Early Peak at the West

[KG4Ever]

1. OKC: Youngest core in the West, added Hartenstein and Caruso, plus have most ammo and draft picks to add talent via trade.
2. Dallas: Added Klay, but they will now have a full year of Gafford and PJ, plus Lively came on strong
3: Wolves: I honestly don't care how they finish as long as its top 6. While there was an infusion of talent, I think it will take at least a year of two for the young talent to have a positive overall impact in playoffs and I think losing veterans like KA, JMac and Monte hurts. I'd rather team focused on resting starters and developing a good bench. Wolves might not finish top 3 if Pelicans or Houston takes a bigger than expected leap.
4/5. Pelicans added DeJounte Murray to Zion, Trey Murphy, Herb, Ingram and McCollum. That is a talented group and I don't think they are as reliant on Zion's health as they were.
4/5. Denver: Joker alone makes them scary, but they lost KCP and talented rookie Daron Holmes, so they might drop all the way to fifth if Pelicans can stay relatively healthy.
6. Houston: They just really blossomed at the end of the year and they add ROY candidate Reed Shepard to the mix. FVV, Sengun, Jalen Green, Jabari Smith and Shephard are impressive. They also have veterans Dillon Brooks and Steven Adams, Tari Eason and Cam Whitmore. Plus they have a very good coach in Udoko. Houston jumps to relevancy this year.
7. Kings: Demar DeRozan joins Sabonis, Fox and Keegan Murray. Sac should leapfrog a few aging teams.
8. Suns: Monte Morris now gives them a real point guard and a full year of Royce O'Neill should help too. Having a great coach in Bud will be a plus too. KD, Beal and Booker are all injury prone and unless they all are healthy, this is probably as good as it gets for them.
9. Warriors: I don't think losing Klay is that big of a deal as he was not really effective and they did better with Podz starting. Melton, Hield and Kyle give them some decent role players to add to Curry, Draymond, Kuminga and Podz core. If All-star Wiggs returns, then I think I've undersold this team's potential.
10: Memphis: Ja, Bane and JJJ is a decent core if they are all healthy but color me skeptical.
11: Lakers: LeBron can't play forever and AD can't be as healthy as he was last year. I'm really not impressed with anyone else.
12: Clippers: After losing PG, this team is in a conundrum as they traded away their picks so they have no incentive to tank, but if they find themselves well out of the playoff hunt by all-star break, I have to assume they will shop Kawhi, Harden and other assets.
13: Spurs: I don't think the Spurs will try hard to make playoffs, but Wemby, CP3 and Vassell is too much talent to out-tank the other teams if they are healthy. Though I wouldn't be shocked if they shut down any of them with even a minor injury as Spurs are still amassing a core around Wemby.
14: Utah: They desperately want to move Lauri, without appearing to be desperate. They are all in on tanking.
15: Portland: They aren't going anywhere and I expect they will be in full tank mode when the calendar turns.

[Q-is-here]

Good rundown KG. Yeah, OKC is kind of scary. I'm not sure about Dallas, as Irving is always a wild card and isn't getting any younger. Houston could be formidable too, although who is their #1 guy? Not sure they have a true top 10 type talent on their roster yet which may prevent them from making a deep playoff run.

I do agree with your sentiment about not worrying as much about playoff seeding for the Wolves, so long as we are top 6. We literally lost the majority of our home games in this most recent playoff run, so what good was it if it meant a hobbled Mike Conley and exhausted Ant?