16 NBA Takes: The Most Fascinating Storylines in the West
NBA Substack on the contenders and controversies in the Western Conference
We asked 16 leading NBA voices on Substack:
After the NBA’s wild offseason, what’s most fascinating to you in the Western Conference?
Check out their answers and subscribe!
The Contenders
Marc Stein | The Stein Line
Have the Spurs truly passed up the Thunder? Would Oklahoma City actually have repeated as champions if Jalen Williams had just stayed healthy? What about Luka Dončić's post-LeBron, drastically overhauled Lakers … and the new Anthony Edwards/LaMelo Ball partnership in 'Sota? (Also: Are the Jazz as sneaky dangerous as I think?)
I could have focused on any of those enticing mysteries but find myself fixated on what's happening in Denver. The Nuggets are projected to be the NBA's only second-apron team in 2026-27. Nikola Jokić continues to say he will be a Nugget for life but has postponed a contract extension for two straight summers. We do not know (as of press time) if they are going to be able to retain restricted free agent Peyton Watson … when getting younger and more athletic was said to be an offseason priority.
There are additional question marks but you get the point. Are the Nuggets, as currently constructed, still part of the Western Conference elite? They have many around the league openly wondering.
Neil Paine | Neil’s Substack
I guess the thing I’m looking for in the West is ANY sign whatsoever that this isn’t just a two-team race again with OKC and San Antonio.
They went through the West playoffs with a combined 16-3 record before facing each other in one of the great conference-final epics in recent memory, and all eyes are going to be on them to meet in the WCF again.
That puts the onus on the next tier: Minnesota (bless them, they’re trying something with LaMelo Ball), Denver, Houston, the post-Bron Lakers … Golden State? Portland? Utah???
Show us some reason not to cancel the West schedule right now and just play Spurs-Thunder again next May.
Keith Smith | The Basketball Bulletin
The Nuggets were already falling behind, and seem in danger of dropping off further this season. The Wolves lack depth. The Lakers are a whole new team. The Rockets are the same team. The Suns, Trail Blazers, Mavericks and Jazz aren’t ready yet. The Warriors and Clippers are on the way down.
Someone will emerge as a challenger. Seeing who figures it out will be fun to watch this season.
Jonathan Macri | Knicks Film School
With honorable mentions going to LaMelo in Minnesota, the debut of “Kyrie and Cooper,” and the ticking clock in Portland, my answer is the $229 million elephant in the Frost Bank Center.
I was petrified every time Dylan Harper checked into the Finals. How do they keep him on the bench? If they start him, who sits, and is there any doubt it would be De’Aaron Fox if he didn’t have that contract?
San Antonio’s biggest impediment to the title may be on their own team. I’m fascinated to see how they solve it.
Bob Sturm | SturmStack
As a Dallas resident and NBA enthusiast, I am looking forward very much to seeing where the Mavericks fit in the Western Conference as their evolution should actually produce some very competitive basketball after the franchise has taken roughly a two-year hiatus from anything even sort-of interesting following the WORST TRADE IN THE HISTORY OF THE SPORT.
But, with some of the rubble cleared and a certain GM fired, we would like to think that Year 2 of Cooper Flagg alongside Year 1 of Masai Ujiri and Dusty May will be something approaching fascinating as Kyrie Irving re-enters the chat.
In other words, we are very excited about the return of NBA basketball to Dallas, Texas!
The Portland Conundrum
John Canzano | Bald Faced Truth
Portland fans are scattered and distracted.
The team is coming off a surprising season. Remember federal agents arrested the head coach after the season opener. The playoff appearance made the season fun, and the team essentially hired Ted Lasso as the coach in the offseason, but the ownership distraction created by the hostility of Tom Dundon’s takeover has the fan base gripping.
I know the rest of the NBA is on the edge of its seat after a wild offseason, but fans in Portland are thinking about only two things: Is this Clay Bennett 2.0? And where is Adam Silver?
Jake Fischer | The People’s Insider | Contributor to The Stein Line
What trail will Portland blaze from here? Before even considering the murky ownership and location waters, let’s just consider the fact that the Trail Blazers hope to take a step forward as a contender under rookie head coach Micah Nori, while former All-Stars Damian Lillard and Ja Morant both join Jrue Holiday as veterans around Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe in Portland’s backcourt … all while Deni Avdija emerged as the franchise face last season.
We’ll know more about the dispute between the team and city by month’s end. I’d have to imagine any lingering uncertainty, though, could cast a pall over what is a season with high expectations and a wonky roster.
Chris Gunther | Charting Hoops
I’m also keeping an eye on Portland, and I’m not sure if I’ll see poetry in motion or a trainwreck given the open questions:
What will Tom Dundon skimp on next?
Will he get an arena deal done?
How does Micah Nori do in his one guaranteed year?
Can Deni Avdija continue his ascent from discarded Wizard to All-NBA?
Who brings the ball up? Dame? Ja? Scoot? Jrue? Point Deni?
Will Clingan jump from analytics darling to All-Star candidate?
Does Yang Hansen’s hype come back?
How hard will Shaedon Sharpe dunk?
The Wolves’ Gamble
Mark Whicker | The Morning After
The fearless Timberwolves cut loose Julius Randle and Naz Reid and now base their offense on Anthony Edwards, the incoming LaMelo Ball and returning Ayo Dosunmu, and they still have Jaden McDaniels’ defense. They’ll need a rim protector when Rudy Gobert is out, but this is the most likely team to break up the OKC-Spurs duopoly.
Of course, to get to the Finals you have to beat them both.
Katie Heindl | BASKETBALL FEELINGS
Beyond the Spurs and Thunder, the West is a far more open landscape now, full of sleeping giants. The Nuggets and Warriors, perennial titans of the conference, are on their descent (I never want to count out Nikola Jokić, but there's a waning energy in Denver), and the climbers — Rockets, Suns, Blazers — haven't got a steady foothold yet.
All of it feels less urgent than the East, with the exception of the Timberwolves. I'm fascinated by this team because it seems like a chemistry experiment. The mercurial temperaments of Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball, at face, seem too volatile to coexist, let alone cooperate — and these two are being asked to do it for 82+ games. I think we'll know pretty quickly whether this experiment is the ACME exploding kind, or a wholly weird but appealing combo, like espresso and orange juice.
Jacob Sutton | JSuttHoops
Have you ever heard of a Siamese fighting fish? It’s native to Southeast Asia and notorious for the fact that you cannot put two males in the same aquarium, or they will tear each other apart.
And with that, I ask: Can Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball coexist? Both have been alpha dogs (Siamese fighting fish, if you will) for their entire careers, and now are going to be forced to play off of each other in a potentially incredible but also incredibly risky Timberwolves situation.
If they can pull it off, you have a contender. But if things go south, it could be the thing that pushes Ant out the door in Minnesota.
Mike Shearer | Basketball Poetry
There are probably more mature answers, but I’m entranced by the idea of LaMelo Ball on the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Wolves desperately needed a sturdy point guard, a better and younger Mike Conley. Instead, they went and got the most avant-garde artiste in the game today. LaMelo Ball has an unusual relationship with risk, and his ability to coexist in a backcourt with Anthony Edwards will make or break a team desperate to surmount the hump. Used to the limitless freedoms afforded the franchise’s face, can Ball compress his excesses into a winning role?
Hardwood Paroxysm | Hardwood Paroxysm
The Wolves added LaMelo Ball to a team that has wavered and lazed at times in the regular season, while still knocking off the best teams (Spurs and Thunder) in recent years.
Anthony Edwards is a top-10 player who also doesn’t always play the most disciplined way to attack teams. And now they lose Julius Randle and Naz Reid and add LaMelo Ball, one of the most talented but also loosest and sloppiest players.
How does this … work?
The Kawhi Situation
Yossi Gozlan | Third Apron
There’s just no way the Aspiration situation drags into the season, right? The Clippers could take this to the bitter end, leave their fate at the hands of an arbitrator, and maybe appeal it (if that’s allowed).
But it seems like there’s a ton of external pressure for them to come to a settlement agreement. The league doesn’t want this to linger and would probably like this to end before Pablo reveals additional details.
Also, despite their public posturing, the Clippers need the Kawhi Leonard trade to go through more than the Raptors do. The internal pressure of adding more draft equity to hedge against the loss of other draft picks, as well as the Raptors potentially giving the Clippers a firm deadline to process the trade, may be enough to get them to negotiate with the league and finally put an end to this.
Ray LeBov | Basketball Intelligence
I am fascinated by the absurd length of time it continues to take to resolve the Kawhi/Aspiration situation. Like most people I have spoken with, it seems to me to indicate incompetence, corruption or a mistaken belief that it will somehow disappear from attention.
It continues to worsen as we still don’t know when an ultimate ruling will take effect and the impact it will have on teams, players and seasons. It strains credulity that a multibillion-dollar association can (non)perform to such an extent. It generates wild and mild conspiracy theories but maybe just reflects colossal incompetence.
West vs. East
Kike García | NBA con Contexto
Over the last 27 seasons, the Western Conference has dominated the Eastern Conference, winning the head-to-head matchup in 24 of them. But after posting win rates of 57.7% and 55.1% in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, that edge dropped to 51.3% last season.
With LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard (we believe) switching conferences, Tyrese Haliburton’s return, and the rise of new powerhouses in the Eastern Conference, will we see a shift in the balance of power between conferences?
Healthy OKC is still the best team (in NBA). Spurs with Harris (and more expirienced young core) are better, so is there any real contender besides them?
Healthy DEN should be better then last year... but in my opinion, Minnesota is so underrated...
They lost Randle? No, they were better without him. Lost Reid - of course, but LaMelo is overall much better player. Ball was (is) the top 3 NBA player who improves the efficiency of his teammates on court. He has the size to defend multiple positions, so switching on defense should not be the Wolves problem anymore.
I'm not afraid of ANT-Melo coexistence and lack of depth, cause Hyland and TSJ showed, that thay could be the focal points from the bench on offense, Josh Green is one of the most underrated 3&D players in NBA (great perimiter, could play PoA, defends 1-4, shot almost 40% 3p in last 4 years), Clarke is very close to him, Dosunmu could play S5 but also could be 6th man (if Green will play S5) and at the end Lyles is highly experienced player.
The biggest question is: Are Beringer and Zikarsky ready for much bigger and more effective minutes in the NBA? If so, they could be a dark horse this season...