Win In 6 Podcast #20: Southwest Division Preview

It’s that time of week again (for the second time), as our team gets together to discuss the latest Milwaukee Bucks’ news and most important conversation points in our “Win In 6 Podcast”!

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As the season moves closer, it only feels right to branch out and look further around at the teams the Bucks are going to have to square off against, and so from this week on that’s exactly what we’re going to be doing on the podcast.

On top of our regular podcast spot (posting on Tuesdays) where we dive deep into every piece of Bucks news or discussion, we’ll take a division by division trip around the NBA on Thursdays to get to know the opposition a little better.

Over the last few weeks we started off in the Eastern Conference by looking at the Atlantic Division and the Southeast Division, but we’ve left the Eastern Conference for now before coming back to finish with the Central next week

In the meantime, we have moved over to look at the bloodbath that is the Western Conference. We’ve already broken down the Northwest and Pacific, so that leaves us with the loaded Southwest division to wrap up in the West.

The Southwest had all five teams make the post-season last year, and at least a couple of the teams in the division have improved significantly this summer too. Could all five teams return to the playoffs this season? Could the NBA champion even come out of the Southwest division?

The Dallas Mavericks are a franchise facing a whole host of question marks this season, and as a result they may well be the team in the division with the widest potential range that their win total could fall under. There are many ways where it could go wrong.

Can Deron Williams produce anywhere near his best basketball still? Can Wesley Matthews make a full and successful recovery? How much will Tyson Chandler be missed? And most importantly of all, what has Dirk Nowitzki got left in the tank?

The Houston Rockets were outstanding last season, but the question remains as to how much of that success they can be reasonably expected to replicate this year? Houston suffered a remarkable amount of injuries last season, but in many ways they were rescued thanks to James Harden‘s MVP caliber season.

Can Harden repeat that this season? It will be incredibly difficult, but the addition of Ty Lawson will at least give him a real creative point guard to help lessen the strain of carrying the offense.

The Memphis Grizzlies have consistently been one of the league’s best teams for a number of years now, and although they didn’t necessarily add too many significant pieces this summer, it’s safe to expect them to be good again.

The Grizzlies biggest off-season move was the re-signing of All-NBA First Team big man Marc Gasol, but picking up players like Matt Barnes and Brandan Wright could yet prove to be decisive and shrewd pickups.

The San Antonio Spurs made a bigger splash than anybody this summer as they managed to beat off significant competition to lure LaMarcus Aldridge away from Portland. San Antonio were already one of the league’s best teams, but now they offer a whole new threat.

Combining Aldridge’s current status as one of the league’s best players with the legendary abilities of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, makes the Spurs a formidable opponent. Gregg Popovich has a greater arsenal to work with than he has for a long, long time.

It’s hard to know what to expect from the New Orleans Pelicans. In Anthony Davis they have the best young player in the entire NBA, and with the addition of Alvin Gentry as coach they now also have one of the best strategic and offensive minds around to work with him.

Behind that, it’s tough to get a gauge on what the Pelicans have though. Jrue Holiday, Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans‘ performances can all vary dramatically from night to night, and that kind of uncertainty impacts the team’s prospects as a whole.

To get to the bottom of all of these questions and more, joining me are staff writers Ti Windisch and Jordan Treske.

Make sure to follow us on SoundCloud, and subscribe on iTunes to never miss an episode of Win In 6 in the future.

Check out our podcast breakdown of Jason Kidd next Tuesday, as well as our preview of the Central Division coming Thursday.

As always, let us hear your thoughts and feedback.

Next: Win In 6 Podcast #19: Breaking Down The Bucks Centers

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