ESPN Analyst Believes Mavs Can't Contend For West's Top Seed

Once again, Tim Bontemps is on to discredit the Mavericks

Apr 1, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA; Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) reacts to referees decision during a game against the Miami Heat at Miami-Dade Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rich Storry-Imagn Images / Rich Storry-Imagn Images

The NBA season is a little over a month away, leaving analysts to start making predictions for the season. Teams mostly have their rosters set and betting odds are available for MVP, Finals winner, and Eastern and Western Conference champions.

"The Hoop Collective" Podcast with Brian Windhorst, Tim Bontemps, and Tim McMahon recently released an episode putting the Western Conference in tiers. The first tier was "Conference Winners," teams they thought could be the top seed in the West this upcoming season.

The first team listed was the Oklahoma City Thunder. They won the West's top seed last season, and one could argue they got better this offseason by trading Josh Giddey for Alex Caruso and signing Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency. They all agreed that the Thunder were the favorites to come out of the West again, but this is where Bontemps jumped in and took it a step further.

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"I think [the Thunder] are in a tier by themselves, personally," Bontemps said. Then, when he was asked why he thought that, "One, if you go back to the survey [he conducted a survey around the league asking about various topics, one being who will win the Western Conference], they got, I think, 70% of the votes from people around the league... so, in general, they are seen as the clear and decisive favorites to get out of the conference. I would say last year, there was a top tier for the course of the season of three teams: the Thunder, the Nuggets, and the [Timber]wolves... Minnesota lost some key pieces this summer. Denver, obviously, we've talked a lot about the key pieces they lost this summer... And the Thunder add Alex Caruso for Josh Giddey, add Isaiah Hartenstein to their roster, their young guys are all going to get better... I think there's a pretty significant gap between them and the other teams behind them."

McMahon quickly brought up that the Dallas Mavericks beat them in the playoffs and went to the NBA Finals and also arguably got better, to which Bontemps said you could place all four of the Nuggets, Mavericks, Thunder, and Timberwolves in the same tier, which is what Windhorst and McMahon did, but he thinks the Thunder are "head and shoulders" better than everyone else in the West.

To say any team is "head and shoulders" above the rest in the West is a mistake. The Western Conference is a bloodbath of at least 13 teams that have legitimate playoff aspirations and, as the Mavericks proved last year, anything can happen.

There's also a chance the Thunder's acquisition of Hartenstein backfires. OKC had a successful season in part because of their ability to play five out and have shooting threats all over the court. Hartenstein has made 27 three-pointers over the course of his six-year career and won't be respected as a threat from deep the same way Chet Holmgren is. He will help fix the rebounding issue that plagued them against Dallas, but that may not be worth the hit to their offensive spacing.

Dallas, Denver, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, and even the Memphis Grizzlies (if they can stay healthy) are all threats to be the West's top seed next year. Even teams like the Phoenix Suns and LA Lakers have an outside shot of doing so, but the West is always unpredictable.

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