There is a top 9 in the West, with three tiers of teams. This is purely a regular-season projection column so the tiers would be a little bit different if it was an NBA championship column. But as far as the regular season goes, there seem to be three tiers. The top tier seems to be made of 3 teams that is for the top spot in the Western Conference. That would be the Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Lakers, and the Phoenix Suns.

• UTAH JAZZ

The Utah Jazz are the reigning Western Conference regular-season champs and they don’t seem to be going anywhere. They will most likely drop some in terms of win percentage but they brought back all of their essential pieces from last year’s team as well as Rudy Gay, Eric Paschall, Hassan Whiteside, and drafting Jared Butler. They are perfectly built to be really good in the regular season and it appears that they are the front runners to claim to the top spot in the West.

• LOS ANGELES LAKERS
  

The Los Angeles Lakers are loaded with star power and seem to be the most favorites of the West this year. They may have come out of the West this past year had it not been for an Anthony Davis injury. But Lebron is well known for taking off the regular season if he needs to in order to be prepared for the Playoffs and with turning 37 this year, for sure he will do that again. Russell Westbrook will raise their regular season however and so they will be a contender for the top spot in the West. Health and age will be a big factor for this team this year.

• PHOENIX SUNS
  

Phoenix is the other team to look out for. They are the reigning Western Conference champs from this past year and brought back nearly the exact same team that went to the NBA Finals. Chris Paul MAY drop this year but Devin Booker and DeAndre Ayton clearly ascended to new levels as players this past postseason. It should be expected that will translate to the regular season this new year to take some pressure off of Paul. They will be able to contend to take the victory of the West from the Jazz during this regular season.

PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS

This is assuming that Damian Lillard stays with the team the whole season. The Blazers had a peaceful season, in terms of adding and subtracting players, until they just made a move to grab Larry Nance Jr. Even then, they still did not make a bright move this offseason or shake things up as many expected.

This is a really solid team, still with Lillard, McCollum, Powell, Covington, Nance, and Nurkic, among others. If Powell and McCollum can take the pressure off of Lillard some, this could be a very good regular season team, and expect that they will. They should be a middle of the pack team in the West with the upside to move into the top tier of the standings behind a great Lillard season.

GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

This is the team with the greatest chance to jump into the top tier and be able to contend for the Western Conference title. Stephen Curry carried the Golden State Warriors in the most of their match last season by himself and they still almost made the playoffs. They added two lottery picks in Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody and they are getting Klay Thompson back from injury. The reason they are not in a higher tier is because of the time it may take for Klay Thompson to get himself going again and we are not sure how good he will be coming back from an ACL and Achilles tear.

DALLAS MAVERICKS

Dallas is another team that could be all over the place due to the fact that they have Luka Doncic and not a whole lot else. Luka has shown that he is good enough to carry a team and he still seems to be improving. This team could made into the top tier as well because Luka is that good. They re-signed Hardaway Jr and they signed Reggie Bullock. This team should be better than last year. But they are also a Luka injury away from falling out of the playoffs altogether.

DENVER NUGGETS

Denver would be in a higher tier as well if it was not for Jamal Murray being expected to miss most of the season. Jokic is good enough to get this team to playoffs by himself but there is definitely a ceiling on this team without the appearance of the second star in Murray’s. If Murray comes back faster than expected, look for this team to move up in the West.

LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS

The Clippers are without Kahwi Leonard all season long (reportedly) and with that, they will need to look like the team they were in the playoffs in order to get back to the postseason. They are certainly expected to drop from what their performance was in the playoffs but if they are close to that form, then they are a tier too low. If they do appearance, the worst-case scenario seems to be here where they are competing to make the playoffs.

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES

Memphis is on the outside looking in but they are still in the same tier as the Clippers. They made the playoffs last year but they seem the most likely team to be knocked from the field with Golden State ascending again. They need Jaren Jackson Jr. or Dillion Brooks to take a leap forward to bring a second star next to Ja Morant.