Pretenders: Phoenix, Dallas, Portland Dark horses: Denver, Utah Yeah I know Denver is the 2nd best team in the West record wise, but I still don't know if they get the respect they deserve after getting Chauncy Billups. Same for Utah but that may be because Deron Williams hasn't played well this season due to injury.
Pretenders: Phoenix, Portland Contenders: Houston, Utah Utah will be good when Boozer comes back at full strength, and when Deron Williams is finally 100%. Without Boozer they are atrocious defensively (esp. in the backcourt), with him they are average. Combine that with their firepower and depth (a bench anchored by Kirilenko and Milsap is pretty good) and they will be very, very good. For now, Deron Williams is shooting horribly and that his messing up the Jazz's spacing, but when the lift in his ankle comes back he'll be fine.
Everyone's a pretender except for Boston. When the time comes to see who the real deal is ... it will come down to Spurs, Rockets, Lakers and Jazz. These are the 4 teams that will advance to the 2nd round in the west. From there anything can happen.
Seriously? The Lakers? Pretenders: Mavericks, Nuggets (stick a good defense on them, please), Hornets (maybe). Dark Horses: Spurs, Blazers, Spurs, Spurs, Spurs.
I love my rockets as much as anyone on this board, but you oughta come up with something back that claim up before you get flamed
Right now the Lakers have 3 losses and 8 other teams are within 3 games of each other. Tell me who are the supposed favorites, then I can say which of those favorites are pretenders and which of those left out are dark horses.
Hornets, Suns, Blazers, and Nuggets are pretenders. The Texas Triangle are dark horses. Lakers are the only contender.
Pretenders: Nuggets and Blazers Dark Horses: Spurs, Suns and probably Mavs. Most likely contenders as of of now: Rockets, LA. Have no idea wtf they're doing: Grizzlies.
Dark horse = Clippers They started out horribly but if they don't get any critical injuries and keep their roster together, I think they could come out of nowhere later in the season. They still have plenty of cap space to work with if they want to make future trades where they take on more salary.
I agree with BrooksBall Clippers are good, with a better coach, they have the potential to go places. Dark Horses: Spurs, Clippers, Houston Pretenders: Hornets, Portland
