After a league-shaking week leading up to this month's NBA trade deadline, it's time to revisit where the Western Conference stands coming out of the All-Star break.
The turbulent trade deadline had the majority of its impact on the Western Conference, where Luka Doncic (Los Angeles Lakers) and Anthony Davis (Dallas Mavericks) changed places on two recent conference finalists, the 2022 champion Golden State Warriors added Jimmy Butler, the San Antonio Spurs added De'Aaron Fox to first-time All-Star Victor Wembanyama and the Sacramento Kings replaced Fox with Zach LaVine.
Yet none of those moves affected the top of my West tiers, updating previous check-ins in November and January. The Oklahoma City Thunder's historic regular season still has them on top as they've opened up an eight-game lead on the rest of the conference. Meanwhile, the 2023 champion Denver Nuggets have surged into position for another deep playoff run.
With the help of ESPN's Basketball Power Index, let's revisit the 15 West teams based on what we can expect over the remaining third of the regular season and into the playoffs. Note that within each tier, teams are listed alphabetically.
Jump to a tier:
The clear-cut favorite
One team emerging from the pack?
Playoffs? Play-in? Still TBD
Play-in hopes are fading fast
Preparing for the lottery
Tier 1: The clear-cut favorite
Current record: 44-10 (1st in the West)
Record since Jan. 20 check-in: 9-3
Tier change: 