16. LA Clippers
I'll be the first to admit that even without Kawhi Leonard, the LA Clippers have managed to be more competitive than I thought they'd be. However, I still don't believe this team has much championship potential. Maybe they're able to finish as a top 10 seed in the Western Conference and can make the top 8 via the Play-In Tournament, but one thing is quite clear for this team at the moment - and it's that the injury to Kawhi Leonard continues to bring a dark cloud of uncertainty to the franchise.
And no matter what they're able to do or how competitive they're able to be over the next few weeks until the situation with Kawhi is figured out, it's going to be difficult to rely on this team in any sense. Sure, the Clippers have enough talent to be competitive but without a fully healthy Kawhi, this team is very mediocre at the definition of a franchise stuck in NBA purgatory. I understand the Clippers wanted to keep a competitive team as they opened their new arena, but I still feel as if a rebuilding of the roster is closer than they are willing to admit.
15. Sacramento Kings
I'm not quite sold on the Sacramento Kings as a contender in the Western Conference but the advanced stats do suggest that they are better than their record and in the standings. I'm interested to see how that continues to trend over the course of the next few weeks of the season. At the moment (before Friday night's games), the Kings have a top-10 offense, defense, and net rating. Usually, that equates to having a pretty good basketball team. However, the results have been mixed so far this season for Sacramento.
I do believe that by the NBA Trade Deadline, we're going to know a lot more about the Kings than we do at the moment. For better or worse, we should have a strong indication of whether they made the right moves during the offseason or if perhaps they made a misstep. If nothing else, it's already been proven that the Kings have enough firepower to compete with any team in the Western Conference. Whether they could win a series against them remains to be seen.