00:00OKC and San Antonio, nice tip-off to start on the western side of this here.
00:05I mean, who do you like coming out of the west here?
00:08I mean, is it OKC, San Antonio again, and everyone else?
00:12I mean, it's hard to not lean into that, right?
00:15Like, they're the two best rosters in this gauntlet of a conference.
00:18I think that the Spurs are my pick between the two if I had to choose one.
00:23I'm starting to get a little bit concerned about this Thunder roster construction right now.
00:27It's going to be something that we're going to have to watch over the next couple of seasons
00:30as they're trying to dodge the second apron and what's going to happen with Chet.
00:33And they just paid Case and Wallace a bunch of money.
00:35So, you know, we'll see what happens there.
00:37But I just think that the Spurs team is just so good.
00:41We saw them obviously finally get over the hump, go to the finals.
00:44I mean, hell, Dan, if they didn't piss away some of those games,
00:47they possibly would be lifting the banners in San Antonio this year.
00:50So you get a hungry Wimby coming to town.
00:52Dylan Harper taking another step.
00:54They brought in Tobias Harris, which I think is a really nice veteran addition to this team,
00:59not only offensively, but what he offers defensively on the other end of the court.
01:02So I just I think this team is definitely on course to go and win 65 games
01:08and possibly compete to lift Larry once again.
01:11So if I had to choose the top two, I'd probably lean into the Spurs angle.
01:15And Shea is going to have his say, right?
01:17He's going for the third MVP, very rare company in there.
01:21So we'll see what Shea is able to do in OKC.
01:23But if you move a little bit further down the board, like you can see there,
01:25I really like what Denver's got going on this year.
01:28I'm a huge Nikola Jokic fan.
01:30I think he's still the best player in basketball.
01:33And I love the addition of DeMar DeRozan to this basketball team.
01:37I know a lot of people were a little bit questionable on whether or not he was going to fit
01:40into the mix.
01:41There's been various iterations of DeMar playing at random teams,
01:44and it's just not it's turned into DeMar ball, right?
01:46But the reason why this Nuggets team has not gotten over the hump the last few years
01:51and hasn't even gotten close to sniffing a championship is because what do you do in the non-Nikola Jokic
01:56minutes?
01:57How do you get offense?
01:58How do you generate enough offense?
02:00Because Jokic is one of the most impactful on-off split players in the entire association.
02:04So how do you mitigate that?
02:06You bring in a guy like DeMar DeRozan who's willing to play 25 minutes as a sixth man,
02:10and you can have him run your second unit when Jokic needs to sit.
02:14Hell, if unfortunately if he gets hurt for a little bit of time,
02:16you have a guy you can generate your offense through.
02:19Jamal Murray's a fantastic player.
02:20So is Aaron Gordon.
02:21But those guys need somebody else to help them on that bench unit,
02:25especially when those guys have to sit down.
02:27So I think the DeMar DeRozan addition could be massive for the Nuggets.
02:30I love the value at 14-1 for what they're able to do in the Western Conference.
02:33And, Dan, don't sleep on maybe a little sprinkle down the board.
02:37I love Utah this year, man.
02:39I love the Utah Jazz.
02:41They are going to be a fun basketball team this year.
02:43Will Hardy has dealt with years and years of tanking in Utah,
02:48and there's not going to be a lot of tanking this year
02:49based upon all the behind-the-scenes stuff that's happened in the NBA.
02:52We don't have time to go into all that.
02:54But this Utah team is going to be fun.
02:56I love Darren Peterson as a prospect.
02:59Keontae George is a superstar in the making.
03:00They brought Jaron Jackson Jr. to town.
03:03Laurie Markkinen is also still an all-star-level player.
03:06I think this team has a lot to say.
03:08I love Will Hardy as a head coach,
03:09and I think that this team could win 40 or 45 games
03:11and make some surprises in the Western Conference.
03:13So it's a gauntlet of a conference.
03:15We could talk about a lot of the teams out there for a long time,
03:17but those are a couple of my teams that I really like in the West.
