What STOPS Thunder From Repeating | Nuggets, Rockets Or Clippers The SECOND-BEST Team In West?

What STOPS Thunder From Repeating | Nuggets, Rockets Or Clippers The SECOND-BEST Team In West?

On today’s show, NBA Power Rankings, Best of the West Edition. What will be the Thunder’s biggest barrier to repeating this next season? And which team holds the number two spot heading into the season in the Western Conference? It’s all coming up right here at Locked On. When that final buzzer rings, you know it’s time for Locked On NBA Game Night. All the postgame reactions to every game across the league, every single night with insights only the hosts at Locked On can provide. It’s the true NBA fans. One stop for all the action, every game, every night. It’s Locked On NBA Game Night tipping off now. What is up and welcome to another edition of Locked On NBA. I’m your host, Jackson Gatlin, also host of Locked On Rockets, right here on the Locked On Podcast Network. your team every single day. And joining me is my partner in crime, the host of Locked on Heat, David Ramil. David, it’s that wonderful time in the off season where teams are most of the way put together. Things are looking, you know, shaking out how we expect them to probably be come opening night bar, like this, you know, the minor acquisition here or there, maybe a a crazy last minute training camp trade. But I think we have a pretty good picture of what the NBA landscape is going to look like next season, wouldn’t you say? Oh, no doubt. Um, it’s beenations from this point out, probably aren’t significant needle movers. Like even the addition of Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Clippers, as big news as that was, you just pissed off a lot of Clippers fans. I just want you to know that right now by saying not a needle mover in LA, is he? I mean I mean I I don’t think that’s that’s a hot take. Well, I mean, will he start even? Like, I I don’t know. The the role is there. He’s not going to be a significant. He’ll play some minutes, but at the same time, like, it just doesn’t feel like at this stage of his career, as feelood of a move as it might be to shore up what seems to be a title contending roster, I don’t know that it’s going to be that kind of significant. I don’t think it’s going to be that major an upgrade for a roster like that. They’ve already got a pretty full roster as it is, and so it’s hard to see how they’re going to carve out minutes for CP3 at this stage in his career. That may certainly be a talking point that we hit later on in this episode because what we are going to be doing is power ranking the teams across the NBA landscape on today’s show. We’re starting with the top five teams in the Western Conference who are the best of the West. We’re going to be doing this over the next few weeks here throughout the off season. Um, first we want to let you know though that today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Just head on over to fanduel.com to check them out. And of course, as always, thanks so much for making lockdown and beia your first listen each and every single day. David, when we talk about the Western Conference, and we’re if we’re going to do this power ranking system, I think there’s a very clear top dog number one team, and that has to be the defending champion, OKC Thunder. They have to be in that number one spot until proven otherwise. I think they walk into the season deacto, arguably best team in the NBA. um de facto best team in the Western Conference for sure. You look at what they did this off season. They inked all of their big three, Shay Gilders, Alexander, Chad Homegrren, and Jaylen Williams to massive contract extensions. They also retained AJ Mitchell, AJ Mitchell, uh and Jay Will, the other Jaylen Williams. Um and they didn’t lose any significant contributors from their roster this past season. Let’s start right there. Agree or disagree, right? Thunder, number one team in the power rankings. I’m not a big believer in, oh, they’ve won the Western Conference, Eastern Conference, they won the respective conference, you have to automatically put them in as number one. Some things just are unpredictable. And while they might have won it, like I look at the Pacers roster, perfect example, and we’re saving this for a future episode, at the same time, they will be my top team in the Eastern Conference despite having won the East this past season. And so, I think you look at the Thunder though, that’s a different animal altogether. caveat having having won the West and basically bringing the identical roster back, right? Health permitting all of that. Obviously, the Pacers are a different animal. My good, you just love playing devil’s advocate, don’t you, David? My god. Absolutely. And having said that, look, the the West is a very tough and competitive group. Lots of great teams that are going to be challenging the Thunder. And yet, the Thunder are still, I think, the clear favorites to win the conference next year as well. Things could happen. And I understand that there’s going to be lots of teams that are going to be geared up for the challenge. And yet you look at the Thunder, how well put together are, how well coached they are, the incredible style of play that they showed us last season, not just during the regular season, but also in the playoffs, how convincing they were able to to lock in a fantastic historically good season for that franchise. To me, I think they’re the clear number one favorites. Look, I’m right there with you. And at this point, you know, it’s I’m not going to say it’s OKC’s title to lose, but they come in as heavy favorites, you know, this upcoming season to win the title plus 230 um odds to win next season’s NBA title via our friends over at FanDuel Sportsbook. Um so I’m in full agreement with you there. So then let’s talk about this. What then if Thunder are number one team in these power rankings? What then is the biggest barrier or who is the biggest barrier to the Thunder when it comes to defending their title? I’m going to go with something a little bit more ethereal. And it could be complacency because now you get to that point where you’ve won the title, you’re a young group, you’ve assembled everything, you’re you could get a little bit lazy in terms of how important it is to maintain this because it’s almost like there’s this sense and I can’t say this for certain with this group, but I just saying like young players in particular and you look at the Thunder roster, how young they are and yet how incredibly accomplished they already are at such early stages of their respective careers and the understanding is well, you know what, we’ll plenty of time to get back and we can always do more later on. We can always kick this can down the road. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, that’s fine. I think you saw that a little bit to a certain extent with the the Celtics last year. Obviously injury wind up taking some part of uh you know kind of removing their competitive spirit a little bit but I think in the terms of Thunder that’s what I’m looking for is like do they have the same kind of precise focus that carries them through a long arduous 82 game season where they beat up on opponents as consistently as easily and as frequently as they did last season and can they carry that same competitive fire as they enter into the postseason having accomplished what they did and and so that’s what I’m looking for them to see whether or not they could take their talent but also the resolve, the fortitude that they need in order to again be able to win at the highest level. Chad Homegrren secures the bag and becomes DeAndre Aton 2.0. Um, I don’t see that happening. No, no, no. But, but that’s all that’s all I could think about when you were like, “Oh, well, maybe they’ll get complacent.” It’s like, well, I know somebody who got really complacent after a trip. Granted, not a title, but a trip to the finals. And then, you know, one of the big contributors to the the downfall of that iteration of Phoenix Suns basketball, unfortunately, poor Suns just uh getting getting uh now you’re pissing off Lakers fans, right? I mean, hey, man, I you know, honestly, you know, by the end of the show, we we should hopefully piss off all all 30 fan bases. Um or at least the fan bases that feel like they deserve a spot in the top five of the Western Conference. Um for me, I think that I’m going to go with a who and not a what. I think that on paper the Thunder is still going to be there’s still going to be this dominant team. They’re still going to be a historically great defense. Maybe there might be a little bit of that complacency that you talked about. Um I do still think they’re an incredibly young team. They’re still a hungry team and they’re they have the makings of a dynasty, right? I think they’re well coached. Um so I think that internally there’s not going to be necessarily anything that I guess derails this Thunder team, at least that we can readily see right now. Um I think it’s a who and I think it’s the Denver Nuggets. I think that the Nuggets, they pushed this Thunder team to seven as constructed as they were this past season, right? And they had some very glaring issues across their roster last season. Um, they got little to nothing out of Michael Porter Jr. in that series. Had they gotten even just an ounce of something from him, then we could be talking about the Denver Nuggets, you know, having another title, Nico Yic having another trophy. Who knows how things would have played out if Denver beats the Thunder and then advances to the Western Conference Finals. So, I think Denver poses the biggest threat to dethrone the OKC Thunder in the Western Conference. It’s really hard to bet against Nicola Joic and you gave him an even better deeper roster and that’s been the mark against the Nuggets, you know, historically has been they just struggle in the non Joic minutes and now suddenly you have a Nuggets team that is incredibly deep, has a lot of talent across the board, has guys that are going to have some of the easiest season or, you know, easiest games, easiest season of their careers playing alongside Nikl Joic. um returning faces like Bruce Brown, new faces like Cam Johnson. Uh I really like what Denver did this past offseason. And so I think for me that is going to be the biggest barrier to the Thunder repeating and defending their title is going to be the Denver Nuggets. They’re going to h and the west is going to be a bloodbath with whoever like that that top spot in the west that one seed in the Western Conference is going to be an absolute prize because it means it keeps you out of what is going to be the two-3 bracket in the Western Conference which is going to be just arduous to try to make it through for whoever does fall in that 2-3 bracket. And those are the teams that we want to talk about next because who comes into the season as the second best team on paper in a stacked Western Conference? We’re going to get there in just one moment. First, today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Summer sports are in full swing. And whether you’re all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green, or high stakes soccer action, FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You’re already following the action. Why not make it a little more thrilling? You can use FanDuel to track your favorite matchups, and the app keeps it fresh with new daily promotions and fun ways to bet. You can check out their parlay builder for all sorts of different ways to get in on the fun. Right now, head on over to fanduel.com. Check out the odds on favorites to win the title this upcoming NBA season. Mentioned it already, but the OKC Thunder plus 230 favorites to repeat. And then behind them, you’ve got the Cleveland Cavaliers plus 750. The Knicks in third place at plus 800, the Houston Rockets plus 850. And then rounding out the top five also right there neck andneck with the Rockets, the Denver Nuggets plus $850 to win it all next season. If you’re new to FanDuel, new customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Open the FanDuel app today or visit fanuel.com to get started. And continuing on here at Locked on NBA. Thanks so much for making locked NBA your first listen each and every day. Hey, for your next listening, go check out the Lockdown Show for your favorite team. Continuing our power rankings of the best in the West, the top of the Western Conference. David, who do you think on paper comes in as the second best team in the Western Conference this season, and why? That is really tricky. And I even as we’re talking about this, I feel like I’m flip-flopping because you made a strong case as to why Denver could upset the Thunder and and they’re they seem like that team that’s just poised for a bounceback because, you know, obviously they fire their coach and they go through a somewhat of a change in their approach, their system, and things of that nature. And then you upgrade the roster and now you’re a year removed from your title, but you’re hungry. You still want to prove that you’re one of the top teams in the league. You still want to be able just to show everybody not to discount what you’ve been able to accomplish this far in your career. And it just feels like they’re the team that could challenge the Thunder the most effectively. And yet I I just look at this Clippers team and I’m giving them the number two spot in my power rankings. I think the upgrades that they’ve made, the changes they’ve made to their roster, uh I think all those and I don’t think they’re quite done either. I think they’re going to be able to make some tweaks here and there. And yet, you give what this team’s accomplished. Health is always going to be a concern with older players, but I think they’ve they’ve added to a lot of their depth. They’ve made some significant upgrades. Coaching is such a big part of what has been their success, and they’ve just managed to find a way to become such a successful team. This might be their year. I don’t know that they can get past the Thunder, but I’m still giving them the number two seed in the Western Conference. Wow. All right. The Clippers, I like it. That That is a ballsy take. I’m going to put that out there right now. So, uh Clippers, they lost Norm Pal, Drew Eubanks. Um they brought back Nicholas Batum, and James Harden. And then they added John Collins, Brook Lopez, Bradley Beal, and Chris Paul. The Clippers are far and away the oldest team in the association. And that would be my one knock on your pick. I think from a talent perspective, if you could just like turn off the injury sliders like it was 2K and just guarantee a clean bill of health to this Clippers team, I’d agree with you. This Clippers team top to bottom has a ton of talent. Their biggest issue is going to be can they make it to the postseason healthy, right? And this is evergreen commentary when we’re talking about the Clippers. Although now it doesn’t just apply to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. applies to the rest of the roster as well and all the other other geriatrics that are joining them uh in LA. Unfortunately, look, look, I I like the talent. I like what they’ve put together. I really do think this Clippers team is a bonafide like homec court advantage top four team in the West. I don’t know if I can get all the way there to put them at number two simply because they are an older team. You mentioned earlier the complacency element about, you know, with with the Thunder and them maybe not being as hungry after winning a title. This Clippers team isn’t going to be pushing for a a number two seed. They’re not going to be trying to win the most games possible in the regular season. Their whole MO is going to be resting guys, load managing, surviving, and they’re this I could very easily see this Clippers team being a team that is content being the sixth team, the sixth best team, seventh best team in the West. And and you know, ideally, I think their spot would be they don’t want to be in the playin because the plan can be dangerous, right? you might get kicked out, but I think they’d be more than content just finishing fifth or sixth versus second or third if it meant a clean bill of health. The switch flip the switch and they’ll flip the switch in the playhouse. That’s what that’s what teams do. I I can see that. I mean, how many how many teams talk themselves into that damn switch and it and it backfires tremendously. It’s like it’s like the breaker is busted and you can’t sw and you can’t flip it effectively. Um, I can’t get there with Clippers at two. I respect it. I like the talent. Um, I just can’t get myself there, unfortunately. And I and I I I don’t wish injury upon anybody. You never want to see an injury take place in the NBA, but I h I find it hard to imagine that this Clippers team doesn’t experience some version of, you know, injury or injuries throughout the season where some of their key contributors will miss a significant amount of time. Now, given their depth, given the sheer amount of talent on the roster, I do think that they’ll, you know, on paper be able to try to overcome some of those injuries. Um, but man, if you if that Clippers team, I I wouldn’t want to face them in a seven game series, assuming health across the board. Uh, that’s for certain for me. And this is my turn to have a little bit of home count hometown cooking here. I got I’m going I’m going rockets. You know, a lot of people looked at a lot of people looked at Houston as having this fluke season, fake two seed, all that stuff this previous year, but they were manhandling teams throughout the regular season. They were by and large one of the best one of the four or five best teams in the NBA throughout the regular season. And you might say, “Oh, well that’s regular season basketball.” And then they they got to the playoffs and they str Well, the Golden State Warriors played like a top five team after acquiring Jimmy Butler. And so the Rockets were faced with arguably the toughest first round matchup of any first round matchup in the playoffs this past season for a very young and incredibly young team, their first taste of the postseason. and they had to deal with an experienced Golden State Warriors squad and they still pushed him to seven games despite getting like, you know, nothing from Jaylen Green for six out of the seven games. You replace him with Kevin Durant, uh, which is easily the biggest acquisition of the entire off seasonason. You bring back all the key contributors, Steven Adams, Aaron Holiday, Jeff Green, Jabari Smith Jr., Jont Tate, Fred Van Vleet, fresh contracts for everybody across the board. And you add depth in Clint Capella, Dorian Smith, and most recently Josh Kogi. I think on paper the Rockets have a chance to be the best defense in the NBA this next season. They might supplant the Thunder as the NBA’s best defense through sheer depth, size, length, and rebounding. And so for me, I think I got to have them at number two. It’s a great argument. Um, and look, you cover the team obviously you know them better than anybody. So I totally respect the additions that they’ve made and why it could work. And there’s no wrong answer here. like the Clippers have as good an argument as the Nuggets who has as good an argument as the Rockets. And so I I think those three teams, at least in my perspective, are probably the second tier behind the Thunder in terms of where they rank. And you could have them two through four in any order. And you can’t really argue it because there’s a strong case to be made for any of them. I just do think that the Rockets might have some issues in terms of we’ve seen in the past that these teams that are kind of hastily assembled and and look there’s enough homegrown pieces there in Shenon and others where you could say look they’ve already got their core in place but just bringing in a Durant doesn’t necessarily catapult you unless it’s a team that already has an established core with championship level experience and the Thunder don’t have that. So you bring in KD that’s fine. some of the other role players, can they buy into the system? Are they going to be able to agree on what their roles are going to be? Do they understand a hierarchy uh on this new team that they’ve decided to join and be a part of? And can aoka kind of run the ship with a different perspective? It’s a it’s great to get young players to buy into the idea of we’re better than everybody thinks that we are. Let’s prove them wrong. And it’s another thing to say, all right, here’s this kind of cast of characters from all over the place. Let’s get them all to buy in with me as their leader and go out there and do what they can. And I don’t know that KD at this stage of his career wants to be that kind of emotional leader. I don’t know that he’s ever necessarily wanted that role. So, who does that fall on the Rockets? he’s going to be your go-to player on the court, but who’s the guy who gets them into the trenches and leads them to that next level when they’re going to be challenged by a Thunder or a Clippers group or anybody else in that Western Conference bloodbath? So, there’s to me questions and at the same time, I can totally respect your choice because they are an excellently built team, but there are going to be concerns at least from my perspective. I think I I do agree with you that that two through four set in in the West is a total toss up, but I do still need to know who you have third because you said Clippers number two. So, where is your power ranking team number three? I don’t know. I really don’t know. I’m I’m going to go with the Nuggets here for that we talked about. I’m going to go with the Nuggets there. I think they’ve going to have that edge. They’ve got the the the roster pieces that they’ve made some upgrades to. There’s the depth there. There’s a lot to like about that Denver group. And I I think they’re going to go in there with a renewed purpose. So to me, sometimes it’s not necessarily like a focus on the narrative as opposed to like the encore production or kind of stats or anything like that. It’s just you have to have something beyond what you can do on the court to drive you. You have to find some motivation, whether they’re real or perceived. You’ve got to be able to to just find that extra gear that drives you. And I think the the Nuggets have that because they’re kind of been overlooked. It’s like, oh, you know, they made some nice moves, but is there really are they really a contender? As much as you and I might believe in them, I don’t know that they have that kind of view consensus around the league. So, I I wonder if they’re just going to be able to use that as motivation because they were overlooked because they had an off season last year and whether or not they can take that to the next level and challenge those teams because they’re going to be hungry in a way that a lot of people might not expect them to. So that’s why they’re my third pick in this power rankings. I I’m right there with you. I agree with the pick number three. I’ve got Denver right there. And again, same tiers, Rockets, Nuggets, Clippers, all within a hair of each other. Um and it could be flavor of the day who you pick. But um with their roster changes this offseason, then moving moving on from Michael Porter Jr., moving on from Dario Sares, bringing bringing back Bruce Brown, adding Cam Johnson, effectively replacing MPJ in the starting lineup, and then two more depth pieces in Tim Hardway Jr. and Yonas Valenunis, despite all the drama that went on with Yonas Valenunis, seems like they’ve come to terms on what his role will be with the Denver Nuggets moving forward. Uh really like the moves that the Denver Nuggets made and and this was a team that already pushed the defending champion OKC Thunder to seven games without all these additions, right? So, so suddenly you have a a deeper team, a more talented team, and to your point, a team that is probably, you know, has been overlooked for the past couple seasons, right? with with you know the fact that each season they’ve kind of regressed a little bit further and um you know I know that this past year they finished as the fourth seed you know and that’s not you know bad by any stretch of the imagination but for a team that has the best player on the face of the planet and Nico and certainly experienced maybe more struggles than they would have liked to I think they certainly didn’t meet their own expectations internally um and this gives them kind of a chance to kind of like you said stick with you riding that narrative coming back with a bit of like maybe a redemption season like hey no We we won a title a couple years ago and that was not a fluke title that was legit. Now we have the pieces to back up, you know, the best player on the face of the planet and we’re going to show you guys what we’re made of. So I I like the Nuggets especially. Um and I again I think it’s going to be the biggest matchup nightmare for the Thunder. Um but I think arguably the biggest question is going to be we’re going to talk about who our fourth teams are, but who is the fifth best team in the Western Conference? That’s the big 72 point font bold-faced question that we’re going to be tackling. We’re going to get there in just one moment and final segment here at Locked On. Thanks so much for making Locked on NBA part of your day every single day. Free and available wherever you listen to your podcast. Now, if you use your deductive reasoning here, dear listener, you can probably figure out that David and his fourth ranked team is, you know, my hometown Houston Rockets. And then for myself, I’ve got the LA Clippers. Um, and we’ve talked a little bit both about both of these teams. And I want to just uh preface really quickly and say that we would like to know your rankings. So, as we navigate this series of shows that we’re going to be doing, we want your top five. So, which teams are the top five teams in the Western Conference in your eyes? Let us know in the YouTube comments. We check those every single day. Um, David, do you have any additional points that you want to add about this Houston Rockets team looking at their, you know, outlook for next season? How you think they stack up compared to some of the other competition in the West? Because they are they are your fourth team unless you’re going to come out with a haymaker and not have them top four. No, no, no. Clearly, you’re right. They’re the the fourth. I mean, again, I I don’t even know that they’re the fourth best team. They might be the best team, period. they might be the second best team and I’d be comfortable with either of those options because I just think that the the pieces all seem to make sense. But I do question and maybe this is the question for you. Do you worry about the fit and whether or not everybody’s going to be able to buy in and whether or not this kind of hastily put together sudden hierarchy with KD now kind of sort of at the head of the snake how everybody else seems to fit into that and and whether or not everybody will accept it and buy in because I know this is an older KD but even before the trade took place you and I had talked about you know whether or not Rockets fans might not even want a player like that. I know certainly from the Heat perspective and maybe they were never real contenders to land KD or not, but even some Heat fans were like, “No, we don’t want him here, etc.” I think that was a dumb choice personally, but that’s, you know, that’s not me. At the same time, like, do you think that this roster is put together will buy in to the idea of all of us operating in unison for a shared goal of a championship? I think without a doubt this team has been in lock step with Eime Odoka every step of the way and Eay very clearly was a big factor in in getting Kevin Durant to Houston. They have history together. He’s coached him both on team USA and in Brooklyn. They have a great relationship and this Rockets team unfortunately for them last season they’re they had this mantra of you know sometimes you sometimes me always us which is kind of cute in theory but the problem is they didn’t have a guy. They didn’t have a hierarchy last season. It was, you know, Enoa parited this terminology talking about equal opportunity offense so often. Yeah. And and I fully believe that was just like his talking like he regurgitated it so often that I was like this can’t be how he actually feels. Like he would kill to have a number one guy. He would kill to have a guy. And then and then as the season progressed, there were certain games like when the Rockets choked away the game against the Miami Heat where Tyler Harrow blew up in Houston or when they choked another game just it was either just before or just after that where Anthony Edwards dominated at the end of the game and Eime Odoka had like this passive aggressive remark in his postgame presser where it’s like yeah when you have a a special player like that can they can just take over at the end of the game and I was like yeah Eay wants one of his guys to be a star. They just don’t have a guy who can be the guy yet. Maybe Alpering can grow into that guy, but he’s not that guy right now. Maybe Am Thompson can one day be, you know, a a top 15, top 10 player in the NBA, but he’s not that guy right now. Kevin Durant is that guy right now. He is the be one of the best in NBA history at being the tip of the spear, right? And as long as you have a structure and an identity that KD can then should be plopped in and then let KD be KD, that’s when he’s had success. He was plopped into the structure and identity of the Golden State Warriors. And that Warriors team went from being a great team to a historically great team. So I think for the Rockets, they have their defensive identity. KD addresses their biggest issue, which was not having a closer, not having a go-to score. He elevates them across the board offensively, and they’ve doubled down on their defensive identity by adding depth and length across the board. So I don’t I don’t worry about it. The only thing I worry about with KD, similar to what we talked about with the Clippers, is health. You know, he’s projected to probably miss anywhere from 15 to 25 games next season. So because of that, I could see the Rockets maybe not have as much success in the standings as they did this prior year because they’re not going to get 82 straight games of Kevin Durant and the offense will absolutely struggle without him out there. Um, but the hierarchy is very clearly KD first and then one of Shingun or Aen Thompson and both of those guys are such unselfish players that I don’t think they’re going to have any issue taking a backseat to a future first ballot hall of famer in Kevin Durant. Now, I want to pivot this into talking about the Clippers for a moment here before we get to our big question of who the fifth team is in our power rankings for the top five in the West. You know, previously when we talked about Bradley Beal joining the Clippers, my biggest knock on the Clippers and and I they have enough talent and enough defensive pieces across the roster. Bringing in Brook Lopez to back up Zubach is going to be huge for maintaining their defense when Zubot is off the floor. Um, they still have other great defensive pieces up and down the roster. I just worry and wonder, you know, if Bradley Beal is motivated and locked in, I think he’s more than a capable enough defender to not be like a defensive seieve or to hurt the Clippers defensively. But that that kind of begs the question is what version of Bradley Beal do you get? And to me, if the Clippers can’t somehow maintain the top five defense that they established this last season, I think they will regress. I think they’re not going to be as as special of a team as they were this past year. I think they’ve got the parts to make it work. U but it’s going to be up to Bradley Beal and and you know uh you know across the board just all the pieces they have to come together and make the defense special again for me to be bought in on their success. And I’ve got a lot of question marks about Bradley Beal in that starting lineup and the lack of defensive pop in that starting lineup if you will with Harden Beal Kawhai John Collins and Zubach. a lot of pressure on Kawaii and Zoo to carry those other three guys. No doubt. Um yeah, I those are legitimate concerns and even I feel somewhat hypocritical questioning how assembled the the Rockets are or how they were built in in such a way and then looking at the Clippers and saying, “Well, can they figure it out or assuming that they might. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just mercenary squad.” Yeah, it does feel that way. But maybe I’m just a believer said legitimate cases and the Nuggets aren’t far behind. They’re certainly within that same consideration, that same tier in terms of wherever they fall, two through four, injuries notwithstanding. I could make an argument for any of those teams. All right. So then I want you to tee us off here, David. Fifth team in the No, fifth team in the West. Man, this is it’s hard, right? Because so you look at the standings from last season and and we had a bunch of these teams that we’ve talked about. We had the Thunder, we had the Rockets, we had the Nuggets, we had the Clippers, you know, OKC was one, Houston 2, Denver 4, LA 5. We haven’t talked about the Lakers yet. Is it the Lakers or do you write them off based on how little it feels like they actually accomplished this off seasonason or are you feeling the uh are you feeling the dominating? David, I I think they have a strong case and similar to what we just went through from two through four, I think five through eight that you can make the case that any one of those teams could pop off. I don’t know why. I don’t know that I necessarily have a strong argument for it. My feeling is the fifth best team in the Western Conference. I think a full season of the Jimmy Butler experience, if he’s engaged, he’s got his money. Now, can he prove it? Will he be able to be the same effective player that we saw in spurts during the regular season? The regular season as a person who covers the Miami Heat. Not necessarily Jimmy’s strong suit. There’s going to be games where he’s fully engaged, especially this version at this stage in his career. And there’s going to be other games where it’s like, what the hell is he even doing out there? I think Warriors fans are are realizing this that that’s just the version of Jimmy that you’re getting at this point in his career. But I think everybody has kind of really bought in like they they believed that they were title contenders last year and they really thought that they were playing at such a high level that the addition of Jimmy was going to be able to propel them into that top tier in the Western Conference. And I wonder whether or not it’ll carry over or whether or not the magic might have been all used up for that last half of the of the season because uh it’s it’s not so easy, especially with an older group. But I feel like they still have something else to prove and they’re like one of those teams that just because they have that championship experience, because they have that internal view of themselves, because there’s such a strong foundation in terms of how this team is built from the front office to the coaching to the roster itself. it just seems like it permeates through everything. And so I think there’s a buyin there that some of these other teams might not have. That’s why they’re my fifth best team in the in the US. But again, I’m curious to see who you have. Uh I think Cavon Looney is going to be a bigger loss to them than a lot of people are thinking. Um he’s the only major uh roster change for them. They haven’t added anybody. They didn’t he’s the only player that they lost. Um but losing Looney is is big for the Warriors. I can’t put them at five. Although I can I I respect the call on it cuz they were utterly dominant with Jimmy Butler in the lineup in the back half of the season. Would adding Al Horford make a significant change for you? Yes. I’d be much more open to the idea of them as fifth once the Horford stuff resolves. But until it does, it’s all still up up in the air. Fair enough. Can’t stick can’t stick with that. So, so for me, um, you know, I know some people are going to want to say the the Wolves, but I I can’t get there. They they they lost a lot this off seasonason. Uh, Minnesota lost so many key contributors. They lost uh Nikquil Alexander. Well, but the biggest one being Nikquil Alexander Walker and and that’s, you know, losing him certainly hurts their depth. Um, their guard play outside of Ant is very suspect. Um, and so I can’t get there with Minnesota. I think I kind of have to begrudgingly give it to the Lakers until proven otherwise. It’s going to be hard to Now again, we’ve got the whole LeBron James drama. Is he actually going to finish his career in LA? All that. But, you know, they brought back Jackson Hayes. They added Aon, Jake Laravia, and Marcus Smart. Um, they did lose Dorian Finny Smith, which I think is a is a significant loss for LA to their defense. Um, but you know, an actual full season of Luca in training camp. We got we got offseason Luca picks where he’s working out. He looks like he’s in shape. Um, you know, he’s got the motivation from LeBron James. Uh, you know, got got basically got called fat by Nico Harrison for the better part of last season. And so we get motivated Luca. Luca running on, you know, pure spite this next season could be an absolute terror for the rest of the NBA to deal with. I think I got to give fifth best team to LA. A lot of it hinge. They’ve got a lot a lot hinging on DeAndre Aton and what version of him they get. But if they get a good motivated version of DeAndre Aton, I think the Lakers are absolutely going to be a problem in the Western Conference. I don’t think they eclipse any of the other teams that we’ve mentioned previously, the other four teams at the top of the West, but I certainly have them um up there in contention because it’s hard to count out LeBron and Luca uh assuming health for that roster as well. I also really like the Marcus Smart edition. He’s a he’s a great vet. I was I was curious where he was going to end up, but Luca with his, you know, sales pitch getting him to LA, that’s going to be a huge get for them to help kind of replace and offset some of the defensive tenacity that you would have had with Dorian Finny Smith. So, I like I like the Warriors call out. Can’t quite get there yet. I’m going Lakers. So, your list, you’ve got Thunder, Clippers, Nuggets, Rockets, Warriors. I’ve got Thunder, Rockets, Nuggets, Clippers, Lakers. We want your top five power rankings for the Western Conference in our YouTube comments. Um, but that’s going to do it for our edition of Locked on NBA. Thanks so much for hanging out with us here at Locked on NBA. Be on the lookout for our sister show, Locked on NBA Daily with Doug, Matt, and Hayes on your podcast feed, this exact same podcast feed. Until then, we will catch you guys on our very next locked on NBA show. [Music]

What STOPS Thunder From Repeating | Nuggets, Rockets Or Clippers The SECOND-BEST Team In West?

Thunder reign supreme in the West, but can they repeat? The OKC Thunder’s young core, led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren, faces stiff competition in a loaded conference.

Hosts Jackson Gatlin (@Locked On Rockets) and David Ramil (@Locked On Heat) power rank the top-5 teams in the Western Conference, debating potential challengers to the Thunder’s throne. From the Denver Nuggets’ playoff prowess to the LA Clippers’ roster upgrades, every contender gets put under the microscope. The hosts also explore the Houston Rockets’ defensive potential and Kevin Durant’s impact, while weighing the Golden State Warriors’ chances without Kevon Looney.

Tune in for expert analysis on how recent moves by the Lakers, including additions like Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart, could reshape the West’s power structure.

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