Time to talk about how Strong the West will be next season

Since the Pels play in the West we should discuss it

Warriors will have Klay, Curry top pick etc

Minnesota getting better

Grizzlies only getting better

Kings kind of under achievers right now they have talent

Suns who knows with a full season from ayton

And you still have

The two l.a teams

Denver

Utah

Mavs

Harden in houston

It will be hard to make the playoffs next year

It's the West, it's hard to make the playoffs every year.

That said, I'm not optimistic for the Suns or Wolves. LAL will be fine if they keep AD, if he leaves it's a different question (I think he'll stay btw). Houston are a declining team; I don't think their super-small gimmick will work in the playoffs, Westbrook and Harden are both on the wrong side of 30 and they're capped out.

Golden State will have Curry and Klay back, but Curry has already clearly declined (and that was before the injury this year). How will Klay look back off the ACL? No idea. Draymond's decline has been obvious, Wiggins is a huge question mark that I don't see turning out positively, and while they'll end up with a high pick in this year's draft, there's no telling how good that player will be; this is a weak draft, and with no Jerry West there, who knows how they'll make their choices. Their picks in last years draft were terrible.

Also important to note that Golden State are in such a bad cap situation that it's painful. They currently have something like $108m on the salary sheet going into 2023, and that's without Curry, whose deal will be up that summer. That's a long way off, obviously, but they are in for a rough time a few years from now.

Denver, LAC, Mavs, Utah, Grizz, OKC are the teams that I see as being the biggest challenges next year for sure. LAL could obviously join them if AD stays. As a result, I think next year will probably end up being about as difficult as this year.

Obviously this is subject to change, there's still a ton of time before next season and anything could happen.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

It's the West, it's hard to make the playoffs every year.

That said, I'm not optimistic for the Suns or Wolves. LAL will be fine if they keep AD, if he leaves it's a different question (I think he'll stay btw). Houston are a declining team; I don't think their super-small gimmick will work in the playoffs, Westbrook and Harden are both on the wrong side of 30 and they're capped out.

Golden State will have Curry and Klay back, but Curry has already clearly declined (and that was before the injury this year). How will Klay look back off the ACL? No idea. Draymond's decline has been obvious, Wiggins is a huge question mark that I don't see turning out positively, and while they'll end up with a high pick in this year's draft, there's no telling how good that player will be; this is a weak draft, and with no Jerry West there, who knows how they'll make their choices. Their picks in last years draft were terrible.

Also important to note that Golden State are in such a bad cap situation that it's painful. They currently have something like $108m on the salary sheet going into 2023, and that's without Curry, whose deal will be up that summer. That's a long way off, obviously, but they are in for a rough time a few years from now.

Denver, LAC, Mavs, Utah, Grizz, OKC are the teams that I see as being the biggest challenges next year for sure. LAL could obviously join them if AD stays. As a result, I think next year will probably end up being about as difficult as this year.

Obviously this is subject to change, there's still a ton of time before next season and anything could happen.

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Minnesota has changed dramatically. Now to get a legit HC and we will be fine. GS is totally blown up to stay under the repeater luxury tax.

LA Lakers will be hurting in a few years with the decline of LeBron. Teams that look the best with youth, picks is Milwaukee, Pelicans, Boston, and Wolves for the future. Present is Lakers, Miami, Boston.

How difficult would this year have actually been if we even have normal injury luck?

We're on a 50 win pace since Favors got healthy. That's without Zion for the most part. I know we're always reluctant to get too excited about our team because of what's happened in the past, but Zion will probably be a top 10 offensive player already next year. If he's able to make any strides defensively, this is a playoff team no matter what.

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Originally Posted by Bonecrusher

Minnesota has changed dramatically. Now to get a legit HC and we will be fine. GS is totally blown up to stay under the repeater luxury tax.

LA Lakers will be hurting in a few years with the decline of LeBron. Teams that look the best with youth, picks is Milwaukee, Pelicans, Boston, and Wolves for the future. Present is Lakers, Miami, Boston.

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Minnesota still has to work around the fact that their two highest paid players are KAT and DLO, neither of whom play even league average defense, and they don't have much in terms of set quality around them right now. Obviously there's plenty of time before next season, and Rosas is a smart guy, so they could work something out, but sitting here today looking at their roster, I'm not scared of them. And you say ''now to get a legit HC'' but that's one of those things that's a lot easier said than done. Maybe they'll do it, again, Rosas is clever, but it's not something I'm just pencilling in as inevitable.

Golden State might be okay offensively next year, depending on hjow much they can modify Wiggins' playstyle and how good Curry can transition back to on-ball (his handle has degraded considerably since pre-KD years, so who knows) but I can't see an easy path towards a good defense for them.

PELS will fire Gentry after this season if we miss the playoffs imo. We need to hire a new coach. Develop Zion. Be patient and focus on the draft. If we can get a good deal for Jrue go for it. I think we need to focus on Zion, Ingram and Ball. The PELS will be contenders in the ZION era. No one will stop Zion.


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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Minnesota still has to work around the fact that their two highest paid players are KAT and DLO, neither of whom play even league average defense, and they don't have much in terms of set quality around them right now. Obviously there's plenty of time before next season, and Rosas is a smart guy, so they could work something out, but sitting here today looking at their roster, I'm not scared of them. And you say ''now to get a legit HC'' but that's one of those things that's a lot easier said than done. Maybe they'll do it, again, Rosas is clever, but it's not something I'm just pencilling in as inevitable.

Golden State might be okay offensively next year, depending on hjow much they can modify Wiggins' playstyle and how good Curry can transition back to on-ball (his handle has degraded considerably since pre-KD years, so who knows) but I can't see an easy path towards a good defense for them.

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VanderPool is supposedly the defensive genius. Plus we got some different players so we'll see.

We are a ways a way like years but if Vegas gets an expansion team we could be moving back to East or they could be completely restructuring the conferences. Looks like some sort of tournament and a shorten schedule will happen. Adam Silver has already endorsed it. Changes coming. Perhaps we will know during all -star break.