Official 2017-18 Western Conference Standings Predictions

[WildWolf2813]

I hate to underestimate the Spurs, but you just have to wonder how their two aging starting bigs - Aldridge and Gasol - can keep up defensively with so much perimeter switching required these days. And the biggest issue is that Leonard hasn't even scrimmaged yet, so there is no way he will play to start the regular season.

The Wolves unfortunately need some injury bad luck to hit a couple teams in order for them to secure a playoff spot in my opinion. I would love to see us win in San Antonio on opening night!

Really Q? That's even pessimistic by your standards.

I think there are six or seven teams fighting for the last four playoff spots, including us (the others being LAC, Portland, Denver, NO, and Memphis. I also think Utah might be in that mix too because their defense will be really good, but I'd rank them a half step down from the other squads). I don't see us being necessarily in a different tier from most of those five or six other teams, thus I think injuries could ultimately play a factor.

I still think Utah, OKC and Denver are all possibly better than us. I expect a huge year from Rodney Hood and if Rubio carries over that 2nd half to this year, we're all unfairly gonna take it out on Teague.

[kekgeek]

I hate to underestimate the Spurs, but you just have to wonder how their two aging starting bigs - Aldridge and Gasol - can keep up defensively with so much perimeter switching required these days. And the biggest issue is that Leonard hasn't even scrimmaged yet, so there is no way he will play to start the regular season.

The Wolves unfortunately need some injury bad luck to hit a couple teams in order for them to secure a playoff spot in my opinion. I would love to see us win in San Antonio on opening night!

Really Q? That's even pessimistic by your standards.

I think there are six or seven teams fighting for the last four playoff spots, including us (the others being LAC, Portland, Denver, NO, and Memphis. I also think Utah might be in that mix too because their defense will be really good, but I'd rank them a half step down from the other squads). I don't see us being necessarily in a different tier from most of those five or six other teams, thus I think injuries could ultimately play a factor.

I still think Utah, OKC and Denver are all possibly better than us. I expect a huge year from Rodney Hood and if Rubio carries over that 2nd half to this year, we're all unfairly gonna take it out on Teague.

Hopefully it continues but they wolves do have 5 of the 13 players in the NBA that didn't miss a game last year (Wiggins, Crawford, Dieng, Kat and Teague)

[Lipoli390]

I hate to underestimate the Spurs, but you just have to wonder how their two aging starting bigs - Aldridge and Gasol - can keep up defensively with so much perimeter switching required these days. And the biggest issue is that Leonard hasn't even scrimmaged yet, so there is no way he will play to start the regular season.

The Wolves unfortunately need some injury bad luck to hit a couple teams in order for them to secure a playoff spot in my opinion. I would love to see us win in San Antonio on opening night!

Really Q? That's even pessimistic by your standards.

I think there are six or seven teams fighting for the last four playoff spots, including us (the others being LAC, Portland, Denver, NO, and Memphis. I also think Utah might be in that mix too because their defense will be really good, but I'd rank them a half step down from the other squads). I don't see us being necessarily in a different tier from most of those five or six other teams, thus I think injuries could ultimately play a factor.

I still think Utah, OKC and Denver are all possibly better than us. I expect a huge year from Rodney Hood and if Rubio carries over that 2nd half to this year, we're all unfairly gonna take it out on Teague.

I think OKC is definitely better than the Wolves. Denver might be better. But I see the Wolves as clearly better than the Jazz. I also think the Wolves are better than Memphis and the Clippers. I'm not sure about Portland or NO.

I think we all agree the Warriors are a super team far above any of the others in the West. After the Warriors, I see two elite teams in the West - Houston and OKC. I see the Wolves, Spurs and Nuggets in the next tier fighting it out for the 4, 5 and 6 spots. Then I see Portland, New Orleans, Utah, Memphis and the Clippers fighting for the 7th and 8th spots.

I think the Lakers will be surprisingly good, but not a playoff contender.

The Bulls will end up with the worst record in the NBA.

[Monster]

IMO Denver is gonna disappoint like the Wolves did last year and the Jazz did the year before. They waived Jameer Nelson to get Richard Jefferson and so now their most experienced PG on the roster is Mudiay. Their best player until Jokic shows he can play D is Millsap. That's not gonna get it done. They have a nice amount of talent there but ai think they are gonna end up behind some of the other teams in that playoff hopeful tier because of some issues with defense and youth in key positions.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I've been avoiding this prediction, because my answer is going to differ from my wins prediction. Here's my issue: I see the Wolves as now having one of the best rosters in the league, and some credit has to go to Thibs for that (at least the most important part...Jimmy Butler). But I also think Thibs really held this team back last year and was the primary factor in our winning 8-10 fewer games than we should have, and my wins prediction assumes he doesn't correct the flaws in his coaching. This prediction assumes that he does, and that he doesn't hold back this talented roster:

Golden State
Houston
Minnesota
Oklahoma City
San Antonio (will drop further if Leonard stays hurt)
Denver
Clippers
Utah

I see these 8 teams as clearly the best 8 teams in the west and, barring injuries, the most likely playoff contenders. Then there is a big drop off to:

New Orleans
Portland
Memphis
Dallas
Phoenix
Lakers
Sacramento

Really looking forward to this season!

[MikkeMan]

Golden State - By far best team that has even decent bench.
San Antonio - Pop would coach this team even without Leonard to around 40 wins and Kawhi is my personal favorite for MVP this season
Oklahoma City - They did improve a lot their main weakness shooting with their off season moves. I see that Melo is much better player as third option since he is better shooter in spot up situations than off the dribble. Because of that he has always performed well in team USA. Still integrating many new players will take time
Houston - If CP3 stays healthy full season, he would solve a lot of problems that Houston had. Unfortunately I expect him to miss at least 20 games and Houston's thin bench will not help.
Minnesota - Butler is that good.
Denver - They will be offensively really good but lack wing defenders to be true elite team.
Portland - Have almost same team. It will be interesting to see whether Nurkic can play full season as well as end of last season
Utah - They will be really good in defense but lack offense to get top5
Clippers - They will be fine offensively but lack defense especially from wing positions. I thought that Jordan would look without CP3 offensively like Tyson Chandler has looked in Phoenix but it seems that Teodosic is good enough passer to keep Jordan scoring thread.
Memphis - Health of Gasol and Conley will decide whether they have any chance for playoff spot.
New Orleans
Dallas
Phoenix
Lakers
Sacramento

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I think a lot of people are discounting the potential strength of New Orleans. Davis, Cousins, and Holiday is a pretty damn good trio.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I think a lot of people are discounting the potential strength of New Orleans. Davis, Cousins, and Holiday is a pretty damn good trio.

On paper certainly, Q. But none of the three have ever experienced much team success in the NBA, and although he consistantly puts up big stats, I have seen no evidence that Cousins makes a team better. In fact, the Pellies had a losing record after he joined them last year. They were 34-48 last season and have done nothing significant to improve their roster in the offseason, while their competition have all made moves to improve. I see them as a long shot to make the playoffs.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I think a lot of people are discounting the potential strength of New Orleans. Davis, Cousins, and Holiday is a pretty damn good trio.

On paper certainly, Q. But none of the three have ever experienced much team success in the NBA, and although he consistantly puts up big stats, I have seen no evidence that Cousins makes a team better. In fact, the Pellies had a losing record after he joined them last year. They were 34-48 last season and have done nothing significant to improve their roster in the offseason, while their competition have all made moves to improve. I see them as a long shot to make the playoffs.

I'll also add that they have no wings in a conference littered with top end talent at those positions. Klay, Durant, PG, Melo, Harden, Butler, and Leonard are just gonna torch them. Even the Gallo, Gary Harris, Booker, Wiggins tier could do some significant damage against their wings. I don't think the AD/Cousins tower will be enough and I actually think they'll probably deal Cousins before the year is over.

[Monster]

I think a lot of people are discounting the potential strength of New Orleans. Davis, Cousins, and Holiday is a pretty damn good trio.

On paper certainly, Q. But none of the three have ever experienced much team success in the NBA, and although he consistantly puts up big stats, I have seen no evidence that Cousins makes a team better. In fact, the Pellies had a losing record after he joined them last year. They were 34-48 last season and have done nothing significant to improve their roster in the offseason, while their competition have all made moves to improve. I see them as a long shot to make the playoffs.

I'll also add that they have no wings in a conference littered with top end talent at those positions. Klay, Durant, PG, Melo, Harden, Butler, and Leonard are just gonna torch them. Even the Gallo, Gary Harris, Booker, Wiggins tier could do some significant damage against their wings. I don't think the AD/Cousins tower will be enough and I actually think they'll probably deal Cousins before the year is over.

The problem is that the most important players on that team including AD and Cousins are legit injury risks. Hell if Tony Allen misses 20 games they might be screwed during that time because unless someone steps up they don't have anything else. The other problem is I don't think Gentry is the right coach for that group. I think he might be a good coach but I'm not sure he is the guy to get the most out of those 2 bigs. That's not a knock on him either in my mind. AD and Cousins are 2 very good players though so... we will see. I am staying skeptical.