1. SACRAMENTO KINGS

Predicted 2024-25 record: 53-29

Last season: 46-36, T-9th in Western Conference

Last time…
The Kings won a playoff series, it was in the 2004 first round against the Mavericks, the same team that had ended Arvydas Sabonis’ career in the postseason a year earlier. Arvydas had 23 career NBA playoff wins; his son, Domantas, has just seven — three for the Kings.

FanDuel championship odds: +5500

Roster roll call
Draft Pick:
No. 13, G Devin Carter, Providence

DEPARTURES: F Harrison Barnes, G Chris Duarte, G Davion Mitchell, F Sasha Vezenkov
VETERAN ADDITIONS: G DeMar DeRozan, F Jalen McDaniels, G Jordan McLaughlin, F Doug McDermott

Big picture
The Kings were able to do something no other Pacific Division team could in the offseason: make a big splash. Importing DeMar DeRozan was a heist; all it cost them was Harrison Barnes, Chris Duarte and two second-round picks. For that bargain price, they got one of the league’s best closers in DeRozan, a player who finished second to Stephen Curry in the 2024 balloting for the NBA Clutch Player of the Year Award. DeRozan will be paired with De’Aaron Fox, a near-unanimous choice as the 2023 Clutch Award winner, on a team that won just six games by three or fewer points last season. The Kings now have the inside, midrange and perimeter covered with Fox, DeRozan and dominant big man Domantas Sabonis.

Get to know: F Keegan Murray
Few players are better situated to be a difference-maker this season than Murray, who should draw less defensive attention even though his scoring average jumped from 12.2 points as a rookie to 15.2 last year. With defenses struggling to prevent Fox’s drives to the hoop while also dealing with the one-on-one dangers of DeRozan and Sabonis, Murray can expect the quality of looks at 3-pointers that he had as a rookie. He buried 41.1 percent of his long-range shots that year and was a big reason the Kings raised a surprising division banner. It won’t be a surprise if it were to happen again this year.

2. LOS ANGELES LAKERS

Predicted 2024-25 record: 45-37

Last season: 47-35, 8th in Western Conference

Last time…
The Lakers made a coaching change — from Frank Vogel to Darvin Ham after the 2021-22 season — they improved 10 games yet went backward (from fourth place to fifth) in the Pacific Division.

FanDuel championship odds: +4000

Roster roll call
Draft Picks:
No. 17, F Dalton Knecht, Tennessee
No. 55, G Bronny James, Southern California

DEPARTURES: G Spencer Dinwiddie, F Taurean Prince
VETERAN ADDITION: C Christian Koloko

Big picture
LeBron James had options in the offseason, yet elected to stick with a team that no longer appears to have the energy to go a full 15 rounds with the heavyweights. The Lakers had choices, too, and decided to make the entire summer about Bronny James rather than begin a reshaping process like they did the last time they imported a member of the James family in 2018. Watching father and son take the court together in the regular season will be historic, but will anyone really care to see it again if it’s coming with a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter? Bronny should be able to trump dad in one area: The Lakers won just 37 games in LeBron’s first season in L.A.

Get to know: F Dalton Knecht
When Knecht debuted for Tennessee last November, he joined a team that had bowed out of its last two postseason tournaments at the hands of Michigan and Florida Atlantic. Despite basically appearing out of nowhere — he transferred in from Northern Colorado — the new guy immediately put the Volunteers on the map, pacing them in scoring in each of his first five games and nearly leading them to an upset of national finalist Purdue. Could he do it again with the Lakers? He did lead the team in total points in the preseason, bombing 50 3-point attempts that no doubt had LeBron and Anthony Davis cringing at times. But if he can — pardon the pun — connect on 39.1 percent of them as he did in summer league, or, even better, roughly 40 percent like he did at Tennessee, he could be new coach JJ Redick’s first five-star recruit.

3. GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

Predicted 2024-25 record: 44-38

Last season: 46-36, T-9th in Western Conference

Last time…
Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were both healthy and didn’t start side-by-side on Opening Night, the Curry-Monta Ellis tandem was outplayed by the Clippers’ Chauncey Billups and Chris Paul in a 19-point home loss in 2011.

FanDuel championship odds: +4500

Roster roll call
Draft Pick:
No. 52, C Quinten Post (acquired from Trail Blazers for cash)

DEPARTURES: G Klay Thompson, G Chris Paul, F Dario Saric
VETERAN ADDITIONS: F Kyle Anderson, G Buddy Hield, G De’Anthony Melton, G Lindy Waters III

Big picture
Expectations haven’t been this low for the Warriors in more than a decade, yet they’ve decided to play out Stephen Curry’s career with old pal Draymond Green and a bunch of not-ready-for-prime-time players alongside. Coach Steve Kerr is hoping that by surrounding Curry with a more energetic cast that will do more ballhandling and take tougher defensive assignments, the Olympic star’s season can be remembered more for his 4,000th career 3-pointer than his 3,000th career turnover. Nobody is yet saying that Brandin Podziemski, Jonathan Kuminga and Trayce Jackson-Davis are the next Curry-Thompson-Green, but the Warriors are hoping that’ll change by April.

Get to know: F Jonathan Kuminga
Kerr wants the Warriors to play at a faster pace this season, and few play faster than Kuminga, far and away Golden State’s most entertaining player last year even while his older teammates preferred that he wait for them. The leash is off now, which could give the 22-year-old an opportunity to battle Curry for team scoring honors and earn the big contract extension he was angling for during the preseason. It could also lead to a bunch of ill-advised 3-pointers that will shoot the Warriors out of games. How much did he fall in love with standing outside the arc last season? He chucked up 19 more 3-ponters than the year before despite a 49-point plummet in percentage.

4. PHOENIX SUNS

Predicted 2024-25 record: 43-39

Last season: 49-33, T-6th in Western Conference

Last time…
Kevin Durant won a gold medal, he played just 55 games the following regular season (2021-22). That was even fewer than the season after he spent the summer chasing his previous gold, when he suited up just 62 times in 2016-17.

FanDuel championship odds: +2000

Roster roll call
Draft Picks:
No. 28, SF Ryan Dunn, Virginia (acquired from Nuggets)
No. 40, C Oso Ighodaro, Marquette (acquired from Knicks)

DEPARTURES: C Drew Eubanks, G Eric Gordon, F David Roddy
VETERAN ADDITIONS: G Tyus Jones, G Monte Morris, C Mason Plumlee

Big picture
Like every other team in the West, the Suns sure look good in the team photo. They’ve got one of the best players of the modern era, a key glue piece on the most recent Olympic champ, a guy who has challenged for the league scoring title multiple times, even a decent big man and a sprinkling of former college stars. So where are the trophies? The problem is: The team photo is taken in October; the trophy is handed out in June… and Kevin Durant doesn’t burn both ends of that candle anymore. The Suns were hoping the addition of Bradley Beal would allow Durant to coast more during the regular season, but instead it just added to the opponents’ scoring total last year. And in the playoffs, a gimpy Durant and benched Beal aren’t beating anybody.

Get to know: G Collin Gillespie
The Suns took a step in the right direction with the addition of Grayson Allen last year, allowing their depth to rate at a “D” level after flunking out the previous season. Now they’ve followed a similar script with Gillespie, another proven winner who like Allen must figure out if he’s capable of leading a second unit or is better suited to provide a supporting role among much more talented starters. Allen effectively became the latter last season, making it more likely Gillespie will be stuck with the backups whether he likes it or not. He certainly offered little or nothing to an equally needy Nuggets bench last season, but if new coach Mike Budenholzer is looking for guys who know how to win, he’d be wise to utilize Gillespie in a similar way to how former Phoenix coach Frank Vogel did with Allen last year.

5. LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS

Predicted 2024-25 record: 36-46

Last season: 51-31, 4th in Western Conference

Last time…
The Clippers were the defending Pacific Division champs, 2014-15, they waived current Pelicans coach Willie Green in the offseason, retained current Lakers coach JJ Redick and finished the season in second.

FanDuel championship odds: +10000

Roster roll call
Draft Pick:
No. 46, G Cam Christie, Minnesota

DEPARTURES: F Paul George, G Russell Westbrook, C Mason Plumlee, C Daniel Theis
VETERAN ADDITIONS: C Mo Bamba, F Nicolas Batum, G Kris Dunn, G Derrick Jones Jr., G Kevin Porter Jr.

Big picture
How many of the Thunder’s seemingly dozens of draft picks do you think the Clippers could pry for Kawhi Leonard? Doesn’t that sound like the perfect match? You put the ultimate winner on a ready-to-take-the-next-step team and even the Celtics would start sweating. Meanwhile, when four of the five teams in your division are in desperate need of rebuilding, why not be the first to start the process? The Kings did that two years ago and look where they are today. Maybe that’s what the Clippers tried to do by getting rid of Paul George and Russell Westbrook. But all that’s done, for now, is convince Leonard how sore his knee is. That leaves the defending Pacific champs with an outdated James Harden and… uh, some guy named Jordan Miller led them in scoring in the preseason. Look out below.

Get to know: G Kevin Porter Jr.
When last seen in Los Angeles, Porter was so good, he thought he was a member of the James family — needing just one season at USC to vault him into NBA stardom. It hasn’t gone as planned, but there have been some bright moments. Like when he scored 30 or more points four times in an eight-week stretch late in the 2021-22 season, then three more times over 36 days early in the 2022-23 campaign. He didn’t last in Houston due to a domestic assault case, but he resurfaced in Greece this spring and averaged 22.0 points in limited action. As temperamental as they come, Porter now returns to his second home (he was born in Seattle) with a serious chip on his shoulder, like the one he had against the first NBA team to give up on him — the Bucks — before burning them for 50 points in an April 2021 showdown. He’s been on bad teams before, and he knows the recipe for happiness: Keep shooting.

–Field Level Media