The Pacific is the only division in the NBA in which every team finished with a winning record last season. But on the surface, only one team therein has gotten better during this offseason.
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS: C
In 2019, Joe Lacob expressed his desire to retain the services of Klay Thompson (and Steph Curry) "forever". And I'm pretty sure he reiterated that sentiment in 2023, even though I can't find the reference at the moment. That said, 2019 and even 2023 can be considered a lifetime ago in NBA years. So all things considered, I'm not going to criticize GSW for letting Klay walk. What's more surprising, at least to me, is that they didn't get anyone comparable in return.
The Warriors did improve on the wing, in terms of (2)G and (S)F depth. The thing tho is that, they've more or less had impressive wing rotations throughout this entire decade. In other words, that wasn't their problem.
Their main issue of late, imo, has been lack of size, especially of the quick, versatile type Secondly, it's been the inconsistency of Wiggins, which I guess has now been mitigated through the presence of Kyle Anderson in particular, though it will look kinda weird if Wiggins, who signed a $100m+ extension late last year, ultimately ends up coming off or even riding the bench.
The Warriors made a couple of major personnel mistakes last season, besides arguably retaining Wiggins for that much money. One was signing Chris Paul, the type of player who's skillset they totally didn't need as much as others. Second was letting Jordan Poole go. I know I have a tendency to cry over split milk, but that was a mishap of the ages in terms of Golden State's development towards the post-Big 3 era. If Jordan were still around, the loss of Klay wouldn't feel as bad. So instead of giving to the feelings of Draymond, Steph and whoever else may have had issues with Poole, management should have instead forced them all to get along.
Curry still has superstar abilities, as just displayed at the Olympics. But the rest of the roster overall leaves something to be desired, in terms of speed, compatibility, age, and I would even say, in terms of a couple of key players, on-court intelligence. I don't really feel like getting into it now, since there's other squads to harp on. But I'm not looking forward to the Warriors being any better than they were last season, unless maybe the NBA itself favors them.
PHOENIX SUNS: F
The tripling(?) of KD, Booker and Beal was always questionable in my opinion, because their skillsets overlap. For brainstrusts who are looking to build an instant superteam champion, they should study to the 2008 Celtics. That was a prime example of a big 3 core who had different, complementary playing styles.
What those Celtics also had that the Suns currently don't is a couple of exceptional role players. Nurkic is one of the better Cs in the NBA, albeit one who didn't mesh as well (with KD in particular) as I had anticipated, even though he averaged a double-double. Perhaps that was to be expected, considering that, going back to his Portland days, Jusuf did not appear to be especially effective alongside speedy stars.
The biggest problem with the Suns, as numerous pundits have pointed out, is that they're paying their big 3 so much that they have virtually no flexibility to flesh out the rest of the roster as idealized. That's more or less a common problem when it comes to superteams. Either the stars have to be willing to take a paycut, or coveted vets have to be down to join the team on a discount, neither of which appears to be the case in Phoenix. And as for attracting hungry vets, their inability to do so may have something to do with the fact that honestly speaking, this team doesn't appear primed for a championship.
But with their talent, i.e. two Olympians for instance, you never know. Interestingly, out of the three teams that sent more than one player to the Olympics, two of them (the Suns and Lakers) are borderline garbage. I was high on Phoenix at the beginning of last season. But after their poor showing in both the postseason and offseason, I'm not privy on making that mistake again.
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS: B
The Clippers are the Sixers of the West. Their braintrust is exceptional enough to perennially field deep, talented, contender-level rosters. Yet, they're never able to win a championship.
I don't expect that to change this coming season, but I do believe that LAC may now be better off than in the recent past. With Paul George and Westbrook gone and Kawhi unlikely to contribute on a consistent basis, now at least they have a clear(er) leader in the Beard. Whether or not he remains healthy is another thing. But it seems that Harden has adopted a playing style with sorta minimizes his chances of being seriously injured.
Don't forget that the Beard is also one of the best assist men in the league, And LAC has complemented that talent with the addition of a couple of versatile wings in Jones Jr. and Porter Jr.
The Clippers still arguably have too much talent concentrated at the 1-3 as opposed to the 5, unless Bamba has a renaissance year, regaining the trajectory he previously achieved in Orlando, which is very possible if he's actually given playing time. This team should be exciting watch, even with George gone, and they should be really formidable if Leonard is around, even if some deserving players will be relegated to the bench. As far as smaller teams go, they may have more depth than any other squad in the West. But believing in the Clippers, in terms of winning a championship, has become sort of a fool's gambit.
LOS ANGELES LAKERS: D
I can't remember exactly where I heard or read it, but I recently came across a pundit who noted that the biggest move LAL made this offseason was resigning Max Christie, a player who averaged a whopping 4 minutes in the postseason. Beyond that, they decided to pay dude $32mil over, a somewhat hefty sum for a player who averaged 4pts, 1 assist and 2 rebounds during the regular season. Apparently he's a defensive specialist, albeit one who the Lakers don't really give a lot of playing time to - sorta like a Matisse Thybulle, if you will.
I follow the NBA religiously and barely ever heard of Christie. So for cursory NBA fans, it's likely they don't know him at all. But again, he was the Lakers biggest (non-draft) signing. So I agree with the aforenoted pundit in that saying a lot about the efficacy of their current braintrust.
Besides that, there was also the signing of Bronny James. No one is expecting him to get noteworthy playing time, since he doesn't actually deserve it, but I believe he eventually will. In fact, I'm looking forward to Bronny averaging somewhere in the range of 5-6ppg this coming season. Remember you heard it here first.
There's also this other rookie, Dalton Knecht, who, unlike Bronny, is expected to get major playing time. Knecht appears to be akin to a jump-shooting whiteboy and furthermore one who can rebound a bit. Perhaps we may even see lineups where both he and Reaves are playing alongside AD and Lebron. That would sorta make sense, if Lebron is driving/posting and if Dalton can actually play defense.
Despite having two perennial allstars, the Lakers roster doesn't appear overly impressive on paper. But that's not totally the fault of the players overall. The braintrust needs to finally decide on a starting five and stick with it no matter what. Also, Lebron needs to dedicate himself to playing in a way the team needs, i.e. more along the lines of a traditional 4, as opposed to how he wants.
SACRAMENTO KINGS: B
Harrison Barnes is the type of player who never get the respect he deserves in terms of his ability to make an impact. But that said, I totally advocate replacing him with DeRozan, in a manner of speaking. Some pundits have the tendency to criticize midrange shooters. But points are points, and not many players score better than DeMar.
In 2022-23, the Kings appeared as if they were on the cusp of greatness.. Then in 2023-24, they once again disappeared into obscurity. So they had to make some kind of a powermove. And all things considered, getting DeRozan makes sense.
Sacramento needs to force itself onto the map. Sabonis is the best PF/C in the NBA but is being overlooked as he's stuck on this obscure team. Fox is an exceptional PG by all accounts, but it's understandable how he can be forgotten in a conference that also features the likes of Steph, the Beard, SGA, etc. So hopefoully, DeMar will be able to power this squad to the next level.
CONCLUSION
The Kings are the only team in the Pacific that noticeably upgraded, as in their primary incoming player (DeRozan) being unanimously considered better than the outgoing one (Barnes). Whether or not the Lakers got better through the draft or the Clippers through a number of noteworthy vet signings remain to be seen. As for Golden State, even if Klay is more or less washed, it's kinda hard to imagine that they actually got better with him gone, and the main incoming player being Slo Mo. And as for the Suns, they don't appear to have really changed at all, which isn't a good thing considering that KD and Beal are probably going to spend considerable amounts of time injured.
