Before this weekend, the Eastern Conference was supposedly stronger than the Western Conference.
It took all of a week for that narrative to fade into dust.
Sunday afternoon, a couple days after Kyrie Irving made his trade demand from the Brooklyn Nets, the Dallas Mavericks made an offer the Nets liked and acquired the mercurial star point guard. Pairing Irving with Luka Dončić, though a unique combination of perimeter ball handlers, certainly upped the talented level for the Mavericks this season. Even if the defense isn’t great, the offense is extremely dangerous in a playoff setting.
Then, Wednesday happened.
It began with a three-team deal featuring the Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, and Minnesota Timberwolves. Russell Westbrook and a valuable Lakers pick went to Utah, who sent Mike Conley to Minnesota and both Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt to Los Angeles. Minnesota followed up by flipping D’Angelo Russell back to the Lakers too, giving the Lakers three capable rotation players in exchange for one extremely volatile player. The Lakers still aren’t in position to seriously compete, but like the Mavericks, they’re dangerous in a playoff setting.
And then, Kevin Durant got traded to the Phoenix Suns for Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, and every draft pick under the sun.
Seeing the West shift that much under Denver’s feet was certainly jarring. One moment, Denver’s biggest threats to Western Conference supremacy were the Golden State Warriors getting healthy and the Memphis Grizzlies being “fine in the West.” The next moment, the Suns have vaulted themselves to perhaps the top of the NBA in talent. Pairing Durant and Booker together puts the Suns in position to score in 1-on-1 scenarios consistently, and having Chris Paul and DeAndre Ayton running pick and rolls will almost always yield good shots in the flow of the offense for somebody.
Thursday didn’t see as much talent shifting around the West playoff picture, but the Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies, and New Orleans Pelicans each made moves. The Clippers added Eric Gordon, Mason Plumlee, and Bones Hyland. The Warriors reacquired Gary Payton II from the Portland Trail Blazers. The Grizzlies received Luke Kennard from the Clippers in a three-team deal. The Pelicans added Josh Richardson from the San Antonio Spurs. Basically, every team in the West got moderately better.
The Nuggets didn’t have a lot they could do at the deadline this year, but they found a way to do multiple deals, adding Thomas Bryant from the Lakers for Davon Reed and second round picks. They also traded Hyland to the Clippers for merely two second rounders, a low return for a player of his talent. Bryant will help the Nuggets bench frontcourt become a bit more potent scoring and rebounding wise, while the Nuggets believe losing Bones will be addition by subtraction. It’s hard to argue that point, either. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Nuggets have a point differential that’s 21.0 points per 100 possessions worse with Bones on the floor this year. They’ve been worse with him and better without him, even in bench lineups.
The Nuggets have an open roster spot now, and they will likely peruse the buyout market for a replacement ball handler. Guards like Reggie Jackson, Patrick Beverley, John Wall, Will Barton, and Russell Westbrook are all expected to be on the buyout market, meaning there will be options for the Nuggets if that’s the direction they decide to go.
Until that point, it’s fair to assume the Nuggets either stayed the same or got marginally better today while other Western Conference teams made some significant upgrades. Before this week, it was becoming clear that the Nuggets were the team to beat in the West. Now, it appears the Nuggets are one of several teams to beat.
The Suns with Durant, Booker, Ayton, and Paul are going to be awesome. How they fill out their bench on the buyout market will be interesting. Expect them to remain busy in their quest for a championship.
The Warriors are always dangerous when Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green are healthy. It feels like they took a backseat to other teams today, but getting back Payton as a defensive role player makes sense. They will still be a tough out for everyone, even if this feels like their last hurrah.
The Mavericks pairing Dončić and Irving together took some serious guts. The Grizzlies remain very good, even though they went through a rough patch this last month. The Lakers are finally surrounding LeBron James and Anthony Davis with shooting and versatility again, which seems like a good idea!
Then, there’s the third place Sacramento Kings who…I feel really bad for after all these other moves were made.
The Nuggets shouldn’t be worrying about anyone else right now, even Durant and the Suns. Denver didn’t get to the top of the Western Conference standings by game planning extra hard for the Grizzlies and the Clippers. They’re worried about becoming the best version of themselves that they can be, which involves unerring buy-in from every single player on the roster. They didn’t have that before the trade deadline, and now they do.
Now, the Nuggets will focus on ironing out a playoff rotation. With Hyland out and Bryant in, along with a potential buyout candidate on the way, the Nuggets have some tinkering to do. They know how the starting lineup works, along with almost every combination involving Bruce Brown. They need to know what it means for Bryant to play with the bench unit. Does he work best with Bruce Brown or Ish Smith? Jeff Green, Vlatko Čančar, or Zeke Nnaji? Can he play in space or is he purely a drop coverage big man? Does his chemistry work well with Jamal Murray and the other starters? What about staggering Jokić with the bench instead?
Now that the Nuggets don’t have to figure out how Hyland fits in, they have an opportunity to focus heavily on defensive lineups around Bryant at center. Those lineups will become a big deal in the playoffs, and the better they are, the less pressure the starters have to win their minutes by a significant margin. If the Nuggets can get back to their bench winning some matchups rather than losing most of them, that’s a win.
Time will tell which West teams emerge as the strongest challengers, but that doesn’t change Denver’s position as the top seed in the conference if the standings hold. A road to the Finals would go through Denver, and whether it’s Phoenix or a Los Angeles team or Memphis or Golden State or somebody else, those teams would have to beat the Nuggets on their home floor at least once. The Nuggets are 26-4 at home this year and are playing with high levels of confidence. Could they be upset? Of course. Will it happen? Unclear.
For now, let’s enjoy the rest of the regular season and see what Thomas Bryant has in store as a Nugget.
