3. Lakers finish as a top-two seed in the West
For this point, I’m not going to focus too much on how the Lakers can make this happen, but more of attacking the competitors in the West that might threaten this take.
Even with the DeMarcus Cousins injury, I still believe this is very possible for the Lakers. Of course, it’s bold to say this because of how loaded the Western Conference is and no one can predict how a team will ultimately perform through the entire length of the season.
But I’m confident that LeBron and AD can get this team to the top of the conference and that our role players will fit in nicely. Assuming that after being one of the worst offensive players in the league the past few years, Avery Bradley will finally get it together, Kuzma will break out, and the shooters we signed will actually do what they were brought in to do. But for the sake of this article, let’s just say this all happens. Let’s look at the competition.
Los Angeles Clippers: Obviously this team is a huge threat. They made the playoffs last year with a bunch of role players and heat check superstars and then added Paul George and Kawhi Leonard to the mix.
However, Kawhi has pretty much invented load management at this point so who knows how many games he will actually play, especially after seeing how well it worked last season.
Paul George is coming off not one but two shoulder surgeries this offseason so there’s no way he’s ready for training camp. Not to mention PG may or may not have some immediate controversy with his new head coach Doc Rivers…I won’t get into too many details but I will link them here so you can read for yourself. T and P’s for PG.
Anyway, there is a chance the Clippers play the long game and just aim for a top-four finish in the West and stay rested for the playoffs.
Houston Rockets: Do we really know what they are going to look like? Are we confident that Russell Westbrook and James Harden are going to be that dominant together? There are only SO many shots in a game and if you have two guys who are going to be taking about 75-80% of those shots, is that reliable? Is isolation play after isolation play the key to winning basketball games?
I don’t believe it is. Obviously these are two of the best guys in the NBA and there is no doubting that but these are questions that need to be asked.
Denver Nuggets: The Nuggets had a good offseason. Jerami Grant was a great addition to a team that was at the top of the West for most of last season. They still have Michael Porter Jr. who has yet to play so no one really knows what to expect there.
I am not completely sold on Gary Harris quite yet and Paul Millsap is another year older coming off another season in which he missed 10+ games due to injury.
Jamal Murray made great strides last season that resulted in a very lucrative contract but there is still another jump he has to make to be considered a legitimate threat every night as the second scoring option on a contender.
Not to mention as a point guard in today’s NBA, making that leap is no easy task. Nikola Jokic is incredible and there is nothing more to say about that. Here’s proof in case you need it.
Utah Jazz: If the Nuggets had a good offseason, then the Jazz had a great one. Big acquisitions were made with Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic being added to the team. Although he has never made an All-Star team, Conley is about as good as you can be without ever being called an All-Star.
He’s a great point guard that knows how to facilitate and play with dominant big men and he can shoot the three consistently and create his own shot effectively when he needs to. The latter of those is something the Jazz were desperately lacking the last two seasons with Ricky Rubio. No offense to Ricky, but with a guard like Donovan Mitchell and a big man like Rudy Gobert, you need a playmaking guard that is also a threat to score.
Conley fits that mold beautifully. Bogdanovic brings more shooting and another guy to take the scoring load off of Mitchell. But let’s not forget what wins championships; defense. Obviously, having Gobert in the paint is a huge benefit for the Jazz but he is little help when your guarding James Harden, Stephen Curry, and Kawhi Leonard 30 feet from the rim.
There is a lack of defensive wings on this team to stop some of the best scorers the NBA has ever seen. I can see the Jazz finishing as high as two to as low as six maybe seven. That can probably be said about every team in the west, but mainly Utah. The Ringer’s Dan Devine wrote an article recently about if Utah has a shot at the NBA title if you are looking for more about their flaws.
Golden State Warriors: This point is going to be short and sweet. We have literally NO idea how Stephen Curry and D’Angelo Russell are going to play together. It’s impossible to predict. They could be an unstoppable force of three’s, floaters and incredible handles.
They could also crumble and fall at the hands of a Draymond Green–D’Angelo Russell feud off who took a worse shot when Steph was open in the corner. The possibilities are endless. Who knows? Get better soon, Klay Thompson.