News flash: multiple sources reporting, the Western Conference is still stacked as all hell. Most NBA personalities predict the same eight teams as last year being playoff bound again in 2015. Who can blame them? Nearly all of those teams come back as strong as they were last season and several come into this season even stronger. It feels foolish to assume that any of those teams get knocked out of the playoff picture. While I didn’t make any official preseason predictions, I would’ve hopped right on the 2014 bandwagon along with everyone else. And guess what? I’d probably be wrong.
I refuse to predict which of these teams will fall out. It’s an impossible prediction to make, because if any of these teams do fall out it will almost certainly be thanks to a significant injury. Don’t ask me to be the injury psychic. It feels safe to say that every team, save for the top 3, is in danger of falling out if they sustain a long-term injury to a key player. The question becomes, which team will make the playoffs when the inevitable fall out happens? Here are the legitimate threats to the teams in the bottom half of the playoff picture.
Phoenix Suns
The Suns were the surprise team last season as most predicted what became the 48 win Suns as a bottom three team in the entire league. There won’t be another sleeper team like that this year. The Jazz are too young, the Kings have no direction, the Wolves lost their star, and the Lakers are god awful. Phoenix should at least be right where they were last season. While it’s still difficult to envision the style of play of a team built the way the Suns are, it’s near impossible to doubt Jeff Hornacek’s philosophies after last season. The guy has a vision of how he wants his team to play and that vision wins regular season games. After the initial shock of the Suns drafting Tyler Ennis, signing Isaiah Thomas, and then resigning Bledsoe (all while bringing back Dragic) wore off, the vision started to make sense. This team does two things about as well as any other team on offense; space the floor and run like Forrest Gump playing basketball. It works. Bledsoe will be a good enough defender to be on the floor with any of the other guards. Dragic will build off a career year. Thomas will use his quickness to create space and find the open guy. Ennis will learn from the rest. Teams with such big win differentials from one year to the next typically fall off in the third season, but that seems unlikely with this Suns team. They lost just one key player from last year in Channing Frye, but they have good enough floor spacing forwards to make up for it. The most difficult task for an outsider would be managing minutes between Bledsoe, Dragic, Thomas, Green, and Tucker, but this is Horny’s team and Horny’s vision. Being on the shortlist as a coach of the year candidate in his first year gives confidence that he can manage this task.
Denver Nuggets
The Nuggets sneak under the radar of fans year in, year out. The fans in Denver are tired of the team’s mediocrity, but at least the Nuggets make an attempt to put a product on the court to get the fans excited (I’m looking at you, Sam Hinkie). The Nuggets off season consisted of the following: 1) reclaim one of their best players since Melo in trading for Afflalo, 2) re-sign your current best player and the best Manimal to ever exist in Faried, 3) turning one first round pick into two and nabbing their 12th seven footer in Jusuf Nurkic and one of the most exciting players to slide in the draft in Gary Harris, and 4) getting a shit ton of players back from injury. The fourth point will prove to be the most important in the team’s playoff hopes. The Nuggets failed to come close to a playoff spot last season, but if you asked a casual basketball fan if they were a playoff team the season prior, many would immediately shake their head. That team won 57 games! The only key contributors that walked from that team are Iggy and Corey Brewer, but Afflalo will provide a lot of what they missed from those two last season. Parlay that with the hopes of getting back a healthy Gallinari, J.J. Hickson, Nate Robinson, and sporadic minutes from Javale McGee and this team trumps last season’s Nuggets. The big difference from the 57 win Nuggets of 2012-13 to this year’s squad is the coaching. George Karl got fired after an excellent regular season (winning coach of the year) that year and was replaced with Brian Shaw who got a bit of a free pass with all the injuries, but still may find himself on the hot seat after a rough first year in Denver. They’ll have to stay healthy, but this team is no doubt better than last season’s Nugs.
New Orleans Pelicans
The N’awlins Pellies literally made one move this off season, and that move said, “We want to make the playoffs now.” Acquiring Asik is a great acquisition forming the scariest defensive front court in all of basketball, but that alone doesn’t turn a 34 win team into the 50 win team that the Western Conference requires. What does give them hope to become a playoff team is possibility of their superstar big man Anthony Davis becoming an MVP big man this season. The only way that they’re going to turn that corner from lottery team to playoff team is if Anthony Davis makes that leap and carries the team on his back. The guy is quickly becoming an NBA icon and making me want to learn how to grow a uni brow. While The Brow’s progression is far beyond damn near anyone’s expectations when he came into the league, it’ll take a team effort for this team to have any playoff hopes, and that’s the most difficult part. The return of Ryan Anderson will add a key player to the rotation, but how Jrue Holiday, Eric Gordon, and Tyreke Evans can coexist is the big question mark. Each of these players had the talent to be a franchise changing player coming into the league, but none of them play for their original franchise. The Pels overpaid in trading for Holiday, as well as giving Evans and Gordon their big paydays. Moving forward, the question becomes can they find takers for Evans or Gordon in a trade, but the immediate question becomes whether or not they can play within themselves to help New Orleans sneak into the playoffs? It’ll take Anthony Davis playing at an MVP level and everyone else recognizing their roles for this feat to happen, but it’s certainly within reach.
It will be tough for any of these teams to make the playoffs, but history suggests it unlikely that the same eight teams as last year will get in. Which team do you think has the best chance to wreak havoc in the wild wild West?
Dropping Dimes 