point guards and now just signed another. If Jefferson comes back healthy they will be more competitive.

Thunder- A lot of talent, but still too young. They could be the next Blazers. I worry about their lack of size in the front court but Westbrook, Harden, Durant is pretty scary offensively.

Clippers- Like Dallas they could either do very well or just tank again. It will be interesting. Personally I think they'll be a 7th-8th seed or just miss the playoffs.

Kings- Surprise a lot of people this year with their improvement. They won't have many wins but I think we'll see a lot of individual growth. I predict Evans is the ROY because he is in the best situation to do so. I predict 25+ wins.

Best off seasons:

Lakers- adding Ron Artest, while keeping Odom.
Mavericks- the team is drowning but they're making one last attempt to stay afloat.

Worst off season:

Rockets- Made no moves of value, lost Yao, and didn't find a real replacement for him.
Suns- I don't even know what direction they are heading in.

Standings prediction:

1. Lakers
2. Blazers
3. Spurs
4. Hornets
5. Nuggets
6. Mavericks
7. Clippers
8. Jazz
9. Rockets
10. Suns
11. Thunder
12. Kings
13. Warriors
14. Grizzlies
15. T'Wolves

[Wolfay]

The Lakers go 0-82 and the league bans the franchise. The world rejoices, followed by hardly anybody noticing their absence, since 99.9% of their fans were bandwagoners to begin with. Any remaining fans are shunned from society until they change their ways, and any past memories of Lakers success will be known as "dark times". Seattle rightfully gets a brand new franchise to keep the number of teams at 30 and the subsequent years will be known as the best ever in the history of basketball and the world.

To be serious, I think the Rockets will have a dismal year, possibly somewhere around where we were this past season. McGrady is DONE, whether or not anyone wants to admit it, and Yao is nearing bust-status, not because he's a bad player, but because he hardly ever plays. The Rockets just might go into rebuild mode.

This is a make or break year for Greg Oden and the Blazers, in my opinion. In Oden's first season on the court, he's played well short of all the hype he got. Signing Miller helps, but they still need that rock in the center and so far that hasn't been Oden. They're a good team either way, but elite status is yet to be determined.

Spurs will be good again, but they're really old (and I mean KIE old), and I fail to see how acquiring Jefferson helps.

Blake Griffin gets injured and the cursed history of the Clippers continues. It might be a record year in suicides with Clippers fans drowning in their own tears.

The Thunder I think will have a difficult season, but they sure do have a bright future. I think just changing their name will bring them up a notch or two.

Nobody has any idea what the T'Wolves are doing. I don't think even the GM knows.

Poor Grizzlies. It'll be the Iverson show, and it won't be pretty. I foresee much pain indeed.

The Suns should go into full rebuild. Nash is old and Amare just looks disinterested.

Nobody cares about the Warriors, but they'll make great canon fodder. Curry might put up some numbers, but it'll just be like hanging a chandelier in an outhouse.

The Mavs are nothing special, neither are the Hornets or Jazz.

Nuggets are a second-tier team at best. Again, nothing special.

Finally the Kings will have another difficult season, but like the Thunder, they have a future in front them. Martin continues to do what he does, and Hawes will see some respect as a top-level center. Thompson continues his development into a good, second-tier level PF, and Evans very well may be in the running for ROY.

The East... psh.

[KingInExile]

Spurs will be good again, but they're really old (and I mean KIE old), and I fail to see how acquiring Jefferson helps.

HEY!!! Keep this up and I'll smack you with my cane...someone just has to tell me where my pants are first.

[Wolfay]

Don't you have a cloud to yell at KIE?

[SacKingZZZ]

Don't sleep on the Twolves, if Al Jefferson comes back healthy they could really surprise. They were on a roll last year before he went down, I just wonder how much of that was Mchale? I think they should have kept him myself. The only other question I have is can their coaches fit all their egos into one locker room!

1. Lakers
2. Spurs
3. Nuggets
4. Blazers
5. Mavs
6. Hornets
7. Suns
8. Jazz
9. T-Wolves
10. Clippers
11. Grizzlies
12. Thunder
13. Warriors
14. Kings
15. Rockets

[AriesMar27]

it will be hard for the kings to make any noise in the west short of a all star performance from martin and everyone else steps up as well. they will be a team that competes but fail to rack up wins at the end of games. the rest of the west will be more or less the same as last year with the exception of the rockets and suns... they will probably swap out in playoff seedings.

the lakers will be the top team in the west and short of a team pulling a '07 "we believe" warriors upset the lakers will be in the wcf.

the nuggets will play well again but wont be good enough to beat the lakers, not because they got worse but because the lakers are marginally better at sf with artest. carmelo owned ariza. if it werent for those miracle steals the nuggets would have beaten the lakers if it werent for those steals by ariza.

the spurs will be the spurs... they will play well and they will play slow. i cant wait to see how jefferson plays againt the lakers. parker/manu/jefferson/duncan/center(who is their 5th player?)

the mavs are a toss up, what will their starting lineup look like? is howard starting at sg so that marion can start at sf? i dont know.....

the blazers will make the playoffs and depending on the matchup might make it to the 2nd round.

the hornets will continue to get better but injuries will always hold them back...

the jazz will make the playoffs and be non factors...

the suns should make the playoffs, probably as the 8th seed and will be stuck facing the lakers. the size of the lakers will hurt them unless they can find a way around it or artest shoots them out of a couple of games.

the clippers will go as far as barons health and griffins development will take them. they have tons of potential to make the playoffs and will be competing against the suns for 8th seed. the ycould actually give the lakers a good fight in a 7 game series if they are healthy. baron will destroy farmar and fisher, and the clippers are big enough in the front court to compete against the lakers. it should be a fun matchup.

the rockets, warriors, thunder and twolves will suck.... period they will suck. the warriors and thunder will be fun to watch but they will lose a lot of games.

the grizzlies are weird. they have a lot of talent but it doesnt look like it will work. in nba 2k or live they would kill most teams with all of the talent they have on their roster but in real life it probably wont work. i actually look forward to playing with that team in nba 2k10. randolph is a cancer but he is a talented player, rudy gay and mayo are good players and damn good scorers. gasol and thabeet are big, once they develop they will be a beastly combo.... iverson may or may not work, probably wont. but if he did they could do some damage. they might have an inflated record by beating all of the teams in the east. they only play them twice so they could catch them off guard.

it should be an interesting season. short of martin scoring 30ppg while playing in at least 70 games and sergio dishing out 10apg i dont see how this team will be able to compete for a playoff spot. evans may be good but he isnt a pg, he's a sg that can kinda pass the ball. being forced to play pg against college players who will never play in the nba is totally different than being forced to play pg against real nba players. they will dare him to shoot from long range and thats not his game. i expect to see a lot of zone next season against the kings when evans is play pg. sergio is the key to this season, beno is a horrible pg and it showed last season late in games.

last year we had no one to run the offense and martin missed too many games... its going to be borderline impossible to run an offense with evans at pg when his game is based on attacking the basket and drawing fouls.... thats what martin does. it worked for evans in summer league but thats summer league. greene scored like 40 points in a summer league game last year. its full of scrubs and is a poor indicator of what a player can do.

[SacKingZZZ]

You underrate summer league a tad bit. Especially with a lot of the teams having multiple first round talents this year.

[KF10]

From what I see, this team isn't 17-win bad anymore. Probably mid-20 win bad though.

[KM44]

I am stunned that the T-wolves are getting dumped on! I thought they made some questionable moves and it sucks that Rubio didn't come over, but i think they will be better than us.

I thought the Blazers and the Lakers had nice offseasons- they didn't make huge moves, but they did enough to tweak their roster enough to make themselves better. The lakers kept Odom and signed Ron while the Blazers got a nice vet PG in miller and re-uped Roy and soon LMA.

The Rockets on the other hand had a HORRIBLE offseason in my eyes. The Ariza signing is going to haunt them for years and Yao being injured was a huge blow to the team. I don't think they'll be terrible this year though, like some others are predicting, but they will be a fringe playoff team at best.

Standings Prediction:
1. Lakers
2. Blazers
3. Spurs
4. Nuggets
5. Mavs
6. Jazz
7. Hornets
8. Suns
9. Rockets
10. T-wolves
11. Warriors
12. Thunder
13. Kings
14. Memphis
15. Clippers

[OGSactownballer]

I think that the Warriors are always a wildcard to implode because of Nellie-ball. It works really well to get 40-48 wins when you have a guy like Baron who is a clutch 20+ ppg scorer on ANY team. But when the shots aren't falling, the energy turns negative and guys start ball-hogging so it doesn't work. I just think that because there is so much youth there now, they are not going to even sniff playoffs.

Houston is in serious trouble. Even with Rick as coach - and he can get wins with smoke and mirrors where other guys fail miserably - they are sure to miss the playoffs and probably won't crack 30 wins this year.

I really think that Phoenix is going to have a steep dropoff this season. There is constant discontent in the locker room with the never-ending rumors of Amare trades, and Nash is getting older and more banged up by the minute. Add to that the fact that they just don't have the depth off the bench to fill things in when Nash is out or to spell him so he plays less minutes, and you have big trouble. There is a big gap between most of the older players and the younger on the roster and they do not have the luxury of allowing those young guys to develop as role players for a couple of years while at the same time they are not good/young enough with their vets (outside of Amare) to win now at a playoff level.

I think that all three of these teams miss the playoffs. Add to this that you can never predict ANYTHING about the Clips and that somebody will be racked with injuries, and I believe that everything from #6 on down is pretty wide open.

As far as the other non-playoff teams from last year, it's hard to put a true read on them. Minny is a real tough thing to figure beyond that they are hoping for Big Al to come back to form. Memphis just doesn't work because the personalities don't mesh. WE are a HUGE question mark as to whether it was just pure lack of talent, or lack of decent coaching and a clear plan. And the Thunder still has some pretty big holes in their lineup and a severe lack of experience.

All in all it should be pretty intersting.