Contenders  

• Denver Nuggets – The Nuggets are a step above these two teams but I didn’t think the other two deserved to be downgraded. Everyone knows Jokic and the impact he brings to them and now he has the help he will need to take the Nuggets all the way. Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray are both healthy for the first time in a long time. Along with these two being back the Nuggets’ ball movement this season is something else if you watch them play it seems that Jokic’s passing has rubbed off on the rest of the team. 
• Memphis Grizzlies- I will not lie I strongly considered putting Memphis into the fringe contender category as they are way closer in the standings to everyone else than they are to the Nuggets. Memphis has been in a slump and has been very inconsistent after their 11-game-long win streak came to an end. If this stretch of the season has shown us anything it should be that Steven Adams is just as crucial a part of this team as anyone else. The 7-footer’s bruising presence in the paint is so important and relieves Jaren Jackson of having to do that dirty work so he can do what he does best. It might not be obvious but Steven Adams unlocks a lot of crucial parts of this team. The Morant- Adams pick and roll is second only to Embiid and Harden. Adam’s health is going to be a very important thing for the Grizzlies as we head towards the postseason. 
• Phoenix Suns- Based on the Suns’ first half of the season they probably should not be anywhere near this category. Then they traded for Kevin Durant. Not only has Devin Booker been injured for a large part of this season but so has Chris Paul and they are still 5th in the West. The Suns have slowly been creeping back into the top 4 in the West and now will almost certainly claim home-court advantage once again in the playoffs (for at least the first round). The Suns will now be enjoying the services of an all-NBA player and one of the best scorers this league has ever seen. Combining Devin Booker and Kevin Durant automatically places any team into this category.  

Fringe Contender    

• Golden State Warriors- The Warriors have been a pretty decent team at home but absolutely abysmal on the road winning 7 games away from home before the All-Star break. Steph Curry has missed a significant amount of time but that can’t really explain the Warriors’ horrible form on the road. They are hovering around the play-in and have been for about the whole season. The Warriors will be giving an extremely unlucky Western conference team a headache in the first round of the playoffs. 
• Sacramento Kings- The Kings are set to make the playoffs for the first time since 2006 and it is a great time to be a Sacramentan. Sacramento has two All-Stars, Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox, for the first time in their franchises’ history. Alongside these two are a bunch of very good role players such as Malik Monk, Kevin Huerter, and Harrison Barnes who can all put up a bunch of points on a very good night. It feels weird to say this but the Kings could legitimately win a playoff game this year and it wouldn’t be surprising.  
• New Orleans Pelicans- New Orleans was one of the best teams in the West for a short period of time until they lost 10 GAMES IN A ROW! It’s not helping that Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson have played in less than half of the Pelicans’ games thus far. Without a consistent starting 5 it’s going to be hard for the Pelicans to string together wins even if they definitely have the talent to do so. 
• LA Clippers- Little do many people realize but Kawhi Leonard is having a very good post-All-Star break averaging more than 30 points per game since then. This is trouble for Western Conference contenders who were hoping for an easy first-round matchup because Kawhi Leonard is the last person you want to see heating up right before your matchup with him. 
• Dallas Mavericks- It seems like we will be seeing another year of Luka Doncic without another star carrying the Mavericks to a 4-6 seed. Wait….. they traded for Kyrie Irving? Never mind. Kyrie joining the Mavericks is an interesting trade if not an extremely dumb one. Luka Doncic seems to have no problem scoring/ creating every time he touches the ball on the offensive end so to trade for another scorer/ playmaker at the expense of valuable defensive assets and role players seems questionable. However, I am not an NBA GM so this move might make more sense to someone around the game. 

Play In 

• Los Angeles Lakers- Lebron James now looks like he could miss the rest of the regular season due to injury and the Lakers are sitting outside of the play-in by half a game. It would take something like a miracle now to get the Lakers into the playoffs and tanking out for a higher draft pick will do them no good either since they do not have the rights to their first-round pick for the 2023 draft. Lebron’s chances at winning one more ring before he retires seem to be plummeting as many think he will move to whichever team Bronny, his son, is drafted by when his contract expires in Bronny’s first year of draft eligibility. The remaining Lakers need to put together a strong final stretch because their future is looking very grim to be perfectly honest.
• Portland Trail Blazers- A lot of people before the season started thought that the Blazers had a strong enough starting 5 to get them into the playoffs. This apparently is not the case as Portland is at the bottom of the chase for the play- in spots only above the Rockets and Spurs. The Trail Blazers are in a weird position as they have an all-time talent who has been loyal to 
• Utah Jazz- At the beginning of this season the Jazz were supposed to be one of the worst teams in basketball and I’m here to say they are slightly above that. Lauri Markkanenn has transformed from an underused lottery pick to a certified All-Star with just the switch of a team. This is a great example of how many NBA players are actually capable of scoring 30 on any given night in the right scenario. Alongside him the Jazz have seasoned veterans such as Jordan Clarkson, Mike Conley, and Kelly Olynyk. These guys combined with a couple of young talents like Colin Sexton, Walker Kessler, and Talen Horton Tucker make the Jazz a very fun team to watch even if they are not completely gelled together yet. 
• Oklahoma City Thunder-  It is wild to think that Oklahoma City is playing this year without their 2nd overall pick Chet Holmgren and are still performing at the level they are. They are not necessarily a good team but for being the youngest team in the NBA they have performed adequately. Shai- Gilgeous Alexander is averaging 31.1 points per game which is astonishingly only the 5th most in the league, an amount that would have led the league last regular season. The Thunder will be in the fight for the last playoff spots until the very end of the season but it is hard to imagine them making the tournament this year. The Thunder are going to get way better in the upcoming seasons if they can hold their core pieces together. 
• Minnesota Timberwolves- Any team that gives up 5 first-round picks and a majority of their role players for a “superstar” then proceeds to get worse is in the midst of a failed season. The Timberwolves gave up all this for Rudy Gobert in order to try and build a giant defensive wall in the paint forcing teams to make shots to beat them. However, their opponents have had no problems scoring on them with Minnesota giving up the 10th most points per game all season. They are currently sitting in the 9th seed in the West meaning right now they will have to win 2 games in a row in order to make the playoffs for a matchup with the one seed. This is less than ideal for a team that had championship aspirations before the season started. 

Lottery  

• Houston Rockets- The Rockets have had two top 3 picks in the Draft in the last two years so they should have pushed for a play-in berth but this did not even come close to happening with them likely ending up back in the top 3 of the 2023 NBA draft. 

San Antonio Spurs- This Spurs team looks closer to an all-time great college team rather than an NBA team. The casual NBA fan would struggle to name more than 2 Spurs players and almost nobody can name their starting five. On the bright side, the Spurs will have the best odds (14%) to land Victor Wembenyama, the unanimous best prospect, in the upcoming draft.