2024 Western Conference Preview ft. Indiana, San Antonio, Houston GMs

[TheTwoWallaces]

Looks like the other post got deleted, so here's the link to the WCF preview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jeh0UDth6_0&t=499s

[cb4raptorscb4]

Can't argue with where you guys predicted us to be at #8/9. You guys pretty much hit it on the head in terms of we don't care where we finish and we may sell off veterans as the season progresses. Just have to assess the first couple of months in DDS19.

[Ocons]

Good stuff guys. Definitely some tinkering that needs to (and will) happen in Utah. You're sleeping on my boy Koenig, though, because he didn't get minutes in the pre-season!

Thank you for taking the time to do this.

[hardenwithnod]

I will give this a listen later, thanks!

[Dennis]

Gave it a shot at work today. Gonna post my ranks tomorrow. But going from the bottom to the top definitely makes sense. Very good listen.

My break through players after revelation of the file are:

1. Monk at PG
2. Doncic at PG (will win roy)
3. Donovan Mitchel at PG
4. Jayson Tatum at PG
5. Trae Young/Terry Rozier at PG

I know, they’ve all been good in 3, but I think they gonna be huge with their SCR PASS combination in 19 and will be the best players going forward. If simmons loses wait, he can make the list. His non existing range gonna hurt though.

[Flaming Homer]

Another very entertaining podcast. Good job!

Playing in the East, I mostly sit back and watch the West unfold. But it is interesting how different the conferences are right now. The 4 top teams in the West are almost a 100% set, after that it will be an open race.
I agree mostly with your rankings. The Spurs and Rockets look very good build for the new engine. But Phoenix and Sacramento still have a lot of talent and will be in the mix.

And I think the Lakers will make the playoffs

[bt]

I missed this because of the post stuff but will take a listen to it today.

[bt]

Really awesome guys, some great chemistry between you all too.

Tell you what though, the Lakers might need to be discussed again, lol. 17-17 in that preseason file and 8-2 now might give them a run at a late seed for sure.

Am pretty excited about our team. We've been building for the next generation after Westbrook for a while and now it'll come to fruition with our younger brigade ready to take on more responsibility. Have definitely had thoughts of running a high passing team and might mess around with it (Adams, White, Cousins, Musa, Wilson) but one thing I'm definitely keeping in mind is last season. Definitely regret coasting a little and not trying to get a better seed as it would have helped so against the top teams so as we'll be working things out, we'll try and win whatever we can I think. Issue I'm not liking is having too many players I'd like to give minutes and not enough minutes to go around.

Utah has some great top end talent if Ocons can be around to work with it. Going to be an entertaining season that's for sure.

[emplep7]

I'm really loving these right now and you guys do a good job together (Lucas you are rocking this as the host too)!

The West seems more cut and dry, but is more top heavy than the East and the top of the West is elite. I do think Phoenix is going to be an X-factor as Doug has said he's had little to no time to experiment with the new engine and I think his team will struggle the first half of the season because of it, but if he pulls a Sacramento from last year and sneaks in as a later seed then I'd watch out for a long post-season run again.

Great job again guys!

[Myles]

Great listen!

Anything can happen here in DDS19 now, but I just really want to break into the elite tier of the West. I know a lot of that rides on Tatum's shoulders but I think we have a great cast of role players around him, with guys like Treveon Graham, Tyler Stone, Sinan Guler all being really good to elite in the roles they are asked to play. And obviously Wall, Drummond, and Young are all excellent players who will be asked to do a lot for this team as well, especially whenever Tatum is sitting. This might be a strange comparison, but I'm hoping that this team can kind of be like the 2012 Thunder (maybe a lite version of that Thunder team haha), with Tatum being our Durant, Wall being our Westbrook, Young being the Harden off the bench, and Drummond being Serge Ibaka. I do think that our supporting cast beyond that is better than the role players that they had, as Treveon Graham is a better shooting version of Thabo Sefolosha, Tyler Stone is a better Kendrick Perkins, they don't really have anyone that compares to Sinan Guler as a bench guard (Reggie Jackson hadn't come into his own yet, the backup PG that year was Derek Fisher). Anyway, I'm rambling now, but that's the type of team I kind of see here, and while Durant/Westbrook/Harden was a step above Tatum/Wall/Young, I hope that the rest of my supporting cast can make up the difference.

The West is certainly a wide open conference in many aspects, and I think you guys really nailed that vibe in the podcast. The top is wide open, as I don't think anyone can pin down who exactly the top team is, any of those elite teams could go to the finals, just depends on how things break for them in the playoffs. The last two seeds of the playoffs seem to be completely up for grabs, and the race for the bottom is stacked too. There really doesn't seem to be any consensus in terms of who's got the potential to make the playoffs, and who has the potential to completely bottom out, so it will make for an interesting year.

Can't wait to finally see what happens!

[hardenwithnod]

The league in general is about as wide open as it gets due to the engine change, and whoever can discover the meta first will probably beat most teams that look good on paper right now. I can't wait to see how this season unfolds.