Who’s In The Running For The NBA Western Conference Championship?

We can’t be sure the Los Angeles Lakers will challenge the Golden State Warriors for the NBA Western Conference championship next season, even after the addition of LeBron James.

The Warriors struck back in this hectic free-agent period by adding the very large DeMarcus Cousins, more out of concern about the Houston Rockets than the Lakers. And the Lakers, in remaking their roster to suit The King, renounced their rights to Julius Randle and signed Rajon Rondo.

The New Orleans Pelicans, suddenly bereft of Cousins, signed Randle.

Heard a peep from teams in the Eastern Conference? Nope.

All the action is out west and the talent either stays in that conference or flows to it. This essentially leaves the Eastern Conference with three decent teams – the Boston Celtics, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Toronto Raptors.

The NBA’s regular season is a slog through 82 games to get to the good part – the playoffs. This year, though, the Western Conference is so stacked that the regular season could be fun. And if you live on the East Coast, good luck with that. We’re talking about 10:30 p.m. ET starts on week nights. Get that DVR limbered up – you may have to watch an attractive game as you eat breakfast.

Last season the Warriors won another NBA title by beating the Cleveland Cavaliers in four straight games, and that’s when the Cavs had LeBron. Now he’s part of the L.A. scene and the rest of the east, excepting the three teams mentioned above, isn’t much worth watching.

Consider skipping everything from October until April, unless there’s a game from the west being shown at a reasonable time (for the East Coast). And for those in the Pacific Time Zone, well, you’ve got quite a regular season ahead. The rest of us will be sound asleep at tipoff time.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman