Impact On Western Conference
As mentioned earlier, the Suns and Warriors sit comfortably atop of the Western Conference standings and other teams like the Mavericks and Grizzlies seem to be “locks” for the playoffs at this point, however, the bottom of the standings are jam packed.
Just 1.5 games in front of the Timberwolves for the 6-seed in the West, the Denver Nuggets are still in the mix to be in the play-in tournament this season, as are the Clippers, Lakers, Pelicans, Trail Blazers and Kings.
Making no moves at the deadline and already seeing their season crash and burn, the Los Angeles Lakers are in big trouble. The Lakers are only getting worse and with the Kings bringing in Domantas Sabonis and the Pelicans bringing in CJ McCollum, those two teams have a great chance to surpass the Lakers in the standings and possibly knock them out of the playoff picture entirely!
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The trade deadline did not really have an impact on how the Western Conference will play out this season, as there is a very strong chance either Phoenix or Golden State are going to the NBA Finals, but which teams get into the play-in tournament is very much up-in-the-air right now.
The Nuggets, Timberwolves and Lakers made zero moves to make themselves better, whereas the Clippers, Pelicans and Kings all added talent, so there could be a lot of flip-flopping around in terms of seeding over the next several weeks.
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There is very little room for error at this point in the season for teams in the play-in tournament range in both conferences and due to the moves that were made at the deadline this season, the last few spots in the playoff picture could very well be clinched on the final day of the regular season.
