The New Orleans Pelicans have made some dramatic changes to their roster that they hope will propel them into the playoffs.
But the Western Conference is going to be highly competitive once again, so to get there the Pelicans are going to have to displace one or more of these teams, which isn’t going to be easy.
The Jazz, Suns, Lakers, Clippers, Nuggets, Mavericks and Warriors are locks to be playoff contenders which leaves very little room for error for the rest of the West.
The Pelicans finished in 11th place last season, just outside of the play-in tournament, so if they are going to improve upon that they need to knock off a few of the teams that finished ahead of them in the standings.
Here are the three most likely candidates.
New Orleans Pelicans: The San Antonio Spurs are rebuilding
The most likely candidate is the San Antonio Spurs, who finished with just two more wins than the Pelicans last season on their way to a 10th place finish.
The Spurs have a lot of young talent and are well coached, so you can never count them out, but they have lost some key pieces.
DeMar DeRozan was shipped to Chicago, which will obviously be a blow. They signed free agent Doug McDermott to replace him but McDermott is no DeRozan.
The Spurs took Josh Primo in the draft, one of the youngest players and not a guy who is expected to make an impact right away.
The Spurs have some nice pieces, but I think the Pels have improved enough to overtake them, especially if Zion Williamson continues to improve under coach Willie Green.