NBA preview: Pacific Division

Teams listed in projected order of finish

1. Sacramento Kings
The Kings are probably the best example of a good team getting better outside of San Antonio this summer. When Shareef Abdur-Rahim's deal with the Nets fell through, the Kings swooped in to nab him, giving them a serviceable replacement for Chris Webber. Other than that, the Kings remain stacked with stars like Peja Stojakovic, Mike Bibby and Brad Miller. They might not get past the Spurs, but stand a very good chance of reaching the conference finals.

2. Phoenix Suns
The trades that sent Quentin Richardson and Joe Johnson to the Knicks and Hawks, respectively, brought the Suns Boris Diaw and Kurt Thomas in return, meaning this team is going to have to lift its foot off the gas and play better defense to match last year's conference finals success.
Losing Amare Stoudemire to major knee surgery hampers this team more than anything else, but fortunately for coach Mike D'Antoni's bunch, they still have reigning league MVP Steve Nash and talented forward Shawn Marion as capable fallback plans, so making the playoffs shouldn't be a problem. Having said that, with the reduced offensive firepower, the return to health of Stoudemire is probably the only thing that can get the Suns to the NBA Finals.

3. Los Angeles Lakers
This is the Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant show. Unfortunately, the story of this team lies in what exists beyond the superstar coach and guard. And the story doesn't look good.
While the backcourt can boast the high-scoring combo of Bryant and Lamar Odom, the frontcourt's best player is Chris Mihm, who averaged under 10 points per game last year.
The big newcomer is notorious bust Kwame Brown, the first overall pick of the 2001 draft by Washington, who has been little more than a marginal bench player in his career to date. What's more, the Lakers shopped the solid Caron Butler to get him.
At first blush, this doesn't look like a franchise close to recapturing the glory of the Shaq-Kobe days any time soon.

4. Los Angeles Clippers
This is what passes for a good off-season in Clipper country: sign Cuttino Mobley and Walter McCarty, trade for Sam Cassell.
To boot, they lost Marko Jaric and Bobby Simmons.
While the Clippers didn't have an off-season for the ages, they didn't have a bad one, either. Mobley and Cassell are far from franchise players, but considering the Clippers still have 20-point men Elton Brand and Corey Maggette at the forwards and up-and-comer Chris Kaman at center, the acquistions of Mobley and Cassell might lift this team to a rare playoff appearance.
But they're still the Clippers, so we won't give them the benefit of the doubt just yet.

5. Golden State Warriors
The fate of the Warriors' season likely rests with the health of one man who hasn't been that healthy in recent years: Baron Davis. After Davis came over in a trade with the Hornets last season, the Warriors went 18-10. Trouble is, Davis has been hampered by injuries in recent years, and if he goes down, the Warriors just lost their leader.
The games of Jason Richardson, Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy are good, but probably not enough to offset the loss of Davis if the Warriors want their first playoff berth in more than a decade.