Ahead of the new season, a pretty firm Western Conference pecking order is being established. The first tier consists of the two last teams to represent the conference in the NBA Finals — the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs. The next tier is where the Los Angeles Lakers find themselves, stuck among the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, and Minnesota Timberwolves.
In an article for The Athletic that was published earlier this month, four writers were tasked with defending each of the teams in that second tier for the Western Conference. The goal was to figure out who was closest to dethroning the Spurs and Thunder.
One of the specific questions listed asked what separated each of the teams in the second tier of the West as the best. Jon Krawczynski made the case that what gives the Timberwolves an edge over the Lakers and the rest of the bunch is having the best backcourt. Huh. Krawczynski argued Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball could even make a push for being the best backcourt in the entire league.
This is a surprising thing to immediately point to in contrast to the company here. If the Timberwolves' case for being the leaders of the pack in that second tier comes down to having the best backcourt, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves make that argument flimsy from the start.
Timberwolves backcourt does not separate them from the Lakers — at all
It is not that Edwards and Ball do not have a case as one of the elite backcourts in the NBA. It is just an extremely odd thing to point to as the main argument for your team in those circumstances.
At worst (for the Lakers), the head-to-head between Edwards-Ball and Doncic-Reaves is a wash. At best, the scales are actually pretty comfortably tipped in Los Angeles' favor here.
Stacking up the headliners of these two backcourts gives the Lakers a clear edge. That is not to take anything away from Edwards, who is a top-10 player in the NBA. However, Doncic is a lot closer to the best player in the world competition than he is to Ant.
If someone wanted to give the edge to Ball over Reaves, that is certainly an argument that can be made. Even that much may be very generous to concede to the Timberwolves, given who the Lakers star has proven to be over recent years. There is also the elephant in the room called LaMelo's health.
This all comes before even touching upon the part of this that discusses the mystery box versus proven commodity proposition.
Doncic and Reaves have proof of concept. That tested duo has already shown elite functionality together. Last season, the two Lakers stars posted a net rating of 8.9 together, registering an offensive rating of 118.5 and 109.6.
Los Angeles played at a 60-win pace with those two in the lineup last year. That was before revamping the roster this summer to fit better around the star pairing.
By comparison, the Timberwolves backcourt is a complete unknown. That lets the imagination wander, but it also leaves them without anything to strongly suggest they are superior to an already established and highly effective duo.
If that is the Timberwolves' biggest separator from the Lakers and everyone else in that second tier, that is no separator at all.
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