FanPost

Ranking the Western Conference


Hey everybody!

How are u doing with the summer boringness?

So pretty much every training camp roster is full and teams are settled for next season.
I have said before, that the mavs should add another big men, so hopefully sth will hapen regarding this situation. JJ Hickson or perhaps take a flyer on Pleiss. Both would be roster filler so it´s not that important.

There still might be some moves around the league, but they won´t have much impact on the style of play or the strenght of a team. So let´s rank the West!

1. Warriors No arguing about dat. ESPN has them 10 wins in front of Spurs. I think dats to much, because there might be some chemistry issues..

2. Spurs Duncans loss will hurt them. But his production rly went down last season, so it might be the leadership and the comfort of having one of the best players of all time on your team which the spurs will miss even more. I would predict dat their defense will be worse (LA and Gasol are just average).

3. Clippers They bring back the same team and some solid bench additions (Felton,Bass,Speights). Griffin has to return to form though.

4. Trail Blazers Perhaps a little surprise, but they only got better. Yeah they had luck with injuries of the other teams, however many players had new roles and they should improve. They are a young and talented crew and have a rly good go-to-guy with Lillard. This team should be rly good in the regular season.

5. Mavs Yeah I know: this might be to high. But summer is the time for being optimistic. For this result we need Wes to play like his 2014-15 self and HB has to show, that if he has more opportunities he can use them. Health is a major concern, not only for the Mavs though. Bogut was pretty impressiv at the Olympics. He can be a major upgrade (he has to stay healthy, Zaza provided alot of good minutes at the beginning of the season)

6. Jazz George Hill is a guy I would have liked to see on the mavs. Rly good defender and can hit the three. So this edition for the Jazz is great. They already have a playmaker in Hayward, so their PG can be spot up shooter. Diaw looked finished last season and in the Olympics, but I always liked his game and perhaps he can teach the young frontcourt (good post up game, nice passer). Joe Johnson still can overpower other guards and is a nifty scorer. But he ain´t a clutch scorer anymore. All of those 3 add veteran leadership which the Jazz desperately need. So good additions. They might be even better then this ranking

7. Grizzlies To many big "ifs". Can Gasol return to form (even when he was healthy last season he wasn´t dat good..)? Conley also had his fair share of injuries the last two seasons.. and he needs to be healthy and fit. Else he isn´t a top 10 PG and Memphis need him to be dat kind of player. CP has alot talent and he is the SF the Grizz where searching for. But if he can´t stay healthy and produce they have a big problem. Depth imo is also a big problem.

8. Thunder Many "experts" still rank them around 4-6. I don´t think so. Westbrook iso-ball won´t be dat successfull. He will have great stats, but I don´t think dat this will translate in a lot of wins.

The rest isn´t dat important ;). So just the ranking without to many comments.

9. Rockets, 10. Wolves, 11. Pelicans, 12. Nuggets, 13. Kings, 14. Lakers, 15. Suns

Wolves are just too young; Rockets have no defense (and I don´t like Hardens game, who does right?). 9-12. are pretty interchangeable. So are 4-8. I would say.

I saw man of those rankings in other posts, just wanted to open a new discussion about it. So guys thanks for reading and tell me your oppinion/rankings in the comments below!

Reader submitted. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of our editorial staff.