ISAAC BOND
Sports Writer

The NBA season is less than two weeks away and the Sheaf has the low-down on teams you should be watching, the ones worth keeping an eye on and those not worth paying attention to. Last week the Sheaf gave you the skinny in the East — and here’s what basketball fanatics can expect out West, which tends to be the stronger conference.

For those who missed last issue’s breakdown, there are three categories to keep in mind: the contenders, the pretenders and the horrendous.

The contenders are the teams with a legitimate shot at locking down an NBA championship. The pretenders will be fighting for playoff spots, later exiting the picture at the hands of the contenders. And the horrendous — well, these NBA franchises are just plain stinky.

The contenders

There is always a stack of great teams out West but the most dangerous gunslingers are the Los Angeles Lakers, fresh off of defending their title as league champions.

After picking up Matt Barnes and Steve Blake in the off-season, the Lakers have improved their depth on what was already one of the deepest teams in the league with two of the world’s best players in Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. Other teams look out; while the Miami Heat have attracted most of the league’s attention of late, the Lakers are quietly entering the season as championship favourites, again.

If you like rooting for the underdog, you have got to like the prospects of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Though the Thunder lost to the Lakers in the first round, the young bucks stuck with the old horses. Kevin Durant is a good bet for MVP this year and Russel Westbrook continues to develop on a young team with great talent and a commitment to the defensive end.

Those who like surprises should keep an eye on the Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers. Both teams are poised to make a move but they need to stay healthy, particularly at the centre position. If Yao Ming can return to form for the Rockets and Greg Oden can show why he was worth Portland’s number one draft pick in 2007, these teams have good shots at starting the playoffs with home court advantage.

The pretenders

After last year’s first-round dud against the Utah Jazz, the Denver Nuggets seem old rather than tough and the face of the franchise, Carmelo Anthony, has more trade rumours surrounding him than a National Inquirer journalist checking out the stock exchange. He’ll play, but will he play passionately? Denver desperately needs Anthony to stay relevant.

Another off-season goes by and another promising Clippers team steps into the shadows of the greater Los Angeles franchise. With Blake Griffin healthy, this might be the year that the Clips squeak back into the post-season. I postulated similarly last year and then Griffin broke his knee-cap, so no promises here.

After years of fundamental instinct and international flavour making for dominating basketball in Texas, expect a dip in the dominancy of the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks. Both teams are relying on aging has-beens and future hall-of-famers to scrape the bottom of the tank for another title run. The Mavs and Spurs will manage wins and likely make playoffs but get no farther than the second-round defeat the Spurs salvaged last season.

The horrendous

In the West, anything can happen but some teams manage to accomplish nothing.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have had a stellar pre-season but their roster really hasn’t changed enough to expect a significant rise from the bottom of the standings. Power-forward Michael Beasley was a decent acquisition but unfortunately, he is not fully capable of turning this franchise around on his own.

The New Orleans Hornets knew that Chris Paul wasn’t happy and needed a running mate on the wing, so they scooped up Trevor Ariza. Will that be enough? No. This franchise has too many inflated contracts to ink a difference maker right now and that could cost them one of the best point guards in the game if this season is like last year. And who knows, it might be worse.

It kills me to put them here because they’re energetic and exciting but the Memphis Grizzlies are trying to build on a team that doesn’t have the defensive DNA to be a championship contender. Even with the outside shot of making the playoffs this year, the Grizzlies have set themselves up for another rebuilding phase a few years down the road.

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image: Adam Fagen