WESTERN CONFERENCE

Pacific Division

GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

Last Season: 73-9, Lost 4-3 to CLE in NBA Finals

Key Dude: Two-time reigning MVP anyone? The fact that it isn’t automatically Steph Curry shows you how intimidating this squad is.

Wildcard’s Wildcard: Draymond Green without a doubt, based on some of the reports that are coming out now about what a wild, demanding dude he is. Check out Ethan Sherwood Strauss’ piece for ESPN and see what I mean. Those kinda personalities tend to be brilliant at first and more grating with every passing season. If they implode, Dray will be at the centre (and not just for the fourth quarter death lineup either).

What to Watch For: Kevin Durant doing his Harrison Barnes impersonation. The Splash Bros continuing to jump off the highboard. Steve Kerr’s occasional golden soundbites. Small ball and death lineups. It’ll all be a little different this time without Barnes and Bogut, which makes things all sorts of interesting. After 73 wins last season, they’ve a high mark to live up to. After losing in the finals they’ve a lot to play for.

The Big Question: The Warriors aren’t the fun lovin’ emerging heroes any longer. In fact they’re pretty much the villains, the team that every other side is targeting. Can they handle that?

LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS

Last Season: 53-29, Lost 4-2 to POR in First Round

Key Dude: Always Chris Paul. As good as a couple of his teammates may be, CP3 is the best of all the Clippers. That midrange, man… so good. Not to mention one of the finest and most intelligent passers in the league, neither of those likely to fade at age 31.

Wildcard’s Wildcard: Blake Griffin hasn’t had the best time with injuries recently though they’ve often played better without him. At the same time, they also can’t beat the best teams in a series without Blake at his best so he’d better be.

What to Watch For: See, here’s the thing. Every time the Clippers falter, there are a bunch of voices that emerge saying they need to break this team up and start again, that they have a ceiling that they cannot break. Well, this might be the actual season that happens because Paul and Griffin are likely to be free agents after this season. Big decisions loom. This might be their last chance.

The Big Question: How have they still not found a bench yet? Austin Rivers and Ray Felton for the win, then.

LOS ANGELES LAKERS

Last Season: 17-65

Key Dude: At this stage of the rebuild, it’s all about finding that generational talent to anchor them and Brandon Ingram, second overall pick in 2016, is the new hope. Constantly compared to Kevin Durant. Dude needs to bulk up, but.

Wildcard’s Wildcard: D'Angelo Russell is a year older and wiser and that ought to be a good thing for all involved. Very little about last season was suited to a young player trying to find his feet. It’s a new era now and Rusty could well thrive.

What to Watch For: Will Jack Nicholson still be at the games and will Leonardo DiCaprio end up with his seats if the answer’s nay. Luke Walton as the new head coach should be decent and they have a couple of fun depth players too – Yi Jianlian, Jose Calderon and Marcelo Huertas for example. Oh, they’ll still be terrible. Just maybe a little less terrible than they used to be.

The Big Question: What ever happened to that Bryant guy that used to play for them?

PHOENIX SUNS

Last Season: 23-59

Key Dude: That backcourt has the makings of something cool, with Devin Booker in particular looking the goods last time as one of the youngest players in the league. Eric Bledsoe is their star though. Stout little bugger but I’ve always been a fan. He only played 31 games in 2015-16 but he scored 20.4 p/g in them.

Wildcard’s Wildcard: The teenagers. Think back to yourself coming out of high school and what you were like and now think of the fact that with Devin Booker only turning 20 a couple games into the season and Dragan Bender and Marquese Chriss not doing so until next season, the Suns could throw three teenagers out on the court on opening day. There’s a wildcard if ever there was one.

What to Watch For: The poor old Suns figured they might as well throw their hat into the free agency stacks as far as they could toss them but didn’t get anywhere near LeBron James or LaMarcus Aldridge. So this time they focussed on the rooks with a few cheeky vets. Dragan Bender has possibly the finest name in the NBA. Could be a little better than expected with Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight and T.J. Warren all fit again. No expectations on them this term, so the pressure’s off.

The Big Question: Would you rather win 45 games on the back of the veterans or 25 on the back of the young guns? They might rather sacrifice the now to work on the future.

SACRAMENTO KINGS

Last Season: 33-49

Key Dude: It’s Boogie Cousins, though you could also make the case for him being the wildcard as well. Jeez, the Kings are stupid. Dave Joerger will be his sixth head coach since he entered the NBA and all this with the one team. DeMarcus may be famously temperamental but he’s got every reason to be so and he’s also one of the most talented player in the league.

Wildcard’s Wildcard: Whoever is starting at point guard. Darren Collison will be the main one though he’s suspended the first eight games for a domestic incident. Likely to replace him in the short term is Ty Lawson, who was almost cut earlier when he missed a plane coz he was partying too much the night before. Boogie’s gonna punch someone pretty soon.

What to Watch For: If you enjoy technical fouls then the Kings are the kings of those. Despite having some abysmal wing production (and Rudy Gay isn’t really that bad… which makes him tradeable) they went and drafted another big so that was consistently strange for them. But Arron Afflalo is an impressive enough signing. Dave Joerger is a quality coach, he had 50+ wins in both his first two seasons in Memphis and might have last time if it weren’t for all the injuries. He’ll bring some defence, some grind.

The Big Question: Yo, how sexy is that new arena? I really like it, apparently it’s the most high-tech stadium out there too, which is hilariously ironic given the Kings are playing there.

Northwest Division

DENVER NUGGETS

Last Season: 33-49

Key Dude: Nikola Jokic. His coach loves him and for good reason. Third in Rookie of the Year voting, first team All-Rookie, a silver medal at the Olympics with Serbia. Yeah, that’ll do.

Wildcard’s Wildcard: Emmanuel Mudiay was a fascinating gamble out of the draft and he remains so after his rookie season. A few things he did were really promising… many others were not. Way too many turnovers, terrible shooting, general bad play. It’s almost like he skipped on college ball to play pro in China, right? But he’s super young and point guards tend to take a while to find their feet.

What to Watch For: It’s not impossible that things click for them but it’s very unlikely. But what the Nuggets do have going for them is the discovery of Jusuf Nurkic and Nikola Jokic as big men worth building around. Lots of young players that are bound to be of interest – the result of a few lottery picks – and you’ve gotta pay attention to them because at this stage of the journey for Denver, your team might be trading for them early next year.

The Big Question: Are they gonna trade Kenneth Faried or not?

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES

Last Season: 29-53

Key Dude: Karl-Anthony Towns put up numbers in his rookie season that rival any rookie season in the history of the league. When you do that, the next step is boundless.

Wildcard’s Wildcard: Ricky Rubio’s prospects predate the current lot of fellas he’s surrounded with but he’s still kind of in that same realm. 37% from the field in his career, his passing is stunning and his jump shot is the opposite. Really good player but point guards that can’t shoot are sort of dying off these days. Rubio’s got a bit of competition for his role too, for once.

What to Watch For: The best young group of players in the NBA. They have the last two rookies of the year in Towns and Andrew Wiggins, not to mention guys like Zach LaVine, Gorgui Dieng and Shabazz Napier. And Kris Dunn gives them a shot at a triple-threat RoY triumph. All these kids mean they’ll need to do this upon a learning curve though Tom Thibodeau is there to coach this time and he’s the kind of guy that’ll teach and hold accountable with equal measures.

The Big Question: Is the longest playoff drought in the NBA – 12 years – shaping to come to an end, finally?

OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER

Last Season: 55-27, Lost 4-3 to GSW in Conf. Finals

Key Dude: Now you already know that it’s Russell Westbrook. No team had a more dramatic offseason than the Thunder and Russ has gotta make up for the damn near 30 points a game that KD’s taken with him to GSW. Not gonna rule it out though.

Wildcard’s Wildcard: It’s tough to say what we’ll get from Victor Oladipo. His three point shooting has consistently got better, he was a 34.8% gunner last time. At his best he can be a triple-double threat, at his worst he’d just a solid role player. The Thunder have lost a lot of points without Durant (and Ibaka too) and Dipo needs to cover a lot of them.

What to Watch For: KIWI STEVE! Fresh from an offseason presumably spent icing his testicles he’s got the chance to establish himself as a genuine star after his breakout efforts in the playoffs. At least he’ll have to if the Thunder are gonna be back there – the margins for error are slim and they’re counting on him. Lucky Steve-o’s also one of the funniest and coolest dudes in the league too. Russ in Beast Mode has always been worth a glance in the past as well. Also, moustaches.

The Big Question: Who gets the first personal on Durant when they play the Warriors? Gotta be Russ, surely. Then again that could be a bit too obvious.

PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS

Last Season: 44-38, Lost 4-1 to GSW in Conf. Semis

Key Dude: Damian Lillard is now pretty much considered a top tier talent. A bulk-scoring point guard and one who, like the best of them, brings out the best in his teammates. He’s thrived becoming the leader of the team.

Wildcard’s Wildcard: Evan Turner is a clever signing, a guy who the Celtics fans were a bit upset to lose. There are question marks over what role he ends up filling for the Blazer and he himself has talked of playing a few different positions so a lot depends on him finding his spot. He’s also one of the most quotable jokers out there.

What to Watch For: Last time the Blazers lost half their team and still stayed relevant. This year they have to prove that wasn’t a fluke, that they can roll with a few knocks and punches. Most of their business got done in a 18-7 month of January (so aside from that month they were a losing team) so there are definitely detractors… but that’s exactly what they want. They loved being the underdogs last time and will again.

The Big Question: How well will Damian Lillard’s (aka Dame D.O.L.L.A.) debut rap album compare to such classics as Kobe’s rap album? Or Shaq’s? It’s gotta be better than Jason Kidd’s, surely.

UTAH JAZZ

Last Season: 40-42

Key Dude: Gordon Hayward is the offensive leader and Rudy Gobert the defensive one. Between the two, there’s lots to like – though Hayward is injured to begin the campaign. Sucks for him, there aren’t that many Gordons in world sport these days.

Wildcard’s Wildcard: Boris Diaw was a sneaky acquisition. Players that leave the Spurs don’t always have the best track record at their new teams but then Diaw was one of the better ones (of those that have been allowed to leave). A big body with some skills, that’s a tasty thing in the modern NBA. A healthy Dante Exum might have something to offer as well.

What to Watch For: One of the real hipster teams, they were in the playoff race until really late and expectations are that they’ll cross that barrier this time. In the West, that’s no simple feat but the Jazz have a quality rhythm to them. Bee-bopping all over the show. Rudy Gobert anchors one of the best defensive units out there and George Hill gives them a big upgrade at PG. Derrick Favors is amazing too, btw.

The Big Question: Do they finally have the depth to piece together a full, winning season? And how often does Boris Diaw need to piss given he drinks so much coffee?

Southwest Division

DALLAS MAVERICKS

Last Season: 42-40, Lost 4-1 to OKC in First Round

Key Dude: Come on, do I even need to spell it? N-O-W-I-T-Z-K-I. – as it always has been and always shall be (or maybe it only seems that way?).

Wildcard’s Wildcard: Harrison Barnes has come with an expensive price tag and many, many doubts about his ability beyond that as a fifth option in Golden State. He’s already been written off and preseason hasn’t quite done it for him either. But Rick Carlisle is a certified basketballing bust-whisperer. If Dallas is gonna do anything this season they need Barnesy to chip in strong.

What to Watch For: No matter how dire things look for the Mavs, they always find a way to stay competitive. Presumably that’ll happen again this time so if you’ve written off Dallas already then shame on you. Mark Cuban is going HAM at Donald Trump, which is fun. Saint Dirk is perfect. And as for the sneaky role players, Justin Anderson is a real entertaining one to keep an eye on. Salah Mejri too.

The Big Question: What’s up with the off-brand Warriors thing? Bogie and Barnes, then they go and sign Seth Curry too!

HOUSTON ROCKETS

Last Season: 41-41, Lost 4-1 to GSW in First Round

Key Dude: James Harden arguably should have won the MVP a couple years back and he’ll be back in the conversation again. He has a large beard. Last season he averaged 29.0 points per game, playing the most minutes per game (38.1) of any player without missing a single start. He’s as big a key dude as it’s possible to be.

Wildcard’s Wildcard: And one of Harden’s favourite teammates is a young centre named Clint Capela. The kid’s good enough that they gleefully threw Dwight Howard to the curb of free agency (which suited all involved). 22 years old from Switzerland, if he can live up to his per-36 numbers of 13.3 PTS, 12.1 REB, 2.3 BLK from last time then he’ll be a star.

What to Watch For: Their best defender, Patrick Beverley, is having knee surgery and they were already a bad team off the ball when he was there. These guys could give up 120 points a game, it’s not even inconceivable… yet they might also score 125. That’s the balance of the Rockets – they are gonna score over and over and over. James Harden is an unstoppable force.

The Big Question: Is there anyone on the Rockets that can even spell the word ‘DEFENCE’?

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES

Last Season: 42-40, Lost 4-0 to SAS in First Round

Key Dude: As they move away a bit from the post-up play of old, Marc Gasol is gonna find himself playing further from the hoop and popping a few threes. That’s out of character for him but it does show how important he is that they still wanna build this team around a guy who remains one of the very best centres in the NBA.

Wildcard’s Wildcard: Zach Randolph has for so long been one of their very best players. He still is but he’ll be playing off the bench this season, allowing the Grizz to alter their traditionally slow offence without the old fella. He’s 35 now and you’ve gotta manage those minutes. Still, they need him scoring if they’re gonna go good.

What to Watch For: Chandler Parsons was rated within the Mavs but they gave up on him because of his health. Marc Gasol is also coming back from a serious injury. In fact the Grizz had so many knocks last season they used a mindboggling 28 players. There’s a new coach in David Fizdale and he’s getting some real heat about him. They’ll still be a defence-first kinda team, but not as much. Durability remains a major worry, Tony Allen isn’t getting any younger and he’s not the only one.

The Big Question: Mike Conley (temporarily) holds the most expensive contract in NBA history. Does this mean we can’t call him underrated anymore?

NEW ORLEANS PELICANS

Last Season: 30-52

Key Dude: Oh, probably that Anthony Davis guy, aye mate? Their last season was such a disaster with all those injuries that people seem to have forgotten who the next superstar’s gonna be. Fear the all-conquering Brow. He will soon rule us all.

Wildcard’s Wildcard: Jrue Holiday might be their second best player but he’s been out indefinitely as he cares for his wife who not only gave birth recently but also had surgery to remove a benign brain tumour. Lauren Holiday used to play soccer for USA and Jrue is a top quality guard. Both are amazing people. No word on when Jrue returns or how quickly he’ll pick up the pace but it could be a factor.

What to Watch For: After Davis had led them to the playoffs two years ago, injuries meant that last season never got going. Lance Stephenson now plays for them which is bound to be hit or miss. Alvin Gentry’s had 12 months with a lot of these guys now so you can expect the pace to really pick up. Dunno, they still have still have some things to work through (not a fan of them losing Ryan Anderson) but they might be on the brink of playoff contention again, you never know.

The Big Question: Why don’t they just fire the physio already?

SAN ANTONIO SPURS

Last Season: 67-15, Lost 4-2 to OKC in Conf. Semis

Key Dude: Kawhi Leonard actually might win MVP and Defensive Player of the Year. Like, both of them. Not impossible.

Wildcard’s Wildcard: Talk that LaMarcus Aldridge is unhappy and could be traded has certainly turned a few heads. LMA must have known that he wasn’t gonna be the main guy in San Antonio so that’s surprising but imagine what they might get in return. A lot of this is down to his fit without Tim Duncan there next to him, hence this could go one of two ways.

What to Watch For: Okay well first they’re the best run organisation in sports. Everyone poaches their coaches, everyone is desperate for their role players. They always replace them. No replacing Tim Duncan though. Parker and Ginobili are a little older and they still carry a lot of weight. Gregg Popovich can’t answer straight questions and Pau Gasol is there now. They’ll be as fun as ever.

The Big Question: If Tim Duncan isn’t there, are these even still the same Spurs? What’s Tim Duncan doing right now? Do you think he’s watching basketball?