In any other year, Oklahoma City would be a shoo-in to repeat as conference champs. Young, star-heavy and deep? Those kinds of teams are generational, good for at least a couple of trips to the Finals. But this isn’t any year and this sure isn’t any Western Conference.
It’s no stretch to say this is the deepest a conference has been in the modern era. The top is loaded (Oklahoma City, Denver, Houston, et al.), the middle is packed (Minnesota, Golden State) and you have to go all the way to the bottom to find teams with nothing to play for. Maybe the bottom. See you next year, Utah.
