Kori Ellis
10-06-2004, 02:48 PM
The West fell back to Earth this summer. Will it pick itself up? For the first time this millennium, everyone is penciling in an Eastern Conference team – Pistons or Pacers – to win it all.
Out West, one dynasty has crumbled (Lakers). A couple of more standards are on shaky ground, and a number of young upstarts are looking to end a stranglehold on the top four spots in the conference.
Parity is the name of the game out West. Top to bottom, it's tough to remember a time when the conference has been stronger. Every team in the West – even the Warriors, Clippers and Sonics – would be in the hunt for the playoffs in the East this season were they to switch conferences.
Picking the top eight playoff seeds is still impossible at this early juncture.
The Spurs and Timberwolves clearly have the best shot. But as many as 12 teams probably deserve a playoff seed this year.
NBA training camps opened Monday. Over the course of the next few weeks, some of our assumptions here will have to be changed, but if you want a sneak peak into who, on paper at least, looks good and who doesn't going into camp, Insider provides a primer.
THE CONTENDERS
Spurs
Key Additions: Brent Barry, Beno Udrih
Key Subtractions: Hedo Turkoglu, Kevin Willis
The Skinny: For much of last season the Spurs looked like the team to beat in the West. But a miracle shot by Derek Fisher in the second round of the playoffs tore out their heart, and the team was left to regroup this summer.
The changes were subtle but important.
With Shaq out of the West picture, the Spurs finally were able to concentrate on their other big need, a reliable combo guard. Gone is Turkoglu, a promising but ultimately frustrating player who lacked the consistency that coach Gregg Popovich cherishes.
In is Barry, a guy tailor made for San Antonio. He can play two positions, has shot the ball about as well as any guard over the past two seasons and plays with a chip on his shoulder. Factor in the continued improvement of the Spurs' young backcourt – Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili – and the Spurs should ride atop the West this season.
Mavericks
Key Additions: Erick Dampier, Jason Terry, Devin Harris
Key Subtractions: Steve Nash, Antawn Jamison, Antoine Walker
The Skinny: My colleague Marc Stein stunned me Monday when he had Dallas ranked behind six Western Conference teams in his initial power rankings, including the Jazz and the Nuggets.
I agree with him that unnecessarily losing Nash (what's another $20 million to Mark Cuban, guy who throws $3 million in cash into every trade transaction?) was a pretty big blow ... but the additions to the roster might arguably make this version of the Mavs the toughest Cuban has ever bankrolled.
Dampier is the main attraction. He's a tough, physical center who, when healthy and motivated (two legitimate question marks after signing a huge $70 million contract this summer) ranks behind on Shaq and Yao Ming among big men in the league. That's a huge addition to a team that has struggled to put a legit center on the floor for decades.
Second, Nash's replacements, Terry and Harris, aren't chopped liver. Terry isn't nearly the playmaker Nash is, but he's a better defender and provides some of the energy that made Nick Van Exel so important in Dallas two years ago.
Harris, many scouts believe, will be a star once he gets some games under his belt. Factor in the improving games of second-year players Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels, and the Mavs have a little bit of everything.
Scoring and defense. Athleticism and basketball savvy. Youth and experience. If anyone can bring these guys together, Nellie can.
The question marks are there. Will Terry pass the ball? Will Damp lie down? How much juice does Michael Finley have left? When you factor in that Stein is back living in Dallas, maybe he knows something we don't. But until he produces a smoking gun or two, I think this is Dallas' best shot ever to make it to the Finals.
Wolves
Key Additions: Eddie Griffin
Key Subtractions:None
The Skinny: If it ain't broke ... The Wolves produced the best record in the West last season and challenged the Lakers in the conference finals. With Shaq out of the way, GM Kevin McHale decided the best course of action was to stay the course.
While other teams in the West lost talent or radically shuffled the deck, the Wolves hope they'll come out on top now that they no longer have to guard Shaq. They might be on to something. The longer a team plays together, the more the chemistry will grow.
The only real shuffling McHale attempted this summer was trying to deal Wally Szczerbiak. The Wolves were close to sending him to Portland for Shareef Abdur-Rahim, but the deal fell through when Zach Randolph found himself in legal trouble.
If McHale can get the Blazers back to the table, that deal is no brainer for both teams. Adding 'Reef to the mix will let Flip Saunders do something he's always wanted to do – put Kevin Garnett at center. With Shaq gone, Garnett at the five would be a matchup problem for every team in the West.
Kings
Key Additions: Greg Ostertag, Kevin Martin, Courtney Alexander
Key Subtractions: Vlade Divac, Anthony Peeler, Gerald Wallace
The Skinny: Has the window closed? Shaq finally is out of the Pacific Division, but things haven't looked this sketchy in Sacramento in a while.
Divac is gone, Peja Stojakovic requested a trade this summer, and the team's once magnificent chemistry seems shot. Chris Webber says he'll take over as the team leader this year, but no one seems convinced. The Kings tried, unsuccessfully, to move him all summer. Now they have to deal with what they have.
The combo of Webber, Stojakovic, Mike Bibby and Brad Miller is potent. But the Kings' once-heralded depth is gone.
With the exception of Bobby Jackson and possibly Ostertag, who else on the Kings' bench inspires any real confidence?
Still, the Kings have enough juice to contend again. Do they have enough left to get them over the top? My heart says yes; my head says no.
ON THE RISE
Jazz
Key Additions: Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, Kirk Snyder, Kris Humphries
Key Subtractions: Greg Ostertag, Tom Gugliotta, Maurice Williams
The Skinny: After being so wrong on the Jazz last season, it's tough to imagine why anyone would listen to what anyone else has to say about the Jazz this season.
What we've learned for the 10th time is that any Jerry Sloan-coached team is going to challenge any team it plays.
The Jazz won roughly half their games last year without a legit center or power forward.
This summer, they added both. Boozer was one of the top rebounders in the league last year and fits Sloan's blue-collar work ethic to a T.
Okur was overshadowed by Rasheed Wallace late in the Pistons' title run, but make no mistake, Pistons president Joe Dumars desperately wanted to keep Okur. His ability to bang in the paint – he's one of the few Euros who is truly tough – and step out and hit the 3 opens up a world of options for the Jazz.
Factor in Carlos Arroyo's coming out party in the Olympics, Andrei Kirilenko's emergence as an All-Star, Matt Harpring's return from injury and a solid rookie duo of Snyder and Humphries, and the Jazz may be readying for a different Cinderella story this season.
Last year we were all stunned they were decent. This year, should we be stunned if they work their way into the Western Conference Finals? With this crew, and Sloan at the helm, anything is possible.
Nuggets
Key Additions: Kenyon Martin, Greg Buckner
Key Subtractions: Michael Doleac, Ryan Bowen
The Skinny: Nuggets GM Kiki Vandeweghe might be the most underrated executive in the NBA.
In the span of three years he has rebuilt the Nuggets from one of the league's dingiest franchises into a team many believe will make some serious noise in the playoffs this season.
Getting a potential star like Carmelo Anthony in the draft always helps the project, but Vandeweghe also has been savvy on who he's picked up.
Two summers ago it was Marcus Camby and Nene. Last year it was point guard Andre Miller. This year, he beefed up his front line even more by adding Martin.
What he has now is arguably one of the most-talented front lines in the league, period. There isn't a coach in the NBA who doesn't want that.
Speaking of the coach, Jeff Bzdelik didn't get that extension he wanted and goes into the season working for a new contract. That could be a positive. The Nuggets are young, hungry and deep.
If Rodney White, whom the team will re-sign today, ever develops, they'll boast one of the best starting fives in the league. Not bad for a three-year total reconstruction. Last year Insider was one of the first to predict playoffs for Kiki's crew. This year, look them to take the next step and get out of the first round.
Rockets
Key Additions: Tracy McGrady, Juwan Howard, Bob Sura, Dikembe Mutombo
Key Subtractions: Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, Kelvin Cato, Eric Piatkowski
The Skinny: Speaking of clever GMs, Rockets head man Carroll Dawson might have pulled off the deal of the year this summer. Sometimes it pays to be in the right place at the right time.
In February, the Rockets took their first stab at trying to trade disgruntled point guard Steve Francis and found his value around the league was at an all-time low. By summer, it reached it's all-time high.
With T-Mac threatening to bolt the Magic, new GM John Weisbrod decided to cut bait, and the Rockets greeted him with open arms. Getting T-Mac for Francis (and Howard for Cato) has transformed this team from good to potentially great.
With Yao Ming and T-Mac, the Rockets now own the best one-two punch in the NBA. But before you pencil them into the Finals, you better take a look at the bench. Like all teams that try to bankroll two superstars, it's a little thin.
Point guard and small forward are the biggest issues. A combo of Charlie Ward, Tyronn Lue and Sura (who's injured) will have to run the team by committee.
Small forward will be manned by the aging Jim Jackson and the unproven Bostjan Nachbar and Ryan Bowen. And exactly how much juice does Mutombo have left? He currently is Yao's only backup.
The Rockets will be better this year, no question. But how good will be determined by no-names with less-than-impressive contracts. How ironic.
Suns
Key Additions: Steve Nash, Quentin Richardson, Jackson Vroman
Key Subtractions: Antonio McDyess
The Skinny: From 2002-03 to last season, the Suns turned from the hot, upcoming young team in the league into the worst team in the West.
Like its mythical namesake, will this franchise rise from the ashes and challenge for the playoffs?
The Suns believe so, in large part because of the addition of Nash, who has the maturity, work ethic and playmaking ability to elevate everyone's game.
Throw in Richardson, one of the hardest-working players in the league (a rep rarely bestowed on a former Clipper) and what the Suns hope they have done is transformed the culture of the team.
They still have a brilliant young core of Amare Stoudemire (who will be asked to play some center this year), Shawn Marion (who played better than most at the Olympics), Joe Johnson (who still can look like a superstar or a dud, depending on the day) and Leandro Barbosa (who was killing everyone, including Nash, in informal workouts leading up to camp.
If Nash can stay healthy, and he should with Barbosa able to spell him whenever he needs, and if Stoudemire, Marion and Johnson can continue to improve, the Suns could easily average 100-plus points a night.
Now, before we get carried away, there's a caveat – Will they be able to defend anyone?
Nash, Q, Johnson and Marion aren't known for their defensive prowess. Neither are rotation players like Zarko Carbarkapa, Casey Jacobsen and Maciej Lampe.
Expect a lot of 120-118 games this season. The Mavs and Kings have proven that type of basketball is fun. But what do they have to show for it?
SLIPPING?
Lakers
Key Additions: Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, Caron Butler, Vlade Divac
Key Subtractions: Shaquille O'Neal, Gary Payton, Derek Fisher, Rick Fox
The Skinny: The Lakers might very well make the playoffs this year. They might even win a series or two. But Kobe Bryant's been drinking too much of his own Kool-Aid if he still believes he was the most important cog in the three NBA titles won on his watch.
It might be your team, Kobe, but that buys you nothing in the league. Without Shaq, the Lakers are mortal. Look for every team in the league to go out and try to make them bleed.
Without the aura of invincibility, the Lakers look rather pedestrian.
They still have Kobe, the league's best player not named Shaq. Odom might be the league's most versatile player. If he can stay focused, he'll be a huge asset. Everything and everyone else looks ordinary.
Atkins might have been the only starting point guard in the league last season who was a downgrade from Derek Fisher. Butler is coming off a disastrous sophomore season. Divac is 36 years old and already has gone down with an injury. Grant is a warrior, but his best days are clearly behind him.
Kareem Rush, Devean George, Chris Mihm and Luke Walton are role players, nothing more.
Their second-biggest asset to Kobe may be head coach Rudy Tomjanovich. He'll do his best to mold this squad into a team, if Kobe will let him. But for better or for worse, Kobe's right – it's his team.
If he lets his teammates shine, the Lakers have a chance to be good.
If he spends the year trying to prove he's the greatest, he'll be sitting at home in April watching Shaq Diesel roll into the playoffs.
Grizzlies
Key Additions: Brian Cardinal, Antonio Burks, Andre Emmett
Key Subtractions:None
The Skinny: The Grizzlies were the Pistons-lite last year.
This was a team – with a capital 'T' – with an unbelievable coach, a brilliant GM and enough depth and role players to outplay any team in the league on any given night
The Grizzlies return this summer fully stocked with the addition of Cardinal, a player who epitomizes everything that was right about the Grizz last season.
So why are they here? Like President Bush, Jerry West was working hard this summer. He worked evenings, ordered in, came in on Saturdays, all with an eye toward packaging several of his assets to bring in one star, preferably a center, who could put the Grizzlies over the top.
The problem is, the Grizzlies didn't get it done.
While several teams that were behind them last season made major upgrades, the Grizzlies stood still. You can't blame West, who has found his reputation is so stellar that no one will trade with him anymore.
But the cold reality is that the Grizzlies will struggle to repeat what they did last season.
From a depth perspective, there isn't a team in the league that's deeper.
Pau Gasol, their closest thing to a go-to guy, might have been the best player in the world this summer.
Players like James Posey, Mike Miller, Stromile Swift, Bonzi Wells and Jason Williams are all more than solid.
Together, with Hubie at the helm, they're still capable of making the playoffs and giving anyone a scare. But West was looking to take the next big step this summer. It didn't happen.
Blazers
Key Additions: Nick Van Exel, Sebastian Telfair, Joel Przybilla
Key Subtractions: Dale Davis, Dan Dickau
The Skinny: John Nash heads into his second year as GM of the Blazers in ongoing effort to change the image of the franchise.
Instead of being chief executive, he's been head firefighter all summer.
Zach Randolph was in legal trouble. Shareef Abdur-Rahim demanded a trade. Darius Miles went through a long, contentious contract negotiation. And Ruben Patterson opened up media day Monday telling anyone who will listen that he wants out of Portland ASAP.
Factor in Nash's only two off-season pickups – the ever-volatile Van Exel and a playground legend, under-sized high school point guard (Telfair) – and you can forgive us if optimism isn't the prevailing mood going into camp.
The Blazers finished last season strong, but will the momentum carry over into the new season? Coach Mo Cheeks has his hands full.
He, too, wanted Blazers management to trade Abdur-Rahim, preferably for Wally Szczerbiak, a shooter who would fill a gaping hole for them at the two.
The team balked, and now Cheeks must figure out how to put together minutes for Randolph, Abdur-Rahim (who is adamant that he doesn't want to play small forward) and Miles.
He also has to find a way to keep both Van Exel and Damon Stoudamire happy and keep Theo Ratliff healthy, now that his backup, Davis, is playing in Oakland.
If the Blazers can stay healthy, find some chemistry and stay out of jail, they, too, look like they have enough talent to be playoff contenders. But in the Wild, Wild West that's a lot ifs. Probably too many.
Hornets
Key Additions:Rodney Rogers, Chris Andersen, J.R. Smith
Key Subtractions: Robert Traylor, Stacey Augmon, Steve Smith
The Skinny: Just when you thought things couldn't get worse for the Hornets, someone in New Orleans looked up and realized the team was forcibly relocated to the Western Conference.
The good news is that despite all the setbacks, the Hornets aren't a bad team.
Their top draft pick, J.R. Smith, has the athletic ability to be a star in the league.
Rogers and Anderson provide some much needed depth, and the team got a nice upgrade at coach in Byron Scott.
In the East, the Hornets would have come into the season ranked as the fourth best team. In the West, they're much closer to 12th.
Could this be the death knell that finally forces George Shinn to sell and the NBA to relocate the team to a city that has a shot at supporting it?
Attendance is at the bottom of the league and will only get worse if things go poorly this season.
Their biggest true star, Baron Davis, is demanding a trade. Their other star, Jamal Mashburn, is out for the season and might be forced to retire. Their best young player, Jamaal Magloire, has openly pined for a trade to the Raptors.
It's ugly, folks.
LOTTERY BOUND
Warriors
Key Additions: Derek Fisher, Dale Davis, Eduardo Najera, Andris Biedrins
Key Subtractions: Erick Dampier, Nick Van Exel, Brian Cardinal,
The Skinny: GM Chris Mullin put his stamp on this team early this summer.
He fired the most successful Warriors coach in the past decade, Eric Musselman, and replaced him with a first-time NBA head coach, Stanford's Mike Montgomery. Then he started to remake the roster.
After criticizing Musselman for playing veterans like Cardinal, Calbert Cheaney and Cliff Robinson at the expense of his young players, Mullin went out and loaded up the team with even more veterans.
Mullin paid through the nose to keep Adonal Foyle and bring in Fisher. He swapped his one star acquisition last summer, Van Exel, for Davis, an aging, albeit hard-working center.
Then he sent Dampier, the third-best center in the league last year, to Dallas for cap relief and Najera.
Clearly, Mullin is trying to bring in hard-working veterans who play the right way in an effort to mentor young players like Jason Richardson, Mike Dunleavy, Speedy Claxton, Troy Murphy, Mickael Pietrus and Biedrins.
Down the road, it might work. All five young players have promise if they can start to learn what it takes to win. This year? It isn't going to be pretty.
Hard work and hustle helped the Pistons win a championship and the Jazz and Grizzlies surprise a lot of teams last year. But those teams also were all guided by Hall of Fame NBA coaches and had some star quality talent on their roster.
The Warriors have neither, which should make for a long season. Playing the right way is great. But it might be several seasons before we see the results.
Clippers
Key Additions: Kerry Kittles, Shaun Livingston
Key Subtractions: Quentin Richardson, Predrag Drobjnak, Melvin Ely
The Skinny: I feel for the Clippers. They were five minutes away this summer from being a contender.
If Kobe Bryant had said yes to the Clippers' aggressive offer (something I'm told Kobe himself assured the Clips he was going to do, before Jerry West, of all people, intervened at the last second), I would've been hard pressed to find a team in the West that had a better core than the Clips with Kobe, Elton Brand and Corey Maggette.
Alas, like everything else in Clipperworld, it wasn't in the cards. Instead of Kobe, the Clippers landed Kittles. The results should be underwhelming.
While Brand and Maggette continue to improve and the team might have landed the best player in the draft this summer in Livingston, where will it get them?
Livingston, who was last seen at his high school prom, isn't ready yet. Kittles is probably a downgrade from Richardson at the two-guard. Center Chris Kaman is at least one more year away and no longer has much backup. Depth, as always, is a major issue.
You can't fault the Donald this time. Nor can you blame coach Mike Dunleavy who is working hard to turn the Clipper ship around. Maybe they're just cursed ...
Sonics
Key Additions: Danny Fortson, Ibrahim Kutaly, Robert Swift
Key Subtractions: Brent Barry, Calvin Booth
The Skinny: If the Sonics have a plan for the future, it's time for them to take it out of the vault and clue some of us in.
Last year at training camp I sat down with GM Rick Sund and president Wally Walker and found myself agreeing with what they were proposing.
The team had a lot of young players. They wanted to give them the opportunity to play, see who fit into the system, and them make more informed decisions about trades and free agency moves in the summer of '04, when they had a better handle on the team.
Last season went as planned. The young players played, lost a lot of games and, by the end of the season, it looked like the Sonics were in for some drastic changes.
Then they did something stunning – they did virtually nothing at all.
While the rest of the teams in the conference aggressively tried to upgrade, the Sonics drafted a high school center who is years away from contributing, traded for a disgruntled undersized power forward (Fortson) who will cause more problems than he'll solve if Nick Collison develops, and signed an aging international sharpshooter (Kutaly) who duplicates what several other players on the roster already do.
They also let one of their best players, Barry, leave via free agency and have been unable to work out a contract extension with a disgruntled Ray Allen.
How long can the Sonics remain in limbo? It's causing visible frays throughout the organization.
Rumors that owner Howard Schultz wants out have been shot down, but he appears to be more down on the team than we can ever remember.
Coach Nate McMillan clearly doesn't believe in some of the players he has to coach.
Allen is about three weeks away from demanding a trade. Vladimir Radmanovic and Ronald "Flip" Murray are stuck in pretty serious logjams and struggle when forced to play out of position and want out.
Put all this together and what do you have? The one team in the West with no shot at making the playoffs this year.
Chad Ford covers the NBA for ESPN Insider.
Out West, one dynasty has crumbled (Lakers). A couple of more standards are on shaky ground, and a number of young upstarts are looking to end a stranglehold on the top four spots in the conference.
Parity is the name of the game out West. Top to bottom, it's tough to remember a time when the conference has been stronger. Every team in the West – even the Warriors, Clippers and Sonics – would be in the hunt for the playoffs in the East this season were they to switch conferences.
Picking the top eight playoff seeds is still impossible at this early juncture.
The Spurs and Timberwolves clearly have the best shot. But as many as 12 teams probably deserve a playoff seed this year.
NBA training camps opened Monday. Over the course of the next few weeks, some of our assumptions here will have to be changed, but if you want a sneak peak into who, on paper at least, looks good and who doesn't going into camp, Insider provides a primer.
THE CONTENDERS
Spurs
Key Additions: Brent Barry, Beno Udrih
Key Subtractions: Hedo Turkoglu, Kevin Willis
The Skinny: For much of last season the Spurs looked like the team to beat in the West. But a miracle shot by Derek Fisher in the second round of the playoffs tore out their heart, and the team was left to regroup this summer.
The changes were subtle but important.
With Shaq out of the West picture, the Spurs finally were able to concentrate on their other big need, a reliable combo guard. Gone is Turkoglu, a promising but ultimately frustrating player who lacked the consistency that coach Gregg Popovich cherishes.
In is Barry, a guy tailor made for San Antonio. He can play two positions, has shot the ball about as well as any guard over the past two seasons and plays with a chip on his shoulder. Factor in the continued improvement of the Spurs' young backcourt – Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili – and the Spurs should ride atop the West this season.
Mavericks
Key Additions: Erick Dampier, Jason Terry, Devin Harris
Key Subtractions: Steve Nash, Antawn Jamison, Antoine Walker
The Skinny: My colleague Marc Stein stunned me Monday when he had Dallas ranked behind six Western Conference teams in his initial power rankings, including the Jazz and the Nuggets.
I agree with him that unnecessarily losing Nash (what's another $20 million to Mark Cuban, guy who throws $3 million in cash into every trade transaction?) was a pretty big blow ... but the additions to the roster might arguably make this version of the Mavs the toughest Cuban has ever bankrolled.
Dampier is the main attraction. He's a tough, physical center who, when healthy and motivated (two legitimate question marks after signing a huge $70 million contract this summer) ranks behind on Shaq and Yao Ming among big men in the league. That's a huge addition to a team that has struggled to put a legit center on the floor for decades.
Second, Nash's replacements, Terry and Harris, aren't chopped liver. Terry isn't nearly the playmaker Nash is, but he's a better defender and provides some of the energy that made Nick Van Exel so important in Dallas two years ago.
Harris, many scouts believe, will be a star once he gets some games under his belt. Factor in the improving games of second-year players Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels, and the Mavs have a little bit of everything.
Scoring and defense. Athleticism and basketball savvy. Youth and experience. If anyone can bring these guys together, Nellie can.
The question marks are there. Will Terry pass the ball? Will Damp lie down? How much juice does Michael Finley have left? When you factor in that Stein is back living in Dallas, maybe he knows something we don't. But until he produces a smoking gun or two, I think this is Dallas' best shot ever to make it to the Finals.
Wolves
Key Additions: Eddie Griffin
Key Subtractions:None
The Skinny: If it ain't broke ... The Wolves produced the best record in the West last season and challenged the Lakers in the conference finals. With Shaq out of the way, GM Kevin McHale decided the best course of action was to stay the course.
While other teams in the West lost talent or radically shuffled the deck, the Wolves hope they'll come out on top now that they no longer have to guard Shaq. They might be on to something. The longer a team plays together, the more the chemistry will grow.
The only real shuffling McHale attempted this summer was trying to deal Wally Szczerbiak. The Wolves were close to sending him to Portland for Shareef Abdur-Rahim, but the deal fell through when Zach Randolph found himself in legal trouble.
If McHale can get the Blazers back to the table, that deal is no brainer for both teams. Adding 'Reef to the mix will let Flip Saunders do something he's always wanted to do – put Kevin Garnett at center. With Shaq gone, Garnett at the five would be a matchup problem for every team in the West.
Kings
Key Additions: Greg Ostertag, Kevin Martin, Courtney Alexander
Key Subtractions: Vlade Divac, Anthony Peeler, Gerald Wallace
The Skinny: Has the window closed? Shaq finally is out of the Pacific Division, but things haven't looked this sketchy in Sacramento in a while.
Divac is gone, Peja Stojakovic requested a trade this summer, and the team's once magnificent chemistry seems shot. Chris Webber says he'll take over as the team leader this year, but no one seems convinced. The Kings tried, unsuccessfully, to move him all summer. Now they have to deal with what they have.
The combo of Webber, Stojakovic, Mike Bibby and Brad Miller is potent. But the Kings' once-heralded depth is gone.
With the exception of Bobby Jackson and possibly Ostertag, who else on the Kings' bench inspires any real confidence?
Still, the Kings have enough juice to contend again. Do they have enough left to get them over the top? My heart says yes; my head says no.
ON THE RISE
Jazz
Key Additions: Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur, Kirk Snyder, Kris Humphries
Key Subtractions: Greg Ostertag, Tom Gugliotta, Maurice Williams
The Skinny: After being so wrong on the Jazz last season, it's tough to imagine why anyone would listen to what anyone else has to say about the Jazz this season.
What we've learned for the 10th time is that any Jerry Sloan-coached team is going to challenge any team it plays.
The Jazz won roughly half their games last year without a legit center or power forward.
This summer, they added both. Boozer was one of the top rebounders in the league last year and fits Sloan's blue-collar work ethic to a T.
Okur was overshadowed by Rasheed Wallace late in the Pistons' title run, but make no mistake, Pistons president Joe Dumars desperately wanted to keep Okur. His ability to bang in the paint – he's one of the few Euros who is truly tough – and step out and hit the 3 opens up a world of options for the Jazz.
Factor in Carlos Arroyo's coming out party in the Olympics, Andrei Kirilenko's emergence as an All-Star, Matt Harpring's return from injury and a solid rookie duo of Snyder and Humphries, and the Jazz may be readying for a different Cinderella story this season.
Last year we were all stunned they were decent. This year, should we be stunned if they work their way into the Western Conference Finals? With this crew, and Sloan at the helm, anything is possible.
Nuggets
Key Additions: Kenyon Martin, Greg Buckner
Key Subtractions: Michael Doleac, Ryan Bowen
The Skinny: Nuggets GM Kiki Vandeweghe might be the most underrated executive in the NBA.
In the span of three years he has rebuilt the Nuggets from one of the league's dingiest franchises into a team many believe will make some serious noise in the playoffs this season.
Getting a potential star like Carmelo Anthony in the draft always helps the project, but Vandeweghe also has been savvy on who he's picked up.
Two summers ago it was Marcus Camby and Nene. Last year it was point guard Andre Miller. This year, he beefed up his front line even more by adding Martin.
What he has now is arguably one of the most-talented front lines in the league, period. There isn't a coach in the NBA who doesn't want that.
Speaking of the coach, Jeff Bzdelik didn't get that extension he wanted and goes into the season working for a new contract. That could be a positive. The Nuggets are young, hungry and deep.
If Rodney White, whom the team will re-sign today, ever develops, they'll boast one of the best starting fives in the league. Not bad for a three-year total reconstruction. Last year Insider was one of the first to predict playoffs for Kiki's crew. This year, look them to take the next step and get out of the first round.
Rockets
Key Additions: Tracy McGrady, Juwan Howard, Bob Sura, Dikembe Mutombo
Key Subtractions: Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, Kelvin Cato, Eric Piatkowski
The Skinny: Speaking of clever GMs, Rockets head man Carroll Dawson might have pulled off the deal of the year this summer. Sometimes it pays to be in the right place at the right time.
In February, the Rockets took their first stab at trying to trade disgruntled point guard Steve Francis and found his value around the league was at an all-time low. By summer, it reached it's all-time high.
With T-Mac threatening to bolt the Magic, new GM John Weisbrod decided to cut bait, and the Rockets greeted him with open arms. Getting T-Mac for Francis (and Howard for Cato) has transformed this team from good to potentially great.
With Yao Ming and T-Mac, the Rockets now own the best one-two punch in the NBA. But before you pencil them into the Finals, you better take a look at the bench. Like all teams that try to bankroll two superstars, it's a little thin.
Point guard and small forward are the biggest issues. A combo of Charlie Ward, Tyronn Lue and Sura (who's injured) will have to run the team by committee.
Small forward will be manned by the aging Jim Jackson and the unproven Bostjan Nachbar and Ryan Bowen. And exactly how much juice does Mutombo have left? He currently is Yao's only backup.
The Rockets will be better this year, no question. But how good will be determined by no-names with less-than-impressive contracts. How ironic.
Suns
Key Additions: Steve Nash, Quentin Richardson, Jackson Vroman
Key Subtractions: Antonio McDyess
The Skinny: From 2002-03 to last season, the Suns turned from the hot, upcoming young team in the league into the worst team in the West.
Like its mythical namesake, will this franchise rise from the ashes and challenge for the playoffs?
The Suns believe so, in large part because of the addition of Nash, who has the maturity, work ethic and playmaking ability to elevate everyone's game.
Throw in Richardson, one of the hardest-working players in the league (a rep rarely bestowed on a former Clipper) and what the Suns hope they have done is transformed the culture of the team.
They still have a brilliant young core of Amare Stoudemire (who will be asked to play some center this year), Shawn Marion (who played better than most at the Olympics), Joe Johnson (who still can look like a superstar or a dud, depending on the day) and Leandro Barbosa (who was killing everyone, including Nash, in informal workouts leading up to camp.
If Nash can stay healthy, and he should with Barbosa able to spell him whenever he needs, and if Stoudemire, Marion and Johnson can continue to improve, the Suns could easily average 100-plus points a night.
Now, before we get carried away, there's a caveat – Will they be able to defend anyone?
Nash, Q, Johnson and Marion aren't known for their defensive prowess. Neither are rotation players like Zarko Carbarkapa, Casey Jacobsen and Maciej Lampe.
Expect a lot of 120-118 games this season. The Mavs and Kings have proven that type of basketball is fun. But what do they have to show for it?
SLIPPING?
Lakers
Key Additions: Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, Caron Butler, Vlade Divac
Key Subtractions: Shaquille O'Neal, Gary Payton, Derek Fisher, Rick Fox
The Skinny: The Lakers might very well make the playoffs this year. They might even win a series or two. But Kobe Bryant's been drinking too much of his own Kool-Aid if he still believes he was the most important cog in the three NBA titles won on his watch.
It might be your team, Kobe, but that buys you nothing in the league. Without Shaq, the Lakers are mortal. Look for every team in the league to go out and try to make them bleed.
Without the aura of invincibility, the Lakers look rather pedestrian.
They still have Kobe, the league's best player not named Shaq. Odom might be the league's most versatile player. If he can stay focused, he'll be a huge asset. Everything and everyone else looks ordinary.
Atkins might have been the only starting point guard in the league last season who was a downgrade from Derek Fisher. Butler is coming off a disastrous sophomore season. Divac is 36 years old and already has gone down with an injury. Grant is a warrior, but his best days are clearly behind him.
Kareem Rush, Devean George, Chris Mihm and Luke Walton are role players, nothing more.
Their second-biggest asset to Kobe may be head coach Rudy Tomjanovich. He'll do his best to mold this squad into a team, if Kobe will let him. But for better or for worse, Kobe's right – it's his team.
If he lets his teammates shine, the Lakers have a chance to be good.
If he spends the year trying to prove he's the greatest, he'll be sitting at home in April watching Shaq Diesel roll into the playoffs.
Grizzlies
Key Additions: Brian Cardinal, Antonio Burks, Andre Emmett
Key Subtractions:None
The Skinny: The Grizzlies were the Pistons-lite last year.
This was a team – with a capital 'T' – with an unbelievable coach, a brilliant GM and enough depth and role players to outplay any team in the league on any given night
The Grizzlies return this summer fully stocked with the addition of Cardinal, a player who epitomizes everything that was right about the Grizz last season.
So why are they here? Like President Bush, Jerry West was working hard this summer. He worked evenings, ordered in, came in on Saturdays, all with an eye toward packaging several of his assets to bring in one star, preferably a center, who could put the Grizzlies over the top.
The problem is, the Grizzlies didn't get it done.
While several teams that were behind them last season made major upgrades, the Grizzlies stood still. You can't blame West, who has found his reputation is so stellar that no one will trade with him anymore.
But the cold reality is that the Grizzlies will struggle to repeat what they did last season.
From a depth perspective, there isn't a team in the league that's deeper.
Pau Gasol, their closest thing to a go-to guy, might have been the best player in the world this summer.
Players like James Posey, Mike Miller, Stromile Swift, Bonzi Wells and Jason Williams are all more than solid.
Together, with Hubie at the helm, they're still capable of making the playoffs and giving anyone a scare. But West was looking to take the next big step this summer. It didn't happen.
Blazers
Key Additions: Nick Van Exel, Sebastian Telfair, Joel Przybilla
Key Subtractions: Dale Davis, Dan Dickau
The Skinny: John Nash heads into his second year as GM of the Blazers in ongoing effort to change the image of the franchise.
Instead of being chief executive, he's been head firefighter all summer.
Zach Randolph was in legal trouble. Shareef Abdur-Rahim demanded a trade. Darius Miles went through a long, contentious contract negotiation. And Ruben Patterson opened up media day Monday telling anyone who will listen that he wants out of Portland ASAP.
Factor in Nash's only two off-season pickups – the ever-volatile Van Exel and a playground legend, under-sized high school point guard (Telfair) – and you can forgive us if optimism isn't the prevailing mood going into camp.
The Blazers finished last season strong, but will the momentum carry over into the new season? Coach Mo Cheeks has his hands full.
He, too, wanted Blazers management to trade Abdur-Rahim, preferably for Wally Szczerbiak, a shooter who would fill a gaping hole for them at the two.
The team balked, and now Cheeks must figure out how to put together minutes for Randolph, Abdur-Rahim (who is adamant that he doesn't want to play small forward) and Miles.
He also has to find a way to keep both Van Exel and Damon Stoudamire happy and keep Theo Ratliff healthy, now that his backup, Davis, is playing in Oakland.
If the Blazers can stay healthy, find some chemistry and stay out of jail, they, too, look like they have enough talent to be playoff contenders. But in the Wild, Wild West that's a lot ifs. Probably too many.
Hornets
Key Additions:Rodney Rogers, Chris Andersen, J.R. Smith
Key Subtractions: Robert Traylor, Stacey Augmon, Steve Smith
The Skinny: Just when you thought things couldn't get worse for the Hornets, someone in New Orleans looked up and realized the team was forcibly relocated to the Western Conference.
The good news is that despite all the setbacks, the Hornets aren't a bad team.
Their top draft pick, J.R. Smith, has the athletic ability to be a star in the league.
Rogers and Anderson provide some much needed depth, and the team got a nice upgrade at coach in Byron Scott.
In the East, the Hornets would have come into the season ranked as the fourth best team. In the West, they're much closer to 12th.
Could this be the death knell that finally forces George Shinn to sell and the NBA to relocate the team to a city that has a shot at supporting it?
Attendance is at the bottom of the league and will only get worse if things go poorly this season.
Their biggest true star, Baron Davis, is demanding a trade. Their other star, Jamal Mashburn, is out for the season and might be forced to retire. Their best young player, Jamaal Magloire, has openly pined for a trade to the Raptors.
It's ugly, folks.
LOTTERY BOUND
Warriors
Key Additions: Derek Fisher, Dale Davis, Eduardo Najera, Andris Biedrins
Key Subtractions: Erick Dampier, Nick Van Exel, Brian Cardinal,
The Skinny: GM Chris Mullin put his stamp on this team early this summer.
He fired the most successful Warriors coach in the past decade, Eric Musselman, and replaced him with a first-time NBA head coach, Stanford's Mike Montgomery. Then he started to remake the roster.
After criticizing Musselman for playing veterans like Cardinal, Calbert Cheaney and Cliff Robinson at the expense of his young players, Mullin went out and loaded up the team with even more veterans.
Mullin paid through the nose to keep Adonal Foyle and bring in Fisher. He swapped his one star acquisition last summer, Van Exel, for Davis, an aging, albeit hard-working center.
Then he sent Dampier, the third-best center in the league last year, to Dallas for cap relief and Najera.
Clearly, Mullin is trying to bring in hard-working veterans who play the right way in an effort to mentor young players like Jason Richardson, Mike Dunleavy, Speedy Claxton, Troy Murphy, Mickael Pietrus and Biedrins.
Down the road, it might work. All five young players have promise if they can start to learn what it takes to win. This year? It isn't going to be pretty.
Hard work and hustle helped the Pistons win a championship and the Jazz and Grizzlies surprise a lot of teams last year. But those teams also were all guided by Hall of Fame NBA coaches and had some star quality talent on their roster.
The Warriors have neither, which should make for a long season. Playing the right way is great. But it might be several seasons before we see the results.
Clippers
Key Additions: Kerry Kittles, Shaun Livingston
Key Subtractions: Quentin Richardson, Predrag Drobjnak, Melvin Ely
The Skinny: I feel for the Clippers. They were five minutes away this summer from being a contender.
If Kobe Bryant had said yes to the Clippers' aggressive offer (something I'm told Kobe himself assured the Clips he was going to do, before Jerry West, of all people, intervened at the last second), I would've been hard pressed to find a team in the West that had a better core than the Clips with Kobe, Elton Brand and Corey Maggette.
Alas, like everything else in Clipperworld, it wasn't in the cards. Instead of Kobe, the Clippers landed Kittles. The results should be underwhelming.
While Brand and Maggette continue to improve and the team might have landed the best player in the draft this summer in Livingston, where will it get them?
Livingston, who was last seen at his high school prom, isn't ready yet. Kittles is probably a downgrade from Richardson at the two-guard. Center Chris Kaman is at least one more year away and no longer has much backup. Depth, as always, is a major issue.
You can't fault the Donald this time. Nor can you blame coach Mike Dunleavy who is working hard to turn the Clipper ship around. Maybe they're just cursed ...
Sonics
Key Additions: Danny Fortson, Ibrahim Kutaly, Robert Swift
Key Subtractions: Brent Barry, Calvin Booth
The Skinny: If the Sonics have a plan for the future, it's time for them to take it out of the vault and clue some of us in.
Last year at training camp I sat down with GM Rick Sund and president Wally Walker and found myself agreeing with what they were proposing.
The team had a lot of young players. They wanted to give them the opportunity to play, see who fit into the system, and them make more informed decisions about trades and free agency moves in the summer of '04, when they had a better handle on the team.
Last season went as planned. The young players played, lost a lot of games and, by the end of the season, it looked like the Sonics were in for some drastic changes.
Then they did something stunning – they did virtually nothing at all.
While the rest of the teams in the conference aggressively tried to upgrade, the Sonics drafted a high school center who is years away from contributing, traded for a disgruntled undersized power forward (Fortson) who will cause more problems than he'll solve if Nick Collison develops, and signed an aging international sharpshooter (Kutaly) who duplicates what several other players on the roster already do.
They also let one of their best players, Barry, leave via free agency and have been unable to work out a contract extension with a disgruntled Ray Allen.
How long can the Sonics remain in limbo? It's causing visible frays throughout the organization.
Rumors that owner Howard Schultz wants out have been shot down, but he appears to be more down on the team than we can ever remember.
Coach Nate McMillan clearly doesn't believe in some of the players he has to coach.
Allen is about three weeks away from demanding a trade. Vladimir Radmanovic and Ronald "Flip" Murray are stuck in pretty serious logjams and struggle when forced to play out of position and want out.
Put all this together and what do you have? The one team in the West with no shot at making the playoffs this year.
Chad Ford covers the NBA for ESPN Insider.