NBA 2024/25 Quarter season grades: Western Conference

NBA 2024/25 Quarter season grades: Western Conference

Last week, I ran my eye over the NBA’s eastern conference, handing each team a grade based upon their performance against expectation. This time around we turn our attentions west.

Unless otherwise stated, stats come courtesy of Basketball Reference and are accurate as to games played on Tuesday December 10th, US time.

NBA 2024/25 Quarter season grades: Eastern Conference

Oklahoma City Thunder (19 wins – 5 losses): A

It should surprise nobody that this aspiring juggernaut of a group sits atop the Western Conference. Despite missing Isaiah Hartenstein at the start of the season and then losing Chet Holmgren shortly before Hartenstein’s debut, the Thunder have maintained a league-best defense, and by quite a margin. Playing nominal wing Jalen Williams as a makeshift starting centre, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault set his Dogs of War upon unsuspecting NBA offences and saw them hounded into submission.

What’s scary about this side is that some of their key players have yet to shoot the three ball at anything close to last season’s clip. On close to double the number of attempts, star man Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has dropped his accuracy by almost three percent, Williams also regressing by a similar figure. With so much of the Thunder attack reliant on making the open jumpers created by SGA and Williams, it is slightly concerning that Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins and Alex Caruso (an almost 14% regression) are all well below their career rates.

Still, if that’s the only nit to pick then the Thunder are in pretty rude health.

Memphis Grizzlies (17-8): A-

If you look hard enough, you will find a section of Grizzlies fans who would prefer to see the back of coach Taylor Jenkins. Those people are, in a word, mad.  

Despite a raft of injuries to his prime movers, Jenkins continues to cobble together a successful basketball team. He has overseen the development of prospects like Santi Aldama and Jaylen Wells, whilst making real NBA players out of castoffs Jay Huff and Scotty Pippen Jr. Despite mixing and matching his lineups every other night, Memphis possesses the fourth best net rating in the NBA, with both their offense and defense ranked fifth. If this team ever gets fully healthy for an extended period, look out.

If there is a concern, it’s Memphis’ ability, or lack thereof, to close out games, having a 2-9 record in clutch games so far this campaign.

NBA 2024/25 Rookie Rankings – November

Houston Rockets (16-8): A

The moment that Ime Udoka was hired, I had two thoughts: firstly, hide your wives; and second, in time this Rockets side is going to be very, very good. Even a Udoka evangelist such as I didn’t think they would be this good this quickly, in the battlefield that is the west.

Despite a stark lack of outside shooting, the wild inconsistency of Jalen Green coupled with Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith not quite kicking on just yet, Houston do just enough to get by of offense. Rather, the Rockets make their bones at the other end of the floor where, despite less-than-ideal rim protection, their snarling, hyper athletic wings and dogged point of attack defense has them ranked second in the NBA.

This team is so deep that Reed Sheppard can barely make it on the floor and a talented young scorer like Cam Whitmore, who would be a rotation piece for close to 20 teams in the NBA, is better served getting his shots up in the G League.

Once the offense comes around, this team is going to be truly nasty.

Dallas Mavericks (16-9): B+

Despite an early season injury to Luka Doncic, the sun around which the Mavs revolve, Dallas continues to perform well. Even when he has played, Luka has experienced his usual slow start to the campaign. Still, though, Dallas keeps on winning. They’re deep and talented, able to cover any missing options – Luka out? Let Kyrie Irving cook. Lively injured, Gafford can play 35 minutes. Klay Thompson not on song? Here’s a Naji Marshall or Jaden Hardy cameo – and the versatility to completely change their look if required.

The Mavs can go big and powerful or small and switchy at the defensive end. They can lace the floor with shooters and let Luke or Kyrie Irving (quietly having a very good campaign) bake you or they can go bigger and pound you inside.

There are only two concerns for the Mavs as they recover from their final appearance: injuries and the Western Conference gauntlet. No matter their quality, it will be incredibly tough for them to repeat as conference champs.

Golden State Warriors (14-9): A-

Perhaps knowing that many of his chargers are unlikely to see out the season unscathed, veteran coach Steve Kerr leaned heavily into the lesser see 12-man rotation in the opening weeks of the season. As expected, he has tightened the rotation as De’Anthony Melton went down with a knee injury and Curry missed some time. That depth has allowed the Warriors to give players strategic nights off, with only Buddy Hield, Gary Payton II and Moses Moddy appearing in every match so far. That will only help towards the back end of the campaign.

Steph Curry is still Steph Curry. Draymond Green is still Draymond Green. Andrew Wiggins is presenting as a reasonable facsimile of his 2022 self. That in itself is a solid base upon which to build. The youngsters continue to develop and provide solid contributions, even if Kerr doesn’t always appear to fully trust them. On that note: #FreeMosesMoody.

It does feel, though, like the Warriors are going so deep into the rotation simply to shop some of their depth pieces. They tried to make consolidation trades for Paul George and Lauri Markkanen in the offseason and Jimmy Butler’s name has been raised enough that it must be more than a blind rumour.

Los Angeles Clippers (14-11): A

I was one of a raft of media commentators who though that, with Paul George in Philadelphia and Kawhi Leonard in traction, the Clippers would be relying on the technical innovations in their sparkling new Intuit Dome to distract from some pretty dire on court product.

Instead, the Clippers have leaned into an identity as a defensive juggernaut, currently seventh in defensive rating, and on the other side of the ball have relied on a career year from Norman Powell and a throwback campaign from usage king James Harden.

Whilst the Clips are hanging about in the playoff spots of the ever-competitive West, you can’t help but feel that they’re in the red zone and could fall away at any moment. That said, the results are what they are and they’ve clearly surpassed expectations.

Denver Nuggets (12-10): C

Poor Nikola Jokic. The three-time MVP – and clubhouse leader for a fourth – is doing practically everything for this ball club. Just check these stats, over his past five games, out: 38.8 points on 63% shooting, 2.2 treys, 14.8 boards, 82.8 assists, 2.6 steals. That’s absurd!

He’s taking more shots than ever and is trying to singlehandedly alleviate the lack of three-point shooting on this squad, despite his own strengths being nearer to the basket. The team genuinely falls apart without him. In his 37.7 minutes per night – surely an unsustainable number, by the way – Denver are +8.2 points a game. In the 10.3 minutes a game that he doesn’t play? That would be a -6.5. For those still fumbling with their calculators, that means that Denver is being outscored by about 1.4 points per minute that Jokic sits.

To be fair, Michael Porter Jr is having a quietly excellent season, and Christian Braun has settled into the starting unit seamlessly. Aaron Gordon has missed time with injury but has been typically great when he’s been on the court.

Unfortunately, their bench remains tissue-paper thin, and Jamal Murray looks a shell of his former self. So much of Denver’s success depends on Murray. If he can find even 80% of his old form, then Denver is a contender. Jokic is simply that good. This current version of Murray, one swallowing up a huge chunk of the salary cap, could potentially sink the Nuggets’ hopes of another NBA title.

Los Angeles Lakers (13-11): C-

With minimal roster turnover from the last wholly unsatisfying campaign and a coach coming straight out of the podcasting studio, intrigue around the Lakers was high coming into the season. Would JJ Redick find something in this group? Would we be witnessing a slow-motion train wreck? Would their stars turn into sawdust before our very eyes?

For his part, Redick has done a reasonable job as an NBA coach up to this point. He has overseen a far more egalitarian attack, the ball moving more than it has at any point in the LeBron James/Lakers era. He has also empowered Anthony Davis to be the hub on both ends of the floor, coaxing what was looking Davis’ best season through the first month, before some regression to the mean. Rookie Dalton Knecht has been a revelation since being introduced to the starting unit. James, though, finally looks like he is conceding ground to father time. Whilst he is still capable of some big-time performances, his worst games are no longer average, they’re downright bad.

Draymond Green: Father Time has ‘caught up’ to LeBron James, but he’s not ‘done’

With Davis’s hot start in the rearview and nobody else on the roster capable of consistently competing at both ends of the floor, the Lakers 10-4 start has evaporated, the team now back where most people expected them to be, hanging around .500. Most concerningly, four of their past six losses have been by 25, 27, 29 and 41 points. Are the wheels coming off the Lakers bandwagon?

Minnesota Timberwolves (12-11): C+

As many predicted, the transition from Karl Anthony Towns to Julius Randle has been…stilted.

Randle has shot the ball well by his own standards but his is not and will never be a shooter on Towns’ level. Anthony Edwards has been blistering from deep, but lost in his white-hot shooting is that he has had no choice but to fire away from the outside thanks to Randle’s relative lack of gravity clogging up driving lanes. Not helping matters has been a slow start by Donte DiVincenzo, the other player to come across in the Towns swap.

Defensively, the Wolves struggled early on, again finding it difficult to adjust to Randle as opposed to the two-big lineups with some combination of Towns, Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid. However, over their past four games – all wins – Minnesota has held its opposition to 85.3 points per game, suggesting that they’re back into their defensive groove.

Anthony Edwards admits the Timberwolves continue to be ‘soft as hell’ internally

Phoenix Suns (12-11): B

As Kevin Durant goes, so do the Phoenix Suns go. The Suns are 11-2 when KD takes to the court, a woeful 1-9 when he sits. Given the idea of a ‘Big Three’ (I’ll let you decide on the merits of the Suns version of a Big Three) is that when one of your pillars is out, the other two can carry the load, that record sans-Durant is indeed a sad state of affairs.

There is some logic, outside of KD being really good at basketball, to his absence holding an outsized impact. The Suns are incredibly guard heavy. If you listed their best players after Durant, it would be (in some order): Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, Tyus Jones, Grayson Allen, Monte Morris, Ryan Dunn and Royce O’Neal. Notice a pattern, there? O’Neal – an undersized wing – aside, every player listed is a guard. They also play a pair of defensively challenged rotation centres in Jusuf Nurkic and Mason Plumlee which makes Durant’s two-way play at the forward position so important.

At 36 years of age and with a litany of lower body injuries behind him, putting so many eggs in the Durant basket is fraught with danger.

San Antonio Spurs (12-12): A-

It would be so easy to say that the Spurs received an A because Victor Wembanyama is continuing to successfully explore the boundaries of his considerable talent. That, though, would be reductive and awfully unfair to a Spurs team that is doing so much right.

Wemby continues to be a law unto himself on defense. We talk about the defenders erasing teammates mistakes, Wembanyama is so long and quick that he erases his own positioning errors. Along with rookie Stephon Castle, who I’ve already compared to a young Jrue Holiday in my recent rookie rankings, San Antonio has a pair of devastating defensive forces who will make scoring a nightmare for the next decade plus.

Harrison Barnes and especially Chris Paul have been ideal as the adults in the room, ushering the Spurs’ prospects toward greatness, offering live lessons in the professionalism needed to thrive in the NBA.

Sacramento Kings (12-13): C-

Was it only two seasons ago that the Kings were primed to be a playoff regular?

Since breaking their 16-year playoff drought, a combination of hubris, their opponents catching up to their at-the-time record-breaking offense and the gauntlet that is the West has seen the Kings back in their familiar spot, standing on the outside, faces pressed up against the glass, looking in.

What was a revolutionary offense in the 2023 season is now merely good, ranked eighth in the NBA. What was a breakneck pace is now 15th in the NBA, the definition of league average. A part of that pace regression is undoubtedly due to off-season acquisition DeMar DeRozan. The veteran wing has played well for the Kings, the mid-range maven losing none of his ability to create a shot at age 35. His deliberate nature, though, has clearly impacted the up-and-down stylings of De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk and Keegan Murray, whilst replacing a floor spacer in Harrison Barnes with DeRozan has limited the space Domantas Sabonis has to operate inside.

There is, or at least should be, improvement to come from the Kings. Murray and Kevin Huerter should shoot better from deep than 29%, while a team with Fox and DeRozan, two of the best clutch players in the world, should be than 5-9 in clutch games.

Portland Trailblazers (8-16): C-

If you squint really, really hard, you can see the outlines of the next Blazers team to win a playoff series. Anfernee Simons, Shaedon Sharpe and Scoot Henderson form a versatile and explosive three guard rotation. Donovan Clingan and DeAndre Ayton give the side 48 minutes of talented and athletic play from the pivot. Deni Avdija, Toumani Camara and Jerami Grant a versatile wing trio. Yet it’s just not quite coming together. Not yet anyway.

Who out of all the players just mentioned are a lock to be on this side at the outset of the 2026/27 season? The 30-year-old Grant will almost certainly be moved on by then, as would Ayton, whose performance has never matched his potential. Are Sharpe and Henderson on their way to joining Ayton in that group?

Clingan, Avdija and possibly Camara aside, the Blazers still don’t have a core to build around. For a club that is going to miss the playoffs for the fourth time on the bounce this season and has one NBA season with a playoff series win since 2016, that isn’t good enough.

Utah Jazz (5-18): C+

After two years of relatively strong starts costing them prime drafting position, the Jazz seem to have finally figured out this whole tanking lark.

In previous years, a mixture of solid veteran play and encouraging moments from their youth propelled the Jazz to a mid-table position before the team inevitably sold off the family silver in an effort to drop like a stone down the standings.

Whilst the veterans, John Collins, Jordan Clarkson and Collin Sexton, in particular, are again playing well, Utah’s prospects have generally performed poorly this season. Keyonte George and Isaiah Collier have both been dreadfully inefficient and Cody Williams went from starting NBA games to starting G-League games.

In fairness, prized forward Tylor Hendricks was showing flashes before a horrific leg break cut his season short, Walker Kessler has been solid, and Brice Sensabaugh has shown flashes as a scorer.

Overall, though, the Jazz have to be happy that they will be in the hunt for a top three pick though concerned at the lack of development from the prospects already on roster.

New Orleans Pelicans (5-20): F

The Pelicans, this season, have been closer to a MASH unit that a professional basketball team, though sadly without Alan Alda’s dry wit (kids, ask your parents to ask their parents). Of their top 11 players by minutes per game last season, eight have already missed significant time; the other three were traded away. The man the Pelicans received back in that trade, Dejounte Murray, broke his hand in their season opener and has made a grand total of six appearances.

With that in mind, it feels somewhat unfair to hand New Orleans an F for something that is objectively out of their control. That said, who couldn’t have seen another Zion Williamson injury occurring? Or the increasingly brittle CJ McCollum missing time? Trey Murphy missed quite a bit of time last season. Murray’s health record isn’t exactly spotless. Perhaps with his fragile roster in mind, Pelicans General Manager David Griffin has built a deep list, and it is simply unfortunate that practically all of that depth has been sidelined together.

As we report in at the halfway point of the season, it will be interesting to see if the Pelicans can shoot up the NBA standings and increase their grade as they slowly put themselves back together.