Heading into the 2023-24 NBA season, the Western Conference looks like it is going to be a gauntlet once again. There are a lot of deep, talented teams that will be battling it out throughout the season for playoff positioning, as it would not be surprising to see teams with a winning record miss out on the postseason.
While this is the deeper of the two conferences, it isn’t as wide open as the Eastern Conference is. In the East, an argument can be made for a few different teams claiming the top spots. The Boston Celtics are seen as the favorites, but the Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks and Miami Heat could all factor into the mix as well.
In the West, there are two teams that reign supreme over the competition; the Denver Nuggets and Phoenix Suns. All five writers over at NBA.com, Steve Aschburner, Brian Martin, Shaun Powell, John Schuhmann, and Michael C. Wright, have those teams near the top of the conference.
No one has the defending champion Nuggets below the No. 2 seed in their predictions, and the two people who do have the Suns at No. 1. The other three people have Denver at No. 1, as Wright is the only person who doesn’t have them as the consensus top two teams. He has the Memphis Grizzlies finishing second with the Suns third.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Phoenix Suns & Denver Nuggets Updates
Even with that slight difference, they have made one thing clear; the Western Conference is going to go through either Denver or Phoenix. It is hard to argue against that as both of these teams are poised for deep playoff runs.
The case for the Nuggets is an easy one to make. Despite the loss of Bruce Brown, this is a team capable of repeating as champions. Nikola Jokic remains one of the best players in the world, Jamal Murray is an ascending All-Star and the combination of Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon is one of the best two-way forward duos in the NBA.
The Suns reloaded this offseason, adding Bradley Beal alongside Devin Booker and Kevin Durant for a star-studded Big 3. They were able to refill the depth on the roster, trading Deandre Ayton to the Portland Trail Blazers as part of the three-team trade that sent Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Phoenix Suns & Denver Nuggets Updates
Chimezie Metu, Bol Bol, Eric Gordon, Drew Eubanks, Keita Bates-Diop, Yuta Watanabe, Jordan Goodwin, Nassir Litte, Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen and Keon Johnson make up the new depth around the Suns’ Big 3 with holdovers in Josh Okogie, Damion Lee and Ish Wainwright.
It would not be surprising to see the Nuggets and Suns facing off in the Western Conference Finals as the two franchises seem to be on a collision course for each other with their star-studded roster.
