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With roughly a third of the regular season remaining, there’s still plenty to play for in the Western and Eastern Conferences.
The West in particular is a gauntlet — with virtually every team sans Utah and New Orleans competing for a playoff spot. We’re going to weed out the pretenders from the contenders and try to make sense of this muddled outlook. As it stands right now, here are the possible title contenders, as well as teams that don’t have much of a shot to make a real run toward the championship:
Pretenders: Phoenix Suns, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings, Minnesota Timberwolves, LA Clippers
We can cross the Suns and Kings off right away. Despite having a roster with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, Phoenix is an utter mess. There’s something seriously wrong with the culture of that team, and it likely has to be blown up. Once Sacramento traded De’Aaron Fox, the chances of this team playing for something meaningful in April/May went down the proverbial tubes.
Minnesota has stagnated a bit — and until Anthony Edwards works on his shot selection, this team will be stuck. It also doesn’t help that it plays better without Julius Randle, and likely without Rudy Gobert as well. Edwards is far too athletic to be settling for so many threes.
The Clippers have played well above expectations this year. They have great coaching, good depth, and a solid team culture. Having said that, with Kawhi Leonard in and out of the lineup, we can’t trust them in any substantial way. Houston is likely a year away from being a serious contender. This is an extremely young team trying to find itself. Shot creation can be a problem and likely will be a problem during the crunch time of any playoff game.
Memphis can’t seem to keep Ja Morant on the court, and that’s a severe issue pertaining to the future presently and beyond. His inability to hit threes with any semblance of consistency could rear its ugly head in a playoff series when the game slows down.
Contenders: Dallas Mavericks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers
We will wait to reserve judgment on Dallas until its entire team is back. We saw a valiant effort Tuesday night as a shorthanded Mavs team took the Lakers to the wire on the road. Kyrie Irving has been playing at a very high level — as has new acquisition Max Christie. The three-headed monster of Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively, and Daniel Gafford will eventually give Dallas an elite rim-protecting group. Davis and Irving together could become a very potent pick-and-roll combination. At full strength, this should be a nightmare of a team to score on.
Golden State can’t be counted out. Since acquiring Jimmy Butler, the team has gone on a bit of a win streak. Butler looks newly invigorated — and that’s a major problem for opposing teams given his reputation as a stud during postseason play. Steph Curry, even in a slightly depreciated form, is still capable of going off and winning a playoff series on his own. This team has the pedigree of a winner, and if the matchups break the right away, it shouldn’t shock anyone if Golden State is in a position to make the Finals.
Oklahoma City has been a juggernaut all year long. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the likely front-runner for the league MVP Award. His game has been taken to another level, and the team as a whole is very well constructed for the long haul. There’s depth, defensive ability, length, and just enough shot creation outside of SGA to be a real title contender.
Lastly, you’ve got the Lakers. The combination of Luka Doncic and LeBron James is wildly fascinating. They’re big, supremely smart, and proven to be clutch when it matters most. The roster around them is also big, long, athletic, and somewhat unusually constructed as your average NBA team. They’re just weird enough — and most importantly, good enough — to be a problem for anyone.
