NBA Western Conference Standings Prediction

The NBA 2024-25 Season is one sleep away! Here are my predictions for the Western Conference and where the teams will fall by the end of the season!

--PLAYOFFS--

1. Oklahoma City Thunder

2. Dallas Mavericks

3. Denver Nuggets

4. Phoenix Suns

5. Memphis Grizzlies

6. Minnesota Timberwolves

--PLAY IN--

7. Sacramento Kings

8. New Orleans Pelicans

9. Houston Rockets

10. Los Angeles Lakers

--ELIMINATED--

11. San Antonio Spurs

12. Golden State Warriors

13. Los Angeles Clippers

14. Utah Jazz

15. Portland Trailblazers

I find the Western Conference to be MUCH harder to predict than the Eastern Conference. The top 3 are fairly simple, just like the Eastern Conference. I don't think much explanation needs to go into why I think OKC, Dallas, and Denver will be the top three; however, I see Phoenix taking a jump as their core is getting hungrier for a championship. I think the return of Ja Morant will take some time to adjust, but once it does we'll see a Memphis team that is identical to the one from Ja's Most Improved Player season, especially with Zach Edey fitting in seamlessly so far. Minnesota is going to take a hit without Towns. Randle is not KAT and I think that's clear to see. So from 4-9 you could swap any team around and I'd buy it, which is crazy. There's 6 teams in this conference that are all good enough to be the fourth seed, especially when you look at the Kings (now with DeMar), the Pelicans (now with Murray), and the Rockets (who got turned around into success with Ime Udoka). The Lakers are always such a confusing team, they had 47 wins last season but every other team around them improved in ways they can't seem to achieve. The acquisition of Chris Paul pushes the Spurs ceiling, but he's aging and the team is still young, I don't see them getting into the Play-In just yet. Some are high on Golden State this year, I'm not. There's a lot of retooling to be done and a lot of shoes to fill, we'll see what they can do to support Curry. The Clippers I see falling far down without George, Westbrook, and an injured Kawhi. I don't think Harden can carry that weight. Utah and Portland round out the bottom, neither team improved from last season and their rosters are just not competitive with the rest of the absolutely stacked conference.

Thanks for Sitting on the Sidelines!

Zeke