NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE PREVIEW

Now let's move on to the Western Conference while deep, it is a completely different look than the East at the top. There is no speculation about who the best team is in the West, it's the LAKE SHOW!

1. LOS ANGELES LAKERS

After playing a game of addition by subtraction with Artest coming to town, the Lake Show has not only solidified its stranglehold on the West but on the rest of league as well. With Bynum healthy again, this team has very little weaknesses. Did I mention they have the best player on the planet? I mean the Dobermamba himself will only be needed on some nights. The only thing to worry about is will Odom be able to keep up with his new party life and Khloe with his basketball commitment?

2. DENVER NUGGETS

Teams in the West made moves, but I don't think anybody pushed past the Nuggets. Big Shot is one of the top 3 leaders in the league. Is it any coincidence that it didn't matter what conference he is in, he returned to the conference finals? Unfortunately he's not one of the best players which is where he will need Melo to bounce back from an subpar 08-09 campaign. This team is athletic, they can shoot the ball, they can post Melo, they have almost all of it. They just don't have the equalizer to Kobe.

3. SAN ANTONIO SPURS

Health is the key with this team and I'm a little scared to put them this high given they couldn't hold up last year, but neither is Dallas a relatively healthy team either so edge goes to championship pedigree here. There's not much that separates 3-8 in the West like the East. One thing I don't see is how Richard Jefferson is going to fit in with a hard nose coach like Popp, who by the way I think is the best coach in the league (that's right, better than Phil), because the past says that Jefferson is soft.

4. DALLAS MAVERICKS

Dirk with a summer off, the addition of the Matrix and this team seams ready to make a deep playoff run. Problem here, they didn't get Gortat or Bass. The starters got better, the bench got worse. I wonder how that plays out? For sure though, Dirk is due for a huge year.

5. UTAH JAZZ

Motivation will be the key word here. D Will is the best pg in the league. Did I just say that? Let me repeat it one more time. D Will is the best pg in the league. Now you're saying I'm crazy. Let me explain. In the playoffs, I'm taking D Will over CP3. Sorry folks, I'm about winning and in my mind the regular season doesn't count. Booz is about $, who doesn't see him averaging 20 and 10, not to mention Millsap can fill in at the 3 or the 4 when AK47 decides to take a night off. Then another weapon in Okur. Then the second best coach in the league in Sloan (yep I dissed Phil again). They will be ready this season.

6. PORTLAND TRAILBLAZERS

I wanted to put Phoenix here, but Portland is too deep. They could go a lot higher too if Oden ever lives up to any kind of potential. The addition of Miller will stabilize the pg position if MacMillan ever realizes that Blake should be coming off the bench. Aldridge is a future perennial All-Star, problem is he needs to rebound and defend better. Martell Webster should provide an outside threat they didn't have last season at the 3 position and Brandon Roy is one of the most complete guards. It's hard to identify a total weakness in his game.

7. PHOENIX SUNS

It's back to the run and gun, fun in the sun, offense. STAT is back and looks mighty impressive thus far, but this team can't get past this position unless he becomes the same type of force on the defensive end. I think the Suns have two of the worst defenders in the league with Amare and J Rich, then there is Nash who sometimes tries, but at 35 he doesn't have the ability to defend the quicker point guards in the West and they will run circles around him. They'll be fun to watch, but nobody will be watching them after the first round.

8. NEW ORLEANS HORNETS

They have the most dominant pg in the league with CP3, most dominant doesn't translate to best. That's the difference between him and D Will. He has to do so much for this team, does anybody believe he might be frustrated with the Chandler-Okafor trade? Shinn once again cutting costs on his payroll. He's dismantled anything Charlotte could have had and now has dismantled a possible contender. Okafor reminds me of a Honda Accord. He'll last for 15 years but no one will ever recognize him for it.

9. GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

Does anybody think the Warriors will have 10 games with less than 100 points? Does anybody think that half the Warriors opponents will avg. 115+ points? Don Nelson needs to check in to the Cuckoo Nest. It's one thing to constantly mess with veterans minds, but it's too much young talent that he is influencing with his nonsense now. I'm not sure how Golden State's front office management can stand to look at this every day. His leadership from a coaching standpoint with this team is worse than Isiah's with the Knicks. Don't even get me started on Capt. Jack. I could only pull for him if he was a Laker.

10. MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES

Debo Zach Randolph, the Answer, Rudy Gay, OJ Mustard over Mayo, and Pau's little brother. Not a bad combination save for the fact that none of them have won in the league outside of AI's small run with Larry back in the day. This team has 3 of the most selfish players in the entire league when it comes to shot selection. How will this work? The best player on the team may average 8 shots a game and that's Rudy Gay. He wasn't assertive last year with just Mayo, not sure how he's going to exist with AI and Randolph.

11. OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER

I like this young nucleus, but not enough to have them in a playoff run in the mighty West. KD might lead the league in scoring this year, Jeff Green is a surprisingly consistent young threat, and Westbrook is a game or two from soaring confidence that could push him into the elite of pg's. I loved the addition of Harden, but the bench is weak and Krstic hasn't been the same since his injuries. If Krstic can impose some will in the paint, they might even do better than 11th.

12. HOUSTON ROCKETS

I was ready to put Minnesota here until Kevin Love went out for the next 8-10 weeks. This team has dropped though and they have fallen hard. They were solid with Artest because he willed them to play hard and he also could break down defenses. He provided leadership that TMac and Yao never have provided. Ariza is an average player who looked great on a great team. Scola is a bright spot here in one room full of darkness. It's too bad for McGrady. He was one of the most prolific scorer's in his time, but its hard for me to see him making a comeback at this point.

13. MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES

I love Big Al, but he is struggling returning to the court from his injury and now with Love out their frontline is decimated. Big Al will be back but this team will be lucky to win 35 games this year. I love their pick for Johnny Flynn which is why I didn't understand the Rubio hype. Sometimes this international craze for players really ticks me off. Flynn proved himself time in and time out throughout his last year at the Cuse and now he's got to live through the Rubio crazy. I guess that's why he put up nice numbers in the preseason which I believe proves how valuable he will be one day. Beating out Sessions was no small feat. Sessions played very well at the end of the season last year.

14. LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS

BD is a complete waste of talent, Al Thornton never was taught how to pass, Camby's health is worse than Chandler's, and Kaman can be beat in the post by my mother. However, Griffin will be a star if he doesn't succomb to the losing of the Clippers and Eric Gordon can flat out score. So while there are a couple positives to this team, it's about the average of their yearly positives. 2 positives to the millions of negatives for this franchise.

15. SACRAMENTO KINGS

Shaq said it best. The Queens are back! These boys are bad, worse than the Nets. Kevin Martin has a man's one track mind to scoring and I'm not sure why they are trying to kill the confidence of Spencer Hawes who played very well in April along with Jason Thompson, a surprise pleasure at the end of the season. Tyreke Evans will be in the running for ROY because he will certainly get the time on this team.

NBA FINALS PREDICTION

The Lake Show in 7 over the Celtics, why? DOBERMAMBA! Wayne said it best "Pass me the d*mn ball, I don't need a pick at all"

Bring on Oct. 27th, let the games begin