NBA Offseason Wrap Up: Out West, the Warriors reign supreme

3 of 18

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – APRIL 18: Donovan Mitchell /

TIER 2: THE ALLIES (with analytics)

Rockets, Lakers, Thunder, Jazz

James Harden and Daryl Morey have been obsessed with the Warriors since 2015, LeBron has only met them in the Finals each of the last four years, Russell Westbrook and all of Oklahoma City identify Durant as public enemy number one, and nobody in Utah forgets the Warriors taking a verbal dump on Salt Lake City last May.

There is enough Warrior-hate between this group to make Donald Trump twitter replies seem polite.

Here’s where a world without the Warriors would hypothetically be phenomenal for parity’s sake. These teams are similar in overall strength and I would categorize them in the same tier as Toronto, Boston, and Philadelphia out East. With no Warriors, we would have at least seven (six for sure, but Utah could be scary at the absolute worst) teams that could make realistic arguments for winning a title next season.

It’s not that this group has zero chance at beating Golden State; each team actually combats the Dubs’ biggest strengths nicely in different ways.

Home/Dallas Mavericks