The western conference teams had a dominant 2024-25 season. After an interesting playoffs, Oklahoma City emerged victorious in a full seven game series to take home their first championship since leaving Seattle as the SuperSonics. Most western teams made major moves when the offseason began. Viewers have interest in the northwest division arms race and how every team in California could make the playoffs. Teams like San Antonio could break out and have a longer playoff run. The champion Thunder have a tough task to getting back to the finals.
That’s a lot to process, so let’s focus on which eight teams have the best chances of making the western conference playoffs.
Oklahoma City Thunder
Oklahoma City is the rare, if only team that has everything to clinch a playoff berth before playing a game. Even a plague of injuries can’t keep the Thunder from clinching one of the eight spots.
Houston Rockets
Houston was hard to beat last season with coach Ime Udoka developing guard Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith and forward Alperen Sengun. Then the Rockets traded for elite forward Kevin Durant in the offseason. Houston won’t give up the southwest division anytime soon.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Minnesota’s obsession with shooting three-pointers hindered a breakout season last year. After a conference finals loss to Oklahoma City, the Timberwolves should play much better throughout 2025-26. Coach Chris Finch should get the most of his roster and not sleep-walk half the season.
Los Angeles Lakers
Almost a full season of the Luka Doncic-LeBron James duo will be on display. Doncic also slimmed down and looks determined. The league is on notice.
Golden State Warriors
Like the Lakers, a full offseason for forward Jimmy Butler means Golden State will play some of their best basketball since the 2022 championship. The Warriors are also the fifth team in this ranking many believe is a championship favorite.
Denver Nuggets
How Denver plays a whole season after the firing of Michael Malone will be interesting. There is a sense if the Nuggets don’t play well or add more talent at the trade deadline for star center Nikola Jokic, he could want out. While I don’t believe Jokic would exit, Denver has more than enough to make the playoffs. However, they probably won’t be favored to make a deep, postseason run at any point this year.
San Antonio Spurs
The surprise pick of the year, given that point guard De’Aaron Fox is out for at least the rest of 2025. With little bench depth (mildly speaking), this should be the breakout year for French phenom center Victor Wembanyama. Not only is Wembanyama in the best shape of his life, he played well in the preseason. A lot of teams will struggle to defend him all year.
Los Angeles Clippers
Unlike the east, figuring out which team gets the last western conference playoffs is hard. Those who keep up know Phoenix, Utah, Portland and New Orleans don’t have the talent to stay close in the postseason race. Dallas’ roster is filled with glass cannons. Memphis lost some of their core starters and scoring depth, and Sacramento is mentally soft. Los Angeles is the best pick here.
The Clippers have stars in center Ivica Zubac, forwards Kawhi Leonard and Nicolas Batum, and guards Kris Dunn and James Harden. Los Angeles also brought back veteran point-guard Chris Paul and added Bradley Beal, Bogdan Bogdanović and Brook Lopez. Injuries will prevent the Clippers from being a championship contender, but they’ll be a solid postseason choice all season.
Play-in losing teams: Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks
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