Pre-Free Agency West Power Rankings: Jazz Continue to Border Play-In

Following a successful 2023 NBA Draft and now entering free agency, it’s time to take a step back and analyze how the Utah Jazz stack up against the West. Given that the first step into making the playoffs is finding success in the conference, seeing where the Jazz fall into place right now is something important to note looking forward to this offseason.

With three new rookies and a new trade addition, the Jazz have been active in bringing in new faces to this team. Are these early adds enough to leap the play-in tournament just yet?

Here’s how we see the order of the Western Conference falling as things currently stand before free agency:

15. Houston Rockets

Despite such a successful draft from Houston, the timeline is just a few years too early to compete with the current talent in the West. The potential lineup of Thompson-Green-Whitmore-Smith Jr.-Sengun looks to be like an incredible cast of players...just not right this moment.

14. Portland Trail Blazers

The worst part about Portland being ranked so low on this list is that their core isn’t as bad as their ranking shows. Scoot Henderson, Anfernee Simons, and Shaedon Sharpe are just a few names that make up an exciting new era for the Trail Blazers. The problem comes in when trying to find a route to win Damian Lillard a title now. In such a stacked conference, the route to get there with this roster just isn’t there.

13. San Antonio Spurs

As good as Victor Wembanyama is, he won’t be turning the Spurs into Larry O’Brien contenders overnight. There are still numerous holes this youthful San Antonio team needs to fill before turning into true threat in the conference. However, such a monumental addition of Wemby merits jumping up a few spots.

12. Utah Jazz

After a great draft and a low-risk addition of John Collins, the Jazz are on track for an already fantastic offseason. While there’s still a ton of progress made for the long-term outlook of the franchise, it doesn’t quite mean these changes have done enough to make that next jump just yet. Adding a ton of new youth and depth is great, but it doesn’t match up just yet with some of the best talents in the league.

Utah has a ton of room for growth with the cap space still available, but making impulsive moves just to try and make the play-in so quickly into a rebuild isn’t the way to go about this rebuild. Slowly building the foundation of the roster with team cornerstones like Walker Kessler, Taylor Hendricks, and Lauri Markkanen has given this team a great base to work with.

Now, continuing to develop this young talent and building through the draft can still be the focus moving forward. With a ton of time to go until this roster is finalized, the Jazz have already positioned themselves to be in a great place now, especially within the next three years.

11. Minnesota Timberwolves

The stock of the Timberwolves haven’t exactly trended up since the Rudy Gobert trade. Anthony Edwards is incredible, but with an aging Mike Conley and a still questionable frontcourt pairing of Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns, they’re simply outmatched compared to the surrounding competition.

10. New Orleans Pelicans

It’s difficult to place the Pelicans any higher without any consistent or sustainable success with their current core. The duo of Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson is lethal at its full potential, but we’ve yet to see that come it truly come to form in the four years since Zion was drafted to the franchise.

9. Los Angeles Clippers

While they’ve been in a lot of rumors, and even the extremely odd almost trade involving Malcolm Brogdon to start the summer, there hasn’t been much change within LA up to this point. Free agency will end up being the best opportunity the Clippers have to make the much-needed upgrade to this roster. In a rapidly improving West, LA must keep up with the league by taking some swings in the coming weeks.

8. Dallas Mavericks

The Mavericks understood the assignment during this year’s draft by adding some great, young defenders to the roster. Dereck Lively II and Oliver-Maxence Prosper can patch some of the glaring holes this roster had last season to make the necessary jump back into the playoffs.

7. Memphis Grizzlies

While the trade for Marcus Smart is a good addition for the Grizzlies, the Ja Morant suspension tanks this team’s rank down a few spots. In such a competitive and tightly-knit West, losing an All-NBA level guard for a quarter of the season damages the current team’s state compared to other contenders.

6. Oklahoma City Thunder

This youthful core in Oklahoma City is only getting better with time. They’ll enter next season with an already play-in quality team adding not one, but two instantly impactful rookies into the rotation. New addition Cason Wallace is a great complimentary piece in the backcourt, while Chet Holmgren’s debut is looming in the distance.

5. Sacramento Kings

We haven’t seen much drastic change on the Kings’ front up to this point in the offseason, but the Sacramento front office has sneakily positioned itself as a player in free agency. A potentially big-time signing could give this core the necessary boost to become a top contender in the West.

4. Golden State Warriors

A fully-healthy core of Steph, Klay, and Draymond was finally dethroned in the 2023 post-season, but we know how deadly this combination can still be. While Draymond Green’s future in the Bay Area is in question after a declined player option, the rest of this team still has enough to be considered a top team in the conference.

3. Los Angeles Lakers

An extremely inspiring latter half of this past season for Los Angeles has completely changed the previous perception the team had just a year ago. While it was a great stretch of winning basketball, LeBron’s not getting any younger, and a crucial free agency puts the long-term state of this roster in the air at the moment.

2. Phoenix Suns

Trading away Chris Paul and Landry Shamet in return for Bradley Beal is more than enough to secure a top-two spot in the Western Conference ranks. While the clear hole in the team’s depth still stands, free agency will be the chance for Phoenix to fill out the roster top-to-bottom.

1. Denver Nuggets

It’s hard to make a case for any other team being at the top of the West, considering the Nuggets are less than a month removed from winning an NBA title. Denver is the clear team to beat, and the next few weeks of the offseason will have opposing teams attempting to find the solution to stopping Nikola Jokic.

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