Tomorrow the first NBA preseason game will begin and with it players and fans will start to get an understanding as to just how good, or laughingly awful (sorry 76er fans), the squad is. Until then however the future looks bright for all teams but still only 8 in each conference can make the playoffs so these are my predictions for the 8 teams that will be making the playoffs this year in the western conference.
1. Oklahoma City Thunder
2. San Antonio Spurs
3. Los Angeles Clippers
4. Dallas Mavericks
5. Golden State Warriors
6. Portland Trailblazers
7. Memphis Grizzlies
8. Houston Rockets
1. OKC has the best player in the world on their team, Kevin Durant, who is coming off of his first MVP season and will be looking to prove to the world that he not only deserved it last year for carrying the team while Russell Westbrook was injured but this year as well even with Westbrook healthy again. With Russell back the opposing defence will once again have to deal with two nearly unguardable players and the multitude of talented role players put around them. This together should lead OKC to the first overall seed in the western conference.
2. Continuing the trend of "best" The Spurs have the best coach in the league in Gregg Popovich who, like the countless seasons before (I counted it was 18), will continue to ensure the Spurs can compete for another Championship. He will have to continue to rest some of his veterans such as Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili thus making it more likely that the Spurs will finish 2nd in the West as apposed to 1st.
3. The Clippers sort of fell into the 3rd spot on my list. Its apparent that the Clippers are one of the top 3 teams in the west with a highly competitive group of guys and a fantastic coach Doc Rivers but right now I can't picture them surpassing OKC or the Spurs in regular season wins. With that being said I believe the drop off between the 3rd seed and the 4th seed in the west will be significant as every other team fights for the 4 or 5 spot in hopes of avoiding the top 3 terrors.
4. It's my belief that the Dallas Mavericks will be one of those teams. Dallas made huge moves in the off-season trading for defensive anchor Tyson Chandler and signing free agent Chandler Parsons along with quietly acquiring talented role players like Al-Farouq Amino and Richard Jefferson. Dirk Nowitzki may get getting older but not any shorter or less able to shoot a jump shot so opposing power forwards will continue to play tight on him which just like last year will allow Monta Ellis to get to the basket mostly unimpeded. This mixed with the second best coach in the league Rick Carlyle will ensure the Mavs finish as the 4th seed.
5. The Golden State Warriors are coming into the season with mostly the same squad that earned them the 6th seed last season. They also have a new head coach Steve Kerr who has no experience coaching an NBA team before so it may seem strange for me to have the Warriors move up a seed but my reasoning is simple. Stephen Curry. He is one of if not the best shooter in the game today and I have a feeling Curry will be averaging career highs in both points and assists this season as GSW takes the 5th seed.
6. Last year the Portland Trailblazers won their first playoff series since the year 2000 thanks in part to a game winning 3 pointer with 0.9 seconds to go by Damian Lillard. Getting to that point though wasn't easy as their best player Lamarcus Aldridge worked hard to prove to the world that he arguably is the best pf in the league today. This combined with Lilllard's, Matthews', and Batum's excellent 3 point shooting will ensure the Trailblazers make the playoffs but for teams that rely heavily on jump shots sometimes the shots just don't fall. Now since Portland is considered a legitimate threat teams will be working harder to contest shots and force other players like Robin Lopez to become a scorer which leads them to be the 6th seed in the west.
7. Last year the Memphis Grizzlies managed to snag the 7th seed in the west while missing Marc Gasol the 2012-2013 seasons defensive player of the year. Now Marc Gasol is back and the Grizzlies are looking to improve upon last season. They even signed veteran scorer Vince Carter who will help provide outside shooting off the bench and the occasional dunk and revving of the imaginary motorcycle. Still the core of the team hasn't changed which is great as Memphis has one of the best defences in the league but just like the last two seasons they will continue to struggle scoring points on the other end. For this reason they will lose some games to teams who simply had one player get hot and score buckets against their vicegrip defence.
8. No matter how you spin it the Rockets lost their third best player, Chandler Parsons, to the Dallas Mavericks during the off-season. Their plan to sign a better bigger name sf such as LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony backfired and they were forced to sign a competent but not amazing Trevor Ariza to fill the void. While their two best players Dwight Howard and James Harden are all star talents each of them have their own faults that will lead to the Rockets struggling to make the playoffs. While I try to make these playoff prediction lists unbiased I have to be honest and say I'm just not a fan of Harden or Howard and although they are obviously talented I simply can't picture them carrying the Rockets to anything beyond the 8th seed and a first round playoff exit to OKC, Spurs, or Clippers.
Honourable mentions: Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets, New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings. I can picture any of these 4 finishing as the 9th seed but each of these teams has something to prove before I can see them making the playoffs.
Tomorrow I'll be posting my Playoff Predictions for the Eastern Conference so check back for that or follow on twitter @itsballertime for notifications on each post and everything baller happening in the NBA.
