Memphis has looked pretty good as well, but I don't think they are quite in contender status. Now that we are over 1/3 of the way through the season, the top 3 teams in the west look pretty clear to me. The Jazz play the warriors and the suns twice each in January. What are you looking forward to most in these matchups, and what each teams chances of winning the western conference?

I'm especially excited about the upcoming Jazz vs Warriors games in January. Best offense vs best defense is always an intriguing matchup. Although it's interesting that the Jazz are the best offensive team and the warriors are the best defensive team. I think most would have assumed it would be the other way around.

My best prediction is that whoever is the healthiest out of these three teams in the playoffs most likely wins the west. If Klay comes back healthy and can still be mostly the player he was before, I think the Warriors are probably the favorite. But we still haven't seen the Jazz at full strength in the playoffs with this core of Mitchell/Conley/Gobert/Bogdonovic, and the Suns are the reigning conference champions, so I don't think there is really a clear favorite.

I didn’t realize until now that the Suns are currently 1-3.. why is no-one talking about this?

They lost to a mediocre Kings team a couple days ago and nearly lost by 30 pts to the Trailblazers with a struggling Damian Lillard. And from what I know they’re just about fully healthy.

For anyone actively watching the Suns this season, what’s the main reason for the early season struggles? You would think they’d have a bunch of momentum to start the season after their amazing Finals run..

East:

1· Leafs - 42 points (.700 P%)

2· Rangers - 41 points (.707 P%)

3· Capitals - 41 points (.707 P%)

4· Panthers - 40 points (.714 P%)

5· Lightning - 40 points (.714 P%)

6· Hurricanes - 39 points (.722 P%)

West:

7· Wild 39 points (.696 P%)

8· Ducks 39 points (.629 P%)

9· Blues 37 points (.638 P%)

10· Avalanche 36 points (.692 P%)

11· Flames 36 points (.643 P%)

12· Predators 35 points (.625 P%)

As a side note, the old South East division currently has 4 teams in the top 6, which is a significant difference from how bad that division was for most of its existence.

2015: Columbus 1 - 2 Portland

2016: Toronto 0 - 0 Seattle (4 - 5 on PKs)

2017: Toronto 2 - 0 Seattle

2018: Atlanta 2 - 0 Portland

2019: Seattle 3 - 1 Toronto

2020: Columbus 3 - 0 Seattle

2021: Portland vs NYC/Philadelphia

Shai struggled from the floor but got to the line consistently to put up a nice statline.

Source - https://www.nba.com/game/okc-vs-sac-0022100515/box-score#box-score

Golden State Wariors - 29-8, 78,4%, on pace to win 64 games

Pheonix Suns - 29-8, 78,4%, on pace to win 64 games

Utah Jazz - 28-10, 73,1%, on pace to win 60 games

Captain Ryan Getzlaf also tallied his 1,000th career point on an assist on a Cam Fowler goal in the first period against the Washington Capitals.

E.g., if I have Heat/Cavs LeBron on the eastern conference team, Lakers LeBron, preferably 2020 LeBron will be unusable because of the duplication clause.

E.g., Kareem isn't on either team I made but since Kareem's peak is unanimously thought to be 1977, the eastern conference team won't have Bucks Kareem as he'd be remembered as a Laker at his greatest.

This'll illustrate how much better the western conference is when it comes to talent all-time to some extent.

The starting 5 is what will mainly be used in the games while the bench can substitute in.

Feel free to roast me.

Western Conference

Magic is basically a point forward, he is a SF on this list to makes things less confusing even if assigning a player 1/5 positions is redundant enough in modern basketball. Magic is 6'9", not 6'3" like his actor in the upcoming Lakers show. He'll do just fine and probably shoot better. Olajuwon is the team's defensive anchor as well as already being a do-it-all center.

KG is a controversial starter, no doubt about it, but he brings many leadership intangibles just like Tim but just with more versatile defense and one of the best ever in that regard. He also has elite midrange game like Tim but with farther range and has claimed two DPOYs.

Tim is a perfect backup center. He can play power forward if need be as well. Dirk has more to offer, helping the western conference's spacing.

Shaquille is unstoppable.

Durant is a perfect backup wing, no argument needed. Don't forget that Larry is in the east.

Klay is the most controversial. Well this team is stacked as all hell and someone who doesn't need any ball usage like Klay is perfect. He is widely regarded as the 2nd/3rd best 3pt shooter ever. He definitely would be 2nd had he not had a freak injury against Toronto in my opinion. Klay is just in the corner like a prostitute.

Chris Paul is the team's next floor general in a lineup without Magic Johnson. He's a great two-way talent and is called the point god. He's basically the Michael Jordan of traditional point guards if Michael Jordan still didn't have a ring at 36.

Kawhi is a great, humble, two-way substitute and with hi

There was a recent interview with Dirk Nowitzki, here are some of his answers:

About Dallas this season:

"We got off to a pretty good start. What set us back a little bit was injury concerns, starting with Kristaps Porzingis. He missed several games, came back, played really well and then Luka Doncic hurt his ankle. When one of them is missing, we have problems at both ends of the court. Because of that, we lost some games that we should have won. But when Luka and KP play, we are a very good team. When Luka comes back, we can make a run. A season like this always has ups and downs, but it's still early. The goal is the playoffs and home court advantage, it's going to be tough in the Western Conference. But if we stay healthy and finally hit our threes - I'm not sure why that hasn't worked so far - we should have a good chance."

About his top 75:

"I tried to look at the big picture. I can't blame Patrick Ewing or Charles Barkley for not winning titles because they had to play Michael Jordan every year. You can't reduce them to not winning titles. I must have spent three to four hours each night with my list, I made it very difficult for myself. But it was also fun. I learned a lot about the players I didn't see play. I really studied those players and did my homework. In the end, I had a few names on my list that didn't make the official top 75. Only the number 1 was clear, Michael Jordan will always be the GOAT for me. I didn't put myself on the list, by the way. (laughs)"

About his all time starting five:

"It's tough. There were some great players before me and also after me. I was a big fan of Arvydas Sabonis, Drazen Petrovic or Toni Kukoc. And Detlef Schrempf would be on my list, of course, because I followed his career very closely. Peja Stojakovic was one of the best shooters of all time for me, his shot was brilliant. Tony Parker comes to mind as a great point guard and now we have Giannis, Luka and Jokic. It's hard to settle on five names there. I've probably forgotten a few now. We've seen a lot of incredible international stars."

Source (German article)

Obviously it's still fairly early, but I think this year's all star selection for the west is going to have a lot of questions and its going to create an even bigger question of the team success vs individual stats debate. Here are some players in my opinion who are on the fence between snubbed and maybe last one in.

Dame Lillard: 23.2 Points 4.2 Rebounds 7.6 Assists .398 FG% .317 3FG% .893 FT% 54% TS

It's no question that Dame has struggled in the first quarter part of this season. To make matters worse the Blazers are currently 11th in the standings 5 games below .500 and while they have won a couple games in a row there are still some major question marks. Lillard still is averaging 23+ points a game and has some time to turn it around, but if this trend continues, Lillard continues to have a below league average TS% and the Blazers consider to struggle is he an all star?

Anthony Davis: 23.3 Points 9.9 Rebounds 2.9 Assists 1.2 Steals 2.0 Blocks .521 FG% .179 3FG% .727 FT% 57% TS

AD has been the talk of criticism recently by all fans alike and with fair reason. He just doesn't look like the AD of prior seasons even though he's averaging 23 and 10 a game. He hasn't been the defensive nightmare from years past either with opposing players shooting a whopping 62% less than 6ft from the basket. Couple that with the fact that he's out for the next month or and considering the Lakers struggles this season is AD going to be an all star?

Ja Morant: 24.1 Points 5.6 Rebounds 6.8 Assists 1.6 Steals .476 FG% .356 3FG% .777 FT% 56% TS

Ja is an interesting case. Without context he looks like a lock to appear in his first all star game. He's having a career year in scoring, rebounding, and shooting. And his team is currently 4th place in the Western Conference. Ja has been out for a bit with an injury and since he's been out the Grizzlies have been on a tear. With Ja in the starting lineup the Griz were 9-10 with a -6.7 Net Rating. Without him in the lineup they're 9-2 with a Net Rating of 17. If Ja comes back and the Griz don't miss a beat is that good enough for him to secure that exclusive Western Conference guard spot? Or if they struggle when he returns will that scare off the voters from thinking he's deserving?

Brandon Ingram: 23.3 Points 6.2 Rebounds 4.9 Assists .448 FG% .361 3FG% .823 FT% 54% TS

Brandon Ingram is back in the snub/last player in debate. A couple years ago BI made the all start game under speculation and this season

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1462480910734012420?s=21

💥 💣 WOJ BOMB 💣 💥

After beating the Miami heat, The Minnesota Timberwolves now sit above the Los Angeles Lakers for the 8th seed out west. Not significant but just thought I’d point out :)

The Eastern Conference has played 10 more games than the Western Conference and has 6 more total wins. Seems to be a lot of people recently that think the Eastern conference has taken over, this helps add some perspective in just how close the two conferences really are, with nearly identical Win percentages.

https://twitter.com/PeteThamel/status/1451685076769587202

C-USA becomes the WAC before the WAC comes back?

https://twitter.com/brett_mcmurphy/status/1458464370757881866?s=21

The Suns were also missing Ayton for several games, who only just returned this game with 22 pts and 12 rebs.

DREAMS CAN'T BUY OR SOMETHING

WE'RE GOING TO CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH

Tate is 7th in Points, 10th in Rebounds, 5th in assists, 12th in steals, 5th in Blocks, and 13th in +/- this last week.

This includes a great 32/7/10/2/5 game. The only other players with that stat line in history are Kareem, Shaq, Cousins, Robert Parish, David Robinson, KAT, DWade.

A separate game the Rockets had an ORTG of 118 when Jae'Sean Tate was on the court, and 69 when he was on the bench. Tate had 15 Points on 60 TS%, 8 assists and 0 turnovers that game.

Tate has basically had to play point forward since Kevin Porter Jr got injured and has led the team in assists in the games KPJ was out. This is just a week after everyone made bad takes about the Rockets needed John Wall’s ball handling skills because there was allegedly no one else. Houston was a terrible team for turnovers to start the season but Tate’s Assist to Turnover ratio this week was nearly 3:1.

Tate led the team to a win when Wood got injured and they had to play Theis significant minutes.

Rockets are the only 4-0 team in the West.

Rockets are the first team in NBA/NHL/MLB/NFL history to win 6 straight games immediately after a losing streak of 15+ games.

Not going to put down other Western Conference players. If someone like JJJ, Dejounte Murray or Donovan Mitchell get it for the week then Tate will have been beaten by someone who played great throughout the week. I just personally think Tate has been better and has accomplished something more historic.

References / Highlights:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/r6xk3t/jaesean_tate_lights_up_the_thunder_3210725_on/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/r6yfmr/jaesean_tate_couldnt_be_contained_vs_thunder/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/r7c3z9/highlight_baesean_tate_with_a_series_of_plays_to/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/r5buu7/highlight_jaesean_tate_throws_the_lob_to_kpj_in/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/r8gcat/post_game_thread_the_houston_rockets_616_defeat/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/r5dcb2/post_game_thread_the_houston_rockets_416_defeat/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/r9waqu/post_game_thread_the_houston_rockets_716_defeat/

We're over a quarter way through the season, who gets in the west this year? How many Suns get in, and do any warriors besides Steph make it?