Prediction number five: Las Vegas is correct; the Lakers and the Clippers will be the two best teams in the NBA, but the Lakers will come out on top and win the championship
Heading into next season, which four teams will be the best squads in the Western Conference?
Denver might finish the season as a top-four seed in the playoffs, but the Nuggets second best player is Jamal Murray, and he isn’t even close to the Lakers number two option (Anthony Davis), the Clippers second All-Star (Paul George), the Warriors second best player (Draymond Green, or Klay Thompson when he returns from a torn ACL), and Utah’s second option (Donovan Mitchell).
The four best teams out West are the Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, and Jazz.
The Jazz are going to have a great starting lineup featuring Mike Conley, Rudy Gobert, Bojan Bogdanovic, Joe Ingles, and Donovan Mitchell, but in order to make room for Conley’s massive contract they had to deal much of their depth to other teams.
Derrick Favors, Jae Crowder, Grayson Allen, and Kyle Korver are all gone now, leaving the Jazz with a bench unit of Emmanuel Mudiay, Dante Exum, Jeff Green, and Ed Davis.
While the Jazz are going to have one of the worst benches in the NBA the Lakers are going to run 12 players deep, and it’s hard to see the Jazz being able to handle the waves of solid NBA players the Purple and Gold will throw at them throughout a seven-game playoff series.
The Warriors are going to be in a very similar situation as the Jazz next season, because they’ll have a great starting unit, but their bench will be very thin.
The Warriors will begin games with Stephen Curry, D’Angelo Russell, Klay Thompson (in March most likely), Draymond Green, and Kevon Looney, but after that five-man lineup things look bleak up in San Francisco. The best bench players currently on Golden State are Willie Cauley-Stein, Alec Burks, Alfonzo McKinnie, and Glenn Robinson III.
Just like the Jazz, it’s hard to imagine the Warriors being able to handle the Lakers depth in an extended playoff series.
The Clippers and the Lakers are clearly the two best teams in the Western Conference, but the Clippers closing unit is going to be really small.
Compare the Lakers closing lineup versus the Clippers:
Lakers:
- LeBron James (6-8)
- Avery Bradley (6-2)
- Danny Green (6-6)
- Kyle Kuzma (6-9)
- Anthony Davis (6-10)
Clippers:
- Lou Williams (6-1)
- Paul George (6-9)
- Kawhi Leonard (6-7)
- JaMychal Green (6-9)
- Montrezl Harrell (6-8)
Paul George will be the tallest player on the Clippers during the end of 4th quarters. It’s easy to see AD, LBJ, and Kuzma swarming the basket for rebounds and if the Lakers want to go really big, they can insert 6-11 DeMarcus Cousins into the game for Avery Bradley, which would make it very difficult for LA’s other team to grab missed shots.
During a seven-game playoff series it’s easy to envision the Lakers out-rebounding the Clippers by eight to 12 boards per game, which is enough to squeeze out four victories.
Moving onto the East, the Philadelphia 76ers have built a squad that is long and deep just like the Lakers. No other team in the eastern conference is going to beat them next season in a playoff series. That means the Lakers and 76ers will meet next year in the finals, where LeBron James will take over one more time in his career and bring the Lakers another title.