Different Faces In Different Places Will Make For A Wild 2019-20 NBA West

Another exciting NBA season on tap after another exciting NBA offseason. Is there any other league out there that has its fans hanging on every single word waiting on the next big free agent move more than the NBA? Don’t think so. The soap opera nature of the NBA offseason is almost as good as the on-court action of the league itself, and this past offseason did not disappoint in that regard, especially in the Western Conference.

Have big names in new places shifted the balance of power in the West, where the Golden State Warriors have had a stranglehold on the conference for five years running? Or do the Warriors have one last hurrah left in them? In this preview we’re going to take a look at the top eight futures to represent the conference in the NBA Finals and see if we can figure out how the West will be won

Los Angeles Clippers (+200), over/under 56.5 total team wins 

The Clippers are the clear frontrunners in the Western Conference--on paper. They acquired two of the best players in the NBA over the summer, Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard and arguably the best two-way player in the game, Paul George. They have everything you need to represent the West in the NBA Finals: offense, defense, championship-caliber coaching, and depth. This team is built to win in May and June, but look for them to experience some growing pains getting all of these pieces to gel. George will be out until mid-November recovering from shoulder surgery, and Kawhi will most likely be given NBA fans’ favorite term (“load management”) throughout the season. Along with that, they have a tough early season schedule. Again, this team is built for a run in the postseason, not the regular season. ​Under 56.5 total wins (-190) ​would be a smart play here.

Los Angeles Lakers (+270), over/under 51.5 total team wins

The Lakers come into the 2019 season looking to return to glory--for what seems like the tenth year in a row. They haven’t won an NBA championship since 2010, which in those parts seems like a lifetime. Also what seems like a lifetime? The last time Lebron missed the playoffs, which is what happened to him last year. He comes into this season a man on a mission, a bit of a revenge tour if you will to quiet the naysayers who said he was done, and brings with him a shiny new piece in all-NBA forward Anthony Davis, one of the best players in the league and himself an alpha dog. With these two alone, the Lakers immediately become a major threat to win the West. Add Kyle Kuzma to the mix as well as good outside shooters in Jared Dudley and Danny Green, and veterans Rajon Rondo and Dwight Howard, the Lakers , like the Clippers, are built to win a championship. It’s going to be fun to watch this Battle For LA between the Clippers and Lakers this season. The Lakers start off with one of the easiest schedules in the league, then things get really hard in December, then they close with one of the easiest Aprils in the league. We love the value of ​over 51.5 total team wins (+110) ​here.

Houston Rockets (+500), over/under 53.5 total team wins

Out in Houston, we get the reunion of Russell Westbrook and James Harden after years of Westbrook being the engine that ran the Oklahoma City Thunder. Westbrook is no doubt a generational player, but is there enough selflessness there to play alongside another generational player in Harden? The Rockets are a system team, and that system is shoot and make more threes than the other team, so Westbrook at least has the shoot part down. The Rockets should again be in that top echelon of Western Conference teams, but that’s about all they are. With that said, the Rockets will go ​over 53.5 total team wins (-139), ​so that is the value play here.

Utah Jazz (+800), over/under 53.5 total team wins (-110)

Defense has been the name of the game in Utah over the past four seasons as they have been in the top-10 in Defensive Rating in each of those. Their issues have come on offense, where outside of Donovan Mitchell, they haven’t had a true second option. In comes point guard Mike Conley, who’s just as good defensively as Ricky Rubio, but a much more consistent offensive player, and Bojan Bogdanovich, who is a great perimeter shooter that can also create his own shot. The Jazz will still be great on defense, but now have a much-improved offense to go along with that. We like ​over 53.5 total team wins (-110) ​here.

Golden State Warriors (+1000), over/under 47.5 total team wins

For the first time in five years, the five-time reigning Western Conference champs are not the prohibitive favorite to win the West. In fact, they’re far from it. In fairness to Golden State, in the offseason they lost the best player in the world in Kevin Durant, and the second best shooter in the world (Klay Thompson), won’t be back from a torn ACL until Spring 2020 and that’s if they’re lucky. It’s going to be the Steph Curry Show, co-starring D’Angelo Russell and Draymond Green. This might be Curry’s greatest offensive season to date, as he will be the lone superstar until Thompson comes back (Russell is up and coming and a very good player, but he isn’t a superstar, not yet), and the Warriors will be leaning on him heavily. They are nowhere near as deep as they used to be with the loss of Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, so if Curry goes down with any sort of injury for any extended period of time, they are in a world of hurt, pun intended. They are no doubt a playoff team, and the conference champs until someone says otherwise; there’s nothing wrong with taking the 10-1 odds to win the West and running with it, but the value here is in the ​win total going under 47.5 games (+100).

Denver Nuggets (+1200), over/under 53.5 total team wins (-110)

The Nuggets won 54 games last year and finished second in the Western Conference. They return pretty much everyone of importance from that team, so it’s pretty clear they're going to build on that, right? Not so fast. Their all-world center Nikola Jokic played a ton of basketball in the last 12 months, including the Western Conference semis and the FIBA championships with the Serbian national team into mid-August. Six weeks later Denver mini-camp began. Will that take a toll on their most vital player? We will find out, but look for him to get much more rest than usual this season. The Nuggets face high expectations, and they will meet much of them. This is a 50 win team, which is nothing to sniff at, but also puts ​the value on the under 53.5 total team wins (-110).

Portland Trailblazers (+2100), over/under 46.5 total team wins 

The Trailblazers formula is simple: mix perennial darkhorse MVP Damian Lillard with deadeye shooter CJ McCollum and surround them with--no, that’s it. Those two players alone almost guarantee them 50 wins. They will have to get by without dynamic center Jusuf Nurkic for a few more months but hope former Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside can fill the void until his return.The Blazers won 53 games last year, and they haven’t regressed that much to be seven games worse. The value play here is ​over 46.5 total team wins (-106).

San Antonio Spurs (+3000), over/under 46.5 total team wins

To this day, the Spurs are the most boring great franchise in the history of the NBA. They’re the sports equivalent of watching paint dry, lulling you to sleep for 82 games, but, when you awake, they’ve won 50 games and you question everything you’ve ever known. The Spurs still have two All-star caliber players in LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan, and a bunch of guys most have never heard of. The Spurs are just so consistent, and always seem to end up in that 45-50 win range because they absolutely beat up on the weaker teams in the league. Case and point: they’re playing .800 basketball vs teams below .500 over the last 10 years. That’s pretty incredible. Then all they have to do is break even versus the good teams in the league and voila, 50 wins. Gregg Poppovich knows how to get the most out of his young talent, and the Spurs still play really good defense. Getting 47 (or more) wins this season? Ho-hum. They’ll get that in their sleep--while putting most NBA fans to sleep. The value play here is ​over 46.5 total team wins (+100).

That’s your look at the Western Conference this year, in what should be a very exciting season in the conference now that the Warriors have come back to the pack. Enjoy watching the games, and good luck!

*Credit to the main photo of this article belongs to Jeff Chiu/Associated Press(Lakers, Warriors), Ringo H.W. Chiu (Clippers), Michael Wyke (Rockets), Sam Ortega (Blazers)