i know i'm not telling anyone on here anything they don't know, but it's a long offseason and...have you really mapped out the west in your mind yet, like really team by team?

i guess i hadn't fully done it until tonight and man--this could be the toughest of many consecutive tough years in the bestern conference.

here's how it stacks up by my estimation, breaking the conference into three categories and ranking them 1-15:

IN:

Lakers

San Antonio

New Orleans

Utah

Houston

Dallas

Phoenix

BUBBLE:

Denver

Portland

Warriors

Clippers

OUT:

Memphis

Minnesota

Oklahoma City

Sacramento

at least two quality teams are gonna have to fall off for us to get in. injuries happen, and i'm not one to get pessemistic...but damn.