Most hardcore NBA fans would instantly notice that Jamal Murray is sporting a new look for the upcoming season in his picture from media day, but when it comes down to it, that’s not too important. What is worth looking into, though, is the idea of the suspected leap that the Denver Nuggets are going to make.

Since I’m not much of a “let’s predict playoff results before the season,” and rather more of a “let’s predict who even gets there first” type of person, I definitely like to keep it simple as far as NBA pre-season predictions go. So, let’s do that here.

So, with the NBA regular season set to tip-off Tuesday night, My predictions for the landscape of the Western Conference for the 2025-2026 regular season are as follows.

* Denotes a team included in the Play-In Tournament

1. Denver Nuggets (60-22)
2. Oklahoma City Thunder (58-24)
3. Houston Rockets (57-25)
4. Minnesota Timberwolves (54-28)
5. Los Angeles Lakers (50-32)
6. Dallas Mavericks (48-34)
7. Golden State Warriors* (46-36)
8. Los Angeles Clippers* (45-37)
9. San Antonio Spurs* (43-39)
10. Memphis Grizzlies* (41-41)
11. Portland Trail Blazers (40-42)
12. Phoenix Suns (39-43)
13. Sacramento Kings (38-44)
14. New Orleans Pelicans (30-52)
15. Utah Jazz (20-62)

Takeaways: the West is much, much deeper than the East

Taking one glance at my predictions, I immediately notice one constant—seeds 4 through 7 include great basketball teams—some would even argue a few are contenders for the Western Conference Finals. When I look at the Eastern Conference, I don’t feel as if the teams are of the same quality within this class—in fact, it leaves me feeling relatively underwhelmed. I think of the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks, and Philadelphia 76ers, in no specific order of standing. These four teams don’t even come close to the likes of Minnesota, the LA Lakers, Dallas, or Golden State—the West just has that much firepower, which makes for far superior postseason pairings as opposed to the East.

I view the Nuggets, as mentioned earlier, as having the slight edge over the defending NBA champion Thunder in terms of win-loss. Although OKC also has the defending league and Finals MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver is much improved, signing Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Jonas Valanciunas, along with trading for sharpshooting forward Cam Johnson, all while only having to give up a streaky and oft-injured Michael Porter Jr. as the centerpiece of the deal.

The Houston Rockets appear as eager to win as ever, adding Kevin Durant in a splash of an off-season trade. Although they lost Fred Van Vleet to an ACL tear over the summer, they have as good of a chance as anyone in the conference, barring further injury to their core.

As we all know, the NBA Play-In Tournament can truly go in any sort of direction. Any of the four teams I predict to be in the field can easily beat one another. However, I see Golden State being the positive outlier of this group, and falling into the play-in simply due to the talent level in the West.

Squads on the outside looking in

The teams I expect to land in the bottom of the conference: Portland, Phoenix, Sacramento, New Orleans, and Utah—two of which I can see challenging both the Grizzlies and Spurs for spots in the play-in are Portland and Phoenix. The Trail Blazers have a young, up-and-coming roster. In June, they traded Anfernee Simons to Boston in exchange for Jrue Holiday. Despite Simons likely being the better player as of now, some optimistically view Holiday as an upgrade, due to his championship pedigree and proven ability to mentor younger players.

While Phoenix had a minor tear-down of their roster with moving off of both Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, they replaced them with Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks. I look at the Suns as a scrappy, determined group that can overcome another roller coaster of a season in Phoenix as Devin Booker returns to being a main scoring option.

The NBA regular season absolutely has its ups and downs, its dazzling highlights, and its whirlwind of unknowns. There is one aspect that remains the same, though: its true unpredictability and entertainment factor. A feeling of excitement with fans for a new NBA season will always be looked at as an understatement.