The Lakers had one of the better comeback stories in recent history this past year. No matter what, if Steph Curry stays healthy, the Warriors should be in contention. At least one of them may be gone next year, but if not, it will probably be because they patched up their issues. Many believe that the Draymond Green-Jordan Poole situation had long-term effects in the locker room. ![]() With this being said, it is hard to believe that if Curry stays healthy for most of the year (a big if), they will not be in contention. They were the defending champs and overwhelming favorites to come out of the West, yet finished as the sixth seed and barely escaped the first round. The Warriors were truly a disappointment this year. If he stays healthy, a duo of Durant and Devin Booker is hard to count out. Regardless of what moves they make, the thing that matters the most is whether Durant stays healthy or not. Since this is the case, they will either have to trade DeAndre Ayton or sign a bunch of guys to veteran minimums. They now have five guys on their roster and are already well over the luxury tax. They also traded Chris Paul and Landry Shamet for Bradley Beal on Sunday. While this is a move they should make every time, if you do not win a ring, it ends up looking like a bad call. They went all in at last year’s deadline by trading away their depth and draft picks for Kevin Durant. Phoenix will be in an interesting spot next year. They are not as unstoppable as the 1996 Bulls, but they are still head and shoulders above everyone else as of now. While it is hard to go back-to-back without a superteam, this was one of the most dominant playoff runs by a squad in the last 30 years. The one piece that they will probably be without next year is Bruce Brown. They have the best player in the league in Nikola Jokić, one of the better playoff performer point guards in Jamal Murray, tremendous depth, and a stable head coach. It was a pretty easy decision to predict the defending champs and last year’s first seed for 2024. ![]() With all the uncertainties being said, here are way-too-early 2024 Western Conferences standings predictions. There is more parity in the league than ever, and teams will be looking to improve a lot. This upcoming offseason will be extremely interesting, too. It was a whirlwind campaign that included the Draymond Green– Jordan Poole incident, the Celtics firing and suspending their head coach for the entire season, both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving getting traded, the first-seeded Bucks losing in the first round, the Heat going on their massive Cinderella run, and Nikola Jokic finally getting the respect he deserves from a lot of fans. If there is any word that describes this past year’s NBA season, it is wild. It has been about a week since the Denver Nuggets won their first NBA title over the Miami Heat.
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