While the league is approaching the middle of the NBA season, there are still 14 teams in the Western Conference that are still in the playoff discussion and there are many teams that can be classified as true playoff contenders. The Timberwolves may be the only team that probably doesn’t have a real chance of making the playoffs, but everyone else still has a lot of talent in their squad and a real chance to make some noise after the All-Star break.
While there are several possible playoff teams in the Western Conference, everyone is currently chasing Utah Jazz, which has emerged as a true contender for the championship this year. This will make the rumors about NBA negotiations quite intriguing as the negotiation deadline approaches.
Donovan Mitchell has become a superstar player, regardless of who says no, Rudy Gobert is a candidate for Defensive Player of the Year, Jordan Clarkson is the favorite for the Sixth Man of the Year Award and other high-impact guys like Mike Conley, Bojan Bogdanovic and Joe Ingles took on bigger roles this year.
This team as a whole plays so well together and is a fantastic team with two hands. They currently reside third in the league in points per game and are currently allowing the second lowest number of points per game. Jazz does things on both ends of the court, which is why they currently have the best record in the league on 26-6 and have everyone in the Western Conference looking at them.
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Other teams from the Lakers, Clippers, Suns and Trail Blazers have championship aspirations in the West this year too, but may need to make a significant change near the NBA’s negotiation deadline to “catch up” to the Utah Jazz.
Let’s take a look at a trade scenario for each Western Conference candidate to try to compete with Utah Jazz during the second half of the NBA season.