If you’re looking for a theme to the upcoming NBA season, you’ve come to the right place.
We got you. The term you will hear more than any other about 2019-20 will be parity. And not just at the top of the standings, but throughout the Western Conference.
We base this prediction on several factors. Mostly, the chaos of free agency has left virtually every team in the West with a one-two punch that can match up with just about any other team. And these days, that’s all you need. Super teams with three stars are hard to find now, perhaps because those setups require a star-level player to accept a role as the No. 3 option. Not everybody has the mentality to do what Chris Bosh commendably did with Miami during the Heat’s banner years.
The good news is that, yes, the Mavericks are card-carrying members of that two-star club with Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis.
In addition to so many teams having two stars to build around, most of those organizations also have developed plenty of depth surrounding their dynamic duos. At least seven teams in the West can sell their fans on the idea that a trip to the NBA finals is realistic.
And they can do so with a straight face.
Not sure about whether the Mavericks are part of that smaller, more exclusive club. Let’s allow the season to unfold a little and gather a few more facts before passing judgment.
But what is known is that the Western Conference is full of evenly matched teams that are anchored by two legitimate stars. We’ll run down the rankings of those tandems in a moment.
First, though, a couple of thoughts about what the two-man game means in the West.
If you love your NBA, you probably can’t wait to see some of the marquee twosomes square off. The entertainment value should be off the charts when Houston’s Russell Westbrook and James Harden go against the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
And we have to wonder how much size really will matter when the Lakers’ Anthony Davis and LeBron James try to fight off Golden State’s Steph Curry and Klay Thompson (later in the season, of course, when Thompson returns from injury). Or against Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum of Portland. The Lakers won’t have a lot of firepower to go with their Big Two, but will they need much?
Of greater interest to Maverick fans will be how their new-age twosome stacks up against some of the other combos. Will Doncic and Porzingis be able to keep up with pairings like Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell in Utah or Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray in Denver?
This will be must-watch stuff.
So here’s a look at the Western Conference twosomes from each team. For the sake of this list, the top two scorers from last season, regardless of where they played last season, were used to create each team’s big two. For two teams, New Orleans and Memphis, college players Zion Williamson and Ja Morant were used. Those teams are listed last in these rankings.
Also, these are subjective rankings, although they are largely based on how each twosome ranks in combined points, rebounds and assists. There are other variables, of course. Factoring chemistry and supporting talent will go a long way toward the ultimate success of these superstar tag teams. As such, this is not a prediction of where these teams will finish in the standings.
1. Houston: Russell Westbrook, James Harden – 59.0 ppg (1st), 17.7 rpg (2nd), 18.2 apg (1st). Two of the most efficient all-around players in the league, although everybody is interested in how they will share responsibilities and the basketball. To be a great team, the Rockets will need one of them to sacrifice some things. They’ll also need Clint Capela and P.J. Tucker to do the dirty work defensively.
2. LA Lakers: LeBron James, Anthony Davis – 53.3 ppg (3rd), 20.5 rpg (1st), 12.2 apg (2nd). Both are coming off some injury issues from last season, but if healthy, few teams will have an inside-outside pairing as athletic as the Lakers. And they are not afraid to work on the defensive side of the ball. They don’t have a whole lot of help, but might not need a lot. Rajon Rondo and Kyle Kuzma are their wing men.
3. LA Clippers: Kawhi Leonard, Paul George – 54.6 ppg (2nd), 15.5 rpg (5th), 7.4 apg (13th). Two of the best two-way players in the league. Both are defensive whizzes and they can score in various ways with lots of versatility to their respective games. And they have a surplus of intriguing players around them. There’s a reason they are preseason favorites for the title.
4. Denver: Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray – 39.3 ppg (13th), 15.0 rpg (7th), 12.1 apg (4th). The Nuggets are a strength-in-numbers team, but they also have two young studs who can carry them through long stretches of games. Jokic simply does everything well and Murray has emerged as a legitimate scoring machine when need be. Rebounding and ball-sharing are two strengths of this team and it starts from these two.
5. Golden State: Steph Curry, Klay Thompson – 48.8 ppg (4th), 9.1 rpg (12th), 7.6 apg (12th). It’s true that Thompson won’t be back until late in the season after his knee injury in the playoffs. Until then, it will be D’Angelo Russell and Draymond Green. With Thompson and Curry, the Warriors still figure to be formidable when the playoffs roll around.
6. Portland: Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum – 46.8 ppg (5th), 8.6 rpg (14th), 9.9 apg (7th). Dynamite scorers from the perimeter and just about anywhere else on the floor. The Blazers made the West finals last season and Lillard made sure everybody knew that he is without question one of the elite scorers in the game. They are extremely hard to stop offensively.
7. Utah: Donovan Mitchell, Mike Conley – 44.9 ppg (6th), 7.5 rpg (15th), 10.6 apg (6th). With Conley coming on board from Memphis, the Jazz have as solid a backcourt as anybody. They have a chance to be the best defensive team in the league and Mitchell continues to get better as an offensive threat. How they develop chemistry will be the major question going forward.
8. San Antonio: LaMarcus Aldridge, DeMar DeRozan – 42.5 ppg (T-11th), 15.2 rpg (6th), 8.6 apg (T-10th). Still a curious pairing to see in Spurs uniforms, but there is no doubting their efficiency. That’s what makes them so well-suited for Gregg Popovich’s system. Neither of them may be superstar material, but both of them are winners who can hurt you in so many ways. And you know the Spurs will put them in positions to succeed.
9. Mavericks: Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis – 43.9 ppg (8th), 14.4 rpg (T-8th), 7.2 apg (14th). Porzingis’ stats are from 2017-18, before he had the knee injury, so perhaps an asterisk is advisable here. But they have age on their side. Porzingis is only 24, Doncic 20. If Porzingis’ health holds out, this could be the surprise dominant twosome of the Western Conference. They also have a deep supporting cast that should help them grow together.
10. Minnesota: Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins – 42.5 ppg (T-11th), 17.2 rpg (3rd), 5.9 apg (15th). The Wolves continue to be the island of misfit toys, but you just have to figure that at some point Towns and Wiggins will figure it out and they will become the feared duo that everybody in Minnesota expected to already be a force. The clock certainly is ticking on them, but the Wolves also are short on options at this point in time and they have a monster in Towns.
11. Sacramento: Buddy Hield, De’Aaron Fox – 38.0 ppg (14th), 8.8 rpg (13th), 9.8 apg (T-8). OK, we’re betting on the come with this one. Hield and Fox are, like the Mavericks’ twosome, a rising force and it remains to be seen whether Marvin Bagley III will replace one of them as the second option (or first) somewhere down the line. Sacramento has loads of potential. The only question appears to be when they will reach it.
12. Phoenix: Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton – 42.9 ppg (10th), 14.4 rpg (T-8th), 8.6 apg (T-10th). People around the league wonder how long the Suns can keep Booker happy without showing signs of life in the win column. But this is not an organization that gives up easily. And they have locked up Booker contractually for years to come. The question here is whether he and Ayton can become the inside-outside combination that gives opponents fits – along the lines of what the Lakers hope Davis and James can do.
13. Oklahoma City: Chris Paul, Danilo Gallinari – 35.4 ppg (15th), 10.7 rpg (11th), 10.8 apg (5th). It’s no secret that the Thunder are rebuilding from the ground floor, but they are not bankrupt in the talent department. They will take their lumps this season, no doubt. But they should have enough skilled players to stay competitive.
14. New Orleans: Jrue Holiday, Zion Williamson – 43.8 ppg (9th), 13.9 rpg (10th), 9.8 apg (T-8). It’s difficult to forecast Williamson from one season at Duke, except to say that he’s really good at basketball. How his game fits in the NBA will be discovered as the games go by. But he has all the tools and will have more talent around him than most No. 1 draft picks do. The Pelicans’ trip back to relevance and respectability should be a relatively quick one.
15. Memphis: Jonas Valenciunas, Ja Morant – 44.4 ppg (7th), 16.4 rpg (4th), 12.2 apg (3rd). Morant’s numbers at Murray State may not translate into NBA dominance. But the Grizzlies feel like they have a building block for the future and eventually, this will be his team, along with Jaren Jackson Jr. For now, all eyes in the Memphis organization will be on the two youngsters. But Valenciunas is a very solid big man, and only 27.
TWITTER: @ESefko
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