Pacific Division

My thoughts on the upcoming NBA-season.

Golden State Warriors

Warriors has lost Kevin Durant one of the best players in the league, Klay Thompson is out to 2020 and they have lost veterans Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston too. GSW has a good starting five with Steph Curry in the forefront, DLo and Draymond Green, but the depth is a concern. The bench is thin on quality and it will be tough for the Warriors in the long run to keep up when the bench is on the floor. The team isn’t as strong anymore and when Curry’s on the bench who will run the offense from the bench? Russell will be a important piece as a number two in this offense, he showed last season he can handle the point production but he’s a bit inconsistent at times and needs to find a way to get to the next level.

Will Curry have another MVP caliber season? He has had to take a step back to get KD to run the offense these last years, now he will be the X-factor again and the number one guy with the ball in his hands all the time. He has shown year after year that he’s one of the best players in the world, breaking records every season with his shooting and in my eyes he has shown to be a great leader for this team. He will of course be their most important player in the team this year and it’s up to him if the Warriors succeed.

It’s the first time in a long while the Warriors aren’t favorites, I think it will be something good, they will not be front page news all the time and the Warriors can relax and focus on basketball. It will be exacting to see how the team will play without the pressure, well the pressure will always be there when you got Steph but the team doesn’t need to be the leagues best team and that everyone expects perfections from them.

Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers are in the title fight for the first time ever. Kawhi and PG will be in the team and together with Lou Will and Trez this team will be really dangerous in the playoffs, i’m a bit unsure if this team will be the number one seed in the west in the regular season with PGs injury and Kawhis load management. Even if the bench will be like last season, the best, it will be hard to keep it up when your best players are out for the majority of the season. Hopefully Lou and Trez can play as well as they did and that Landry Shamet can keep developing as a shooter and help the team.

If we look at the big picture the team will be very good on both sides of the floor especially defensively. They have two of the best defenders in the league, the team has a deep bench and this together will pay off in the end in the playoffs and it’s there they will go in for it to a 100% like every other team, the regular season will be the warm up.

Landry Shamet will be interesting to follow and I think he can be an X-factor off the bench together with Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell, Shamet comes off his rookie season and if he can keep developing and be like a JJ Redick it would be great for the Clippers. It will of course be interesting to watch Kawhi and PG and how they will figure out the chemistry and learn to co-exist.

The expectations are sky high this year, the first time Clippers are favorites to the title. Clippers has everything they need to get there from coach Rivers to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to having the leagues best bench, this has developed a environment that makes them believe in lifting the Larry O’Brien now they need to do the job.

Los Angeles Lakers

Lakers are also title contenders and a lot of people believe they can win. Anthony Davis came to LA in a talked up trade with the New Orleans Pelicans in the begin of summer. Davis is a top 10 player in the league and is always an upgrade to any team but he’s a bit of a question mark sens his first year in the league and that’s his injury proneness. Injuries has been a part of Davis his whole career, he hasn’t played one whole season. He has played 75 games at most that was the 17/18 and 18/19 seasons, will he play 82 games this season? No. There’s no question that he’s a great player but he’s more off the floor than on it and that will not help the Lakers reach the finals. Another player that we have concerns about is the ageing Lebron James. 34 years old and his body will not hold up forever, he’s a machine we know that but we saw last year that he also can get injured for a long time, that will happen again and again as long as he plays. We want to see James in a good light, he has been the best player for so many years and we will never forget what he did but he will decline and that’s natural.

Can the Lakers roleplayers step up? That’s a good question, they got new faces on the team most notable Danny Green and Dwight Howard now that DeMarcus Cousins is out for the season. The roleplayers that they have this season are a better fit for Lebron if we look at what hes had in prior season. They got some 3 and D players, players that can shoot the ball from deep and can give space to Davis and James in the paint and it’s here James is at his best when he can drive in to the lane and make decisions if it’s going to the basket or kick it out for three. The roleplayers will get good shots and the chance to change the game if they can catch fire and hit 3-4 threes a game. But with that said the bench looks horrible, the depth doesn’t exist at the guard position. Cook, Bradley, KCP, Caruso and Daniels...That’s not a good bench for a team that wants to win the title. The only player I can see will support Davis/James game in game out is Danny Green.

We always see this with teams, everything is great everyone laughs and are best friends before the season begins. Will it be like that the whole season or will we see a Lebron James throwing people under the bus in the media like last season? Will he be unhappy with AD like he was with Kevin Love in Cleveland a couple of years ago? Playing with Lebron James it will always be extra pressure wherever he plays but Lebron needs to show, at least outwards, that he got his guys backs when they hit rough patches in the season. Or the same thing will happen like last season when the youth didn’t want to play anymore after he talked about wanting to play with Davis. It’s things like this that make me question the Lakers a lot.

My expectations are relatively low, all the hype before the season and all that is fine and it will be fun to watch the best players play, but when December-January rolls around and the Lakers hasn’t started like they wanted how will it look like then? I don’t believe in this Lakers team, it’s a shiny nice shell from the outside but how is it inside?

Sacramento Kings

Kings are a exciting team this season, Fox and Hield has really stepped up for this Kings team, the duo are key players but can one more player step up this season? Bogdan Bogdanovic is a player that’s good for the Kings, hes style of play is to be a pure scorer and he’s effective. Bogdanovic is a killer but he needs to step up one more level, Kings will be dangerous if Bogi can take the next step in his development in the NBA. Kings team is deep imo this year, a lot of new players have come in but I really like that they don’t have to many players in the same position. They have build a team with a plan this time and the playoffs is their goal, and with that in their scope Bogdanovic can become an X-factor for them.

Kings have taken in a couple of veterans who will give the young players good mentoring and stabile ground to build on. Joseph, Ariza, Dedmon and Holmes will be good for the team and I think Divac has done a good job this time building the team. These players give great depth to the team even though Fox and Hield will have a lot of responsibility the veterans will give great support and show the way when the youth haven’t the experience for in some situations.

Sac has a good offense, defense can be better but I don’t think it will when they want to play in a high tempo, we saw in the games in India a couple of days ago, that they are vulnerable in the paint, a lot of easy points were made by the Pacers and it will most likely be like this for the rest of the season. Dedmon is a good addition but he’s not a shot blocker but a more allround modern big that can switch on defense and can guard multiple positions. Kings let Willie Cauley-Stein go and he was a shot blocker now they don’t have anyone to protect the paint. Kings basketball will be high tempo and high scoring this season again.

Is Luke Walton the right coach for this team? Walton comes from the Lakers were he really didn’t have control over the situation. Now he gets a new chance in Sacramento, to implement his playing style and filosofi where he doesn’t have a Lebron James to compete with. Walton was a assistant coach in to Steve Kerr in GSW, will he give a bit of a Warriors flavor to this Kings team which have good material to play attractive basketball and that play style to get to the playoffs. They have good young players, good veterans who will give them extra stability. It won’t be easy but the material is there to do good things.

My expectations are a bit in the middle for this team, they will have a good season but will that get them to the playoffs? Kings will be in the fight for the 8th seed but I don’t think they will get there just yet. They have a young core and it will take a bit of time and they don’t need to stress to get there.

Phoenix Suns

What can this Suns team do? They are the worst team in the NBA, it can’t get any worse right? Devin Booker will have a lot on his shoulders, will he get the Suns somewhere this season? Probably not but we can hope. They got a new coach in Monty Williams who has a lot of NBA experience from different teams and roles from head coach to assistant being assistant coach at a couple of profile head coaches. He’s a good coach imo, he will take inspiration from these coaches and mold his own idea for the team.

The team got rid of TJ Warren, he is a good player who was happy being a rotation guy now they have lost a great scorer that could support the team when Booker is on the bench.

Ayton and Booker needs to play on a high level all season long, but they need help. Rubio has come in to the team from the Jazz but he’s not someone that can change the game by himself, his shooting is not good, sure he’s a good playmaker but I have a hard time seeing that he will generate gold for this team. They don’t have enough talent to get to the playoffs this year either simple as that. I like the addition of Dario Saric he can be a good player for them if he can get up a level ort two which he hasn’t done the last two seasons.

My expectations aren’t that high for this Phoenix team, like I said, they don’t have enough talent to fight for the playoffs. The bench is thin on players that can create by themselves, creativity to put points on the board and this will lead to more responsibility for Booker in the offense. Can Booker make an effort to get better on the defensive end this season is a good question so he can develop into a greater player overall.

@jalsjalley