Best and Worst of the Western Conference

Seeing the Oklahoma City Thunder sitting atop the West is not much of a surprise. The Thunder are a young and talented team that made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals last season. What is surprising is the teams that are currently sitting in the next few spots in the Western Conference standings.

The team with the second-best record in the West is the Denver Nuggets. Yes Denver was a playoff team last year but most people would attribute that to having Carmelo Anthony on the team for most of the season.

Anthony would be traded to the New York Knicks at the trade deadline last year but much to everyone’s surprise the Nuggets had a pretty good winning percentage for the games they played after Melo left last season. Not having Anthony did hurt them in the playoffs though as they lost in five games to the Thunder in the first round.

The Nuggets have also lost a few players to the Chinese Basketball league since being ousted in the playoffs but Denver continues to win while Melo’s new team may be lottery-bound this season if they don’t turn things around. The Knicks are currently 6-10 on the season.

The Los Angeles Clippers have gone from being the third worst team in the West last year to the third best team in the West so far this season. The Clippers missed the playoffs last year but have played well since acquiring Chris Paul, Chauncey Billups and Caron Butler during the offseason. If they can stay healthy they may make a deep run in this year’s playoffs.

The Memphis Grizzlies were the eighth seed in last year’s playoffs but currently have the fourth best record in the West. Last year they did it with Rudy Gay out for a big portion of the season. This year they are having to do it without Zach Randolph in the lineup.

The fifth best team in the West right now is the Utah Jazz. The Jazz went through major changes last season with the forced trade of Deron Williams and the retirement of Jerry Sloan but this team has bounced back and is playing some good basketball this season.

Which leaves us to look at the Western Conference teams that have been a disappointment so far in the 2011-2012 season. The San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks were both top-three teams in the West last season but have fallen to the sixth and seventh spots so far this season.

The Spurs have been without shooting guard Manu Ginobili for much of the season and Tim Duncan has really started to show his age. The Mavericks have not been consistent and may be showing the effects of having lost so many players since winning their championship. Tyson Chandler, Caron Butler, DeShawn Stevenson and JJ Barea all left Dallas during the offseason.

The two biggest disappointments in the West this season have to be the Portland Trailblazers and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Trailblazers have the ninth best record in the West while the Lakers are tenth best. If the playoffs started today both of those teams would be on the outside looking in.

Sadly both teams are doing it with basically the same casts they had last season. The Trailblazers did lose Brandon Roy to retirement but they were able to bring in Jamal Crawford to replace him. The Lakers traded Lamar Odom to the Mavericks during the offseason but were able to increase their depth by bringing in Troy Murphy, Jason Kapono, and Josh McRoberts.

Still we are only a quarter of the way into the season so a lot can change between now and May. There are bound to be some moves made by the trade deadline in March and there are bound to be a few injuries that could impact the standings between now and the end of the regular season.

So as teams start to hit their stride we will get a true picture of who are the pretenders and contenders in the West. So as teams start to hit their stride we will get a true picture of who the pretenders and contenders are in the West. Can the Lakers, Spurs and Mavericks regain the dominance that made them the top three seeds in last season’s playoffs or will these teams fade into the sunset as younger teams start to dominate the West? Hey with the way this season is going almost anything is possible.

Roosevelt Hall is an NBA Blogger for The Sport Mentalist 2 and also writes for Shatter The Backboard. He can be contacted at RHall@shatterthebackboard.com. Follow him on Twitter @sportmentalist.