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How the Western Conference is Shaping Up

Ferguson_Mellochill

Ferguson_Mellochill

Well-Known Member
2019 Prediction Contest Winner
The draft is over. Free agency is winding down. There could still be a few impactful trades that happen before the season, but at this point we can start to project the Western Conference this year. Off the cuff, here's what I've got. I think the Jazz are competing with Denver and Memphis for the 8th seed. New Orleans and Sacramento could also end up in that scrum. We could potentially fall to 10th.

Aside from losing Hayward and Lyles, the Jazz are likely losing Diaw, and will probably trade Favors and/or Joe Johnson during the season. The team is getting younger as a whole.

1 GSW
2 SAS
3 OKC
4 HOU
5 MIN
6 LAC
7 POR
8 - 10 MEM /UTA /DEN
11 NOL
12 SAC
13 DAL
14 PHX
15 LAL
 
Jazz will be better than Portland and LAC for sure. I think Minnesota has the potential to be good but that is a huge jump for them. I also dont think OKC jumps that high up. Spurs will defintely be worse than last season. I think Houston will be about the same or maybe slightly worse during the regular season.

Jazz will be right around the 4 seed again.
 
OKC was a 46-win team last year, and they replaced Oladipo with Paul George.

Minny was just short of a .500 team for much of last season, and they added Butler and Teague. Towns and Wiggins also are a year older.

The Clippers added Patrick Beverly, Lou Williams and Gallinari to Blake and DeAndre. If Griffin gets injured, then they drop.

If LMA calms down and Rudy Gay can play, the Spurs will be good again.

The Jazz have Rubio, Hood, Ingles and Rudy. It's not clear who the starting PF will be.
 
Catchall said:
OKC was a 46-win team last year, and they replaced Oladipo with Paul George.

Minny was just short of a .500 team for much of last season, and they added Butler and Teague. Towns and Wiggins also are a year older.

The Clippers added Patrick Beverly, Lou Williams and Gallinari to Blake and DeAndre. If Griffin gets injured, then they drop.

If LMA calms down and Rudy Gay can play, the Spurs will be good again.

The Jazz have Rubio, Hood, Ingles and Rudy. It's not clear who the starting PF will be.
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Also the Rockets getting cp3 is kind of a big deal
 
Odds are we do not make the playoffs next year. Too many other teams improved while we seriously regressed, barring anyone playing out of their mind or another move in the off-season or something. I am fearing a return to the land of lottery picks in the 10-14 range. Ugh.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Odds are we do not make the playoffs next year. Too many other teams improved while we seriously regressed, barring anyone playing out of their mind or another move in the off-season or something. I am fearing a return to the land of lottery picks in the 10-14 range. Ugh.
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I'm ok with that. Jazz need a season to regroup. A season to evaluate Exum and Hood and give Mitchell a lot of minutes. The 8th seed could even mean a pick around #20 as a ton of EC playoff teams will have sub .500 records.

Give the youngsters playing time. Trade Favors, JJ (if he wants) and Burks at the deadline. Get a lottery pick ~12 (too many terrible EC teams to expect higher).
 
I can honestly see the Jazz just going for a full blown tank this year. We struck out on plans A-R. We still don't know who the back up center/PF are. Some people might like not like it but if we just go full blown tank for this season and get a top 5 pick, we can QUICKLY turn it around. We could possibly trade the pick for someone decent, or keep it, go for a better offseason in free agency and go from there. Burks, Favors, and Hood are ALL major question marks

We really aren't going to be good with where we're at.
 
I don't get Portland above us in a lot people's projections. So they had a nice stretch of 20 games with Nurkic and that still only got them to 41 wins. I don't buy them being better than us today, I guess we'll see once the season gets going, but I still think we are quite better than the Blazers
 
candrew said:
Hope I'm wrong - but right now I have Utah as 10th or 11th in the WC.
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I have the Jazz at 10th or 11th if Gobert misses the season.

People are really underestimating how great Gobert is and how good of players we have around him. Hayward was good but we were a really good team because of defense and that is because of Gobert and the system. I except out defense to be even better next year especially if Favors is healthy.

If we have a healthy Favors and Hood that is better than Hayward. Obviously having a Hayward on top of a healthy Favors and Hood would be even better but still I expect us if healthy to be at least as good as last season. We are better at every position except the SF this year from last year.

Rubio/Exum > Hobbled Hill/Mack
Hood/Burks/Mitchell > Hobbled Hood/no Burks
Inlges/JJ < Hayward/Inlges
Favors >> Hobbled Favors
2017 Gobert > 2016 Gobert
 
Catchall said:
They were better last year after they traded for Nurkic.
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You cant project teams records for the next season from their records in garbage time in the NBA. Post all star records and stats are much less useful than full season record and stats. Portland might be better but I would not be surprised if they were a little worse record wise.
 
Not sure why people think the Spurs who overachieved last year will be better. They are missing some crucial players and many other players are on the downhill. I expect them to be about 5 wins worse than last year. Still really good but a step back.
 
Ron Mexico said:
I have the Jazz at 10th or 11th if Gobert misses the season.

People are really underestimating how great Gobert is and how good of players we have around him. Hayward was good but we were a really good team because of defense and that is because of Gobert and the system. I except out defense to be even better next year especially if Favors is healthy.

If we have a healthy Favors and Hood that is better than Hayward. Obviously having a Hayward on top of a healthy Favors and Hood would be even better but still I expect us if healthy to be at least as good as last season. We are better at every position except the SF this year from last year.

Rubio/Exum > Hobbled Hill/Mack
Hood/Burks/Mitchell > Hobbled Hood/no Burks
Inlges/JJ < Hayward/Inlges
Favors >> Hobbled Favors
2017 Gobert > 2016 Gobert
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That last one is like saying "infinity > infinity" or could God microwave a burrito so hot that even he could not eat it.
 
Paul George is better than Oladipo but we will see what PG's motivation level is on that team and how he handles being the 2nd option. Maybe they jump back up to where they were with Durant but Paul George is not anywhere near Durants level. Maybe Westbrook will be more efficient and have an even better season than last year but I doubt with another person taking the ball away from him he will be as good. They still have a relatively crappy roster besides those two.
 
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