Top Offseason NBA moves in the Western Conference

Since the Chicago Bulls reigned supreme in the 90's the NBA Western Conference has been the dominant conference. Only the Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics won championships since Jordan, Pippen, and the rest of the Bulls dominated the hardwood.

The off season has been full of great pick-ups as the rich get richer led by the defending NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers landing Ron Artest but it came at a considerable cost losing a very athletic role player in local boy Trevor Ariza. The Lakers upgraded considerably with basketball prowess and toughness but did lose a bit in athleticism. Not that the Lakers need anymore strut to their step with a handful of players with NBA championship experience but they will have a new hunger to feed the hulking Artest who despite the years of "bad boy" image hanging over his head from the brawl at the Palace has always shown up to play both ends of the court, especially during the playoffs. In 2006 Ron Ron showed up big time during the playoffs against defending NBA champion when his Kings pushed the San Antonio Spurs until faltering after six hard fought games. This year his Rockets took the eventual champion Lakers to 7 games including two blowout wins after star Yao Ming went down with what could be a career threatening injury. Yao's injury prompted the Rockets not to exercise their option on Artest and gave the Lakers an early Christmas with one of the best defenders in the league and an all aroudn player in the prime of his career who will turn thirty later this year heading into his 11th NBA season. The Lakers might have been a great benefiary of their greatest rivals when Kevin Garnett went down prior to the playoffs with a season ending knee injury as the Celtics crushed the Lakers in the 2008 Finals with suffocating defense and physically beat up on the Lakers. That won't happen with Artest who can bang with the best of them. Just ask Piston fans who had to deal with him in Indiana both on and off the court.

Meanwhile the San Antonio Spurs upgraded their offense trading out Bruce Bowen and role players for a young, more athletic scorer in Richard Jefferson. The Spurs won't miss much on defense with their ever present anchor Tim Duncan swatting shots in the middle and you can expect the well respected Greg Poppovich will have an impact on Jefferson to play tougher defense, rebound like is capable of and provide a scoring punch outside of Duncan, Tony Parker and the all too often injured sixth man Manu Ginoboli. Jefferson prior to his most recent run with the Milwaukee Bucks was scoring twenty a night and often having double double nights pulling down the rebounds also. Last year without Jason Kidd the fun was gone and Jefferson put up below average rebounds probably from lack of interest as the Bucks were never really competitive in the Central Divison or playoff race. Add lack of playoffs and the Milwaukee media which is hardly the national media of New York and Jefferson gets lost because his numbers were not totally lost still providing a scoring punch of just under 20 points per game which the Spurs need along with the extra height and ability to get up and down the court the overachieving Bowen just couldn't provide the Spurs in their first round knockout to fellow Texas rival, Dalls Mavericks.

There have not been a lot of moves in the Western Conference and one player that was ready to sign with the Portland Trailblazers got away in Hedo Turkoglu opting to be a shining star in Toronto aside big man Chris Bosh. This might be the best thing to happen to the Trailblazers. The Blazers are a young team that is playing well together, growing together and becoming a tighter knit team with the continuity they have seen the past couple of season with great draft day picks ups led by big men Greg Oden and LaMarcus Aldridge who provide down low defense and offense while team leader Brandon Roy continues to improve into one of the best in the league. Oden was often injured in his first full season with the Blazers but should the young man child start to take on a healthy habit of playing 70 plus games look out for the Blazers as Oden has shown flashes of brilliance, especially for what he was brought into do, intimidate, block shots, rebound and control the middle. The Blazers are bringing him along slowly but one day he will break out and it could be this offseason.

Other teams to look out for in the west include the aging Dallas Mavericks who were a miss call by the referee in game three against Denver of making their series competitive and the Nuggest themselves. A full season of Chauncey Billups could mean the difference in home court advantage for George Karl's group.

Western Conference Prediction, the healthiest of these four teams wins the west. Phil Jackson will have his toughest competition to date as a handful of teams have the ability to knock off the defending champs but the hungriest player is still in LA and his first name is not Kobe.