The Wild Wild West

Holy crap. And we all thought the Western Conference was loaded before. Then shit got interesting. The Lakers made the first move, stealing Pau Gasol in a move reminiscent of the the Colts packing up and leaving Baltimore in the in the middle of the night? You can call that trade Gasol for the poo-poo platter. Kwame Brown and crap, this is ridiculous. Coach Pop summed it up well here.

So feeling a need to respond (though they're not calling a response, even if they're kidding themselves), the Suns went and pulled Shaq back in to the West. The reaction, to be kind, has been mixed. And since he has yet to play a game, it will remain that way until Shaq is able to show exactly how he will fit into the Suns.

And now the Mavs appear ready to pull Jason Kidd back into the West, and back to Dallas. Dallas is giving up Devin Harris, who in my opinion is underrated and will be missed. Then again, Kidd is a triple-double machine, so that should help.

What does this all mean? Well the West is loaded. I mean, LOADED. No one can figure out who the favorite is, with all teams above being mentioned, as well as New Orleans, San Antonio and some crackpots spouting off about the Jazz. Personally i think it comes down to Phoenix, LA, San Antonio, and to a somewhat lesser extent Dallas. Going out on a limb huh?

Dallas, even with Kidd, doesn't scare me as much because of their mental state after the last two years and they're losing their best inside presence, Diop, in the Kidd deal. LA could be interesting, and if Bynum comes back they actually scare me. As for San Antonio, well, they're the Spurs (Sterns), and they'll be there in the end. I think the Suns have a good a chance as anyway, and maybe (maybe) the best if Shaq actually assimilates well and stays healthy. No matter what happens, the West is still even more loaded than it's been the last couple of years.

Then again, Boston may still be the best team in the NBA...