The Dallas Mavericks’ fortunes rest almost solely on the fitness of the brilliant Luka Doncic. Photo: Getty Images.
The NBA season is past its halfway point so let’s hand out some mid-season grades!
We’ve already given out grades to the Eastern Conference, so today we cast our eye over one half of the West.
These grades are doled out relative to a team’s expectations, so whilst the Jazz and Suns sport similar records, their grades will be very different.
*All win-loss records are as they were at the time of writing
Dallas Mavericks (26-24 win-loss): B-
The Mavericks’ inability to replace Jalen Brunson in the off-season has placed a huge burden on the shoulders of resident megastar Luka Doncic.
In terms of both style and sheer ability, he’s irreplaceable within the Dallas ecosystem.
With the Mavericks sitting in the sixth seed, squarely in the middle of that morass of teams running from fourth through 10th in the West, a losing streak here could be disastrous.
Denver Nuggets (34-15): A-
Things are going quite swimmingly in the Mile High City.
The Nuggets sit comfortably atop the conference – only a half game off the league’s best record – with the game’s best player at the peak of his powers.
Nikola Jokic is just a 10th of an assist from averaging a triple-double on the season, with 1.4 steals and 55/38/82 shooting splits.
He is at, or near, the top of practically every advanced stat known to Man. The 27-year-old is simply dominating this NBA season.
But the Nuggets’ dominance, whilst centred on their big man, isn’t solely down to him.
Aaron Gordon is playing at a borderline All-Star level, providing outstanding defence and proving the perfect foil for Jokic.
Jamal Murray is starting to look something like the player he was prior to his knee injury and Michael Porter is back to near his best whilst subjugating himself for the good of the team at both ends.
Denver is the NBA’s best offensive team and the only thing that stops it from gaining an A+ grade is its defence, currently ranked 17th in the league.
If the Nuggets can start to nudge that towards the top 10, then they would surely claim outright favouritism for the championship.
Golden State Warriors (24-24): D+
These Warriors are a walking contradiction.
They’re great at home; poor on the road. Their starting five is one of the best units in basketball; their bench unit’s amongst the worst. Offensively they’re fantastic; defensively a sieve. They can take down the soaring Grizzlies like it’s nothing; yet the Magic and Pistons seem to have their number.
The Warriors are the NBA’s Schrodinger’s Cat: simultaneously both a championship contender and an also-ran.
The Warriors’ famed two-timeline approach is starting to fray around the edges. Jordan Poole has stagnated, James Wiseman is a trade candidate and Moses Moody is going though standard second-year blues, though at least Jonathon Kuminga is looking solid.
The ‘Dub’ are so reliant on their veteran starting five that an injury to any one of them – though especially Curry, of course – could see them drop into the lottery.
Houston Rockets (11-38): C-
When rebuilding, you expect to see progress from your younger players. For the most part, that hasn’t happened in Houston to this point.
Jalen Green can score but his efficiency has somehow regressed from his wasteful rookie campaign, Kevin Porter Jr remains a trick-or-treat baller, rookies Jabari Smith Jr and Tari Eason have been patchy, at best, and fellow first-rounder TyTy Washington can barely get on the court.
The single bright spot has been second-year big man Alperen Sengun. The Turk will never anchor an elite defence, but that might not matter when you are as delightful with ball in hand as he is.
Putting up a nightly 15 points and nine boards, along with 3.6 assists and a block, Sengun is simply wonderful to watch, with his tricky footwork and extraordinary vision.
It’s easy to see how Sengun draws comparisons to Jokic.
Sengun is really the only out-and-out good news story for this season’s Rockets, though. The lack of teamwork and cohesion in this team is astounding.
The talent is there, but a reset is clearly needed and if improvements are not made, perhaps coach Stephen Silas pays with his job.
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Los Angeles Clippers (27-24): B
For all of their talent, the Clippers have undoubtedly underperformed in the Kawhi Leonard/Paul George era, and a large part of the blame is on those two superstars and their inability to stay on the floor.
The Clippers are loaded with wonderful complementary players, but they’re superfluous without somebody to complement. Leonard and George have missed 25 and 16 games respectively, yet when they both take to the floor, the Clippers do look like something approaching a real live contender.
Ivica Zubac has had a career season, though the lack of a legitimate back-up does have him looking gassed, Norman Powell has returned to elite sixth-man levels after a rough start and Luke Kennard remains one of the league’s premier marksmen.
If the Clippers (currently 5th in the West) can do something to upgrade the point guard position – Fred VanVleet and Mike Conley are often mentioned – then they’re only some good health to their stars away from perhaps making a run at the Western Conference crown.
Los Angeles Lakers (23-26): C
Don’t look now, but the Lakers might just be turning a corner.
After a gawd-awful start to their campaign, losing Anthony Davis – who had found something close to his best form – could have torpedoed what was left of the Lakers’ season. Instead, LeBron James has gone on a run that would be astounding for a man 10 years his junior.
In the month that Davis was in the infirmary, James averaged near enough to 34 points, eight boards and eight assists – the Lakers were +112 with him on the floor and -140 without him as they split the 20 games that Davis missed.
With Davis now back in the line-up, Lonnie Walker due to follow shortly and Rui Hachimura on board, could the Lakers make a run into the post-season?
Memphis Grizzlies (31-17): A
Despite their seeming inability to take down the Warriors, the Grizzlies are arguably the class of the Western Conference.
The Grizz have pretty much everything – in Ja Morant they have an elite offensive totem pole, their defence is anchored by the magnificent, if astonishingly foul prone, Jaren Jackson Jr, they have a fantastic third banana in Desmond Bane, a wonderful agitator/heat check guy in Dillon Brooks, a dreadnought big man in Steven Adams and all the depth that any team could possibly want.
The only thing that Memphis doesn’t have is the experience of having been there before, this group having yet to make a conference finals, though the soon-to-return Danny Green will help in that regard. They’ll be there soon enough.
Minnesota Timberwolves (25-25): D-
I’ll admit that whilst the trade for Rudy Gobert had the immediate potential to be an all-time disaster, I was one of those pundits who was cautiously optimistic.
Gobert provided something different at both ends of the floor (on offence: vertical spacing; on defence: playing actual defence) and I felt that Chris Finch, with time, would find a way to make it all work.
The Wolves haven’t exactly been kissed by the basketball gods, though, as they lost Karl-Anthony Towns to COVID for large swathes of the pre-season, whilst Gobert was tied up playing for France.
The resulting lack of chemistry was evident from pretty much opening night as the Wolves struggled at both ends of the floor.
Gobert’s presence has taken away the USP of Towns as an elite shooting centre, whilst crowding the paint for Anthony Edwards’ electric forays to the hoop.
With Towns injured it was hoped the Wolves would find some clarity in their rotation and with it some cohesion on the floor. It hasn’t happened.
Gobert looks a step slower (just whisper it, but he could be in decline) though he and D’Angelo Russell have struck up a lovely understanding.
So what is the answer, here? It’s tough to say. Trading Gobert now would recoup cents on the dollars the Wolves gave up, Russell is an expiring deal and a negative on defence and Edwards is – or at least should be – untouchable.
Shudder to think … Towns may be the odd one out.
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