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.