Teams that will be in the race
These are the squads I expect to be in the thick of the playoff hunt right up to the end of the regular season…
- San Antonio Spurs – They’re probably the safe pick to make it in as the eighth seed. They still have their all-star duo, DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge. They still have the best coach of all time in Pop. And they have plenty of nice supporting pieces. There’s also the chance that Dejounte Murray and/or Derrick White make a leap and if that happens, things might change.
- Sacramento Kings – The Kings were in the thick of the playoff race for much of last year and they have certainly not gotten any worse over the summer. They brought in Dewayne Dedmon, who was a very underrated pickup. Other than that, the team is much the same so they’ll be relying on another leap from De’Aaron Fox or Buddy Hield or a sophomore breakout from Marvin Bagley to put them over the hump and get them into the postseason.
- New Orleans Pelicans – The Zion injury is a pretty major blow, not just to the NBA, but to the Pelicans’ playoff chances. I still feel they at least deserve a mention given the other pieces they have like Jrue Holiday, Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, and others but at this point, I expect them to be on the outside looking in come season’s end. They’re still going to be a really fun team to watch and will still be competitive for sure, but with Williamson set to miss 6-8 weeks to start the year, it may be a “too little too late” kind of situation.
Who’s in and who’s out? Let me know your Western Conference standings predictions in the comments below.