Wild, Wild NBA West: Lakers and Spurs Try to Fight off the Young Guns

Halfway through this most unusual and unpredictable of NBA seasons, a funny thing has happened: The Western Conference is up for grabs. Not in the way it's been some years, when titans have jostled all season to see who will emerge as king. Right now, the West is unsettled in a way it hasn't been in a long time. If the NBA is in a state of flux, then the West is the prime example.

There are teams on the way up who haven't quite made it yet, and teams in decline who aren't quite ready to give up the ghost. The generation of Kobe Bryant, Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan is finally giving way to that of Kevin Durant, Chris Paul and Kevin Love.

The problem is, that transition hasn't fully taken place yet. If this is the changing of the guard, we're in the middle of the ceremony that lasts long enough to be a tourist attraction in its own right.

The Oklahoma City Thunder sit at the top of the standings with the second-best record in the league (the Chicago Bulls are No. 1). The Thunder made the conference finals last season, and with the emergence of James Harden as a viable third option on offense—not to mention the chance to fully incorporate Kendrick Perkins' defense into the mix—Scott Brooks has a more complete, mature team to work with.

However, the questions about Russell Westbrook persist; even if he and Durant have looked way more harmonious together, Westbrook is still prone to instability. Brooks, too, doesn't seem like a strong enough coach to lead a team to a title. And blame it on Westbrook, Brooks or even Durant, but the Thunder's offense remains, for a team this good, extremely sketchy.

Below them are the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Lakers, aging teams that, at various points in the season, were already cast aside for dead. The Lakers, in fact, are still pursuing a trade that can catapult them out of uncertainty. Although it may be only due to somewhat questionable German medical procedures, Kobe is further from retirement than Duncan.

The Spurs, though, still have Gregg Popovich coaching, while the Lakers have yet to test the mettle of first-year coach Mike Brown. Then again, maybe the Lakers faring as well as they have, while the front office makes no effort to mask its worries about the team, says something about Brown.

Popovich, on the other hand, is perhaps the greatest coach of the last decade, and has proven time and time again that you bet against him at your own peril. Could it work without Duncan at full strength? Apparently, it's just as likely as the Lakers succeeding without Phil Jackson or Lamar Odom.

Only half a game behind the Lakers are the Los Angeles Clippers, who are more than a crosstown rival—they share a building. The Lakers made a play for Chris Paul in an attempt to pick their championship run up where it left off, a move sure to get Kobe that sixth ring he so badly wants. Instead, Paul ended up with the Clippers, Blake Griffin's launching pad, and now the two are practically neck-and-neck.

You can look at the standings and see the Spurs and Lakers trying to see which longtime power can hold on longer, or the Lakers and Clippers locked, almost out of nowhere, in their very own Battle for Los Angeles. That's part of what makes the West so hard to figure out. There's competition between old and old, young and young, and then each other.

After that, you get what’s presumably the second tier of the West, except it looks an awful lot like the top teams.

The Dallas Mavericks may be old, and out their key defensive presence from last year’s title run, but they’re a playoff team that has yet to fully integrate all of its new pieces.

The young, versatile Denver Nuggets may be very different from Carmelo Anthony’s team, but as with past Nuggets teams, they will be a popular dark-horse pick in the playoffs.

The Memphis Grizzlies broke out last year with Rudy Gay out; they’re holding on strong to the fifth seed with Zach Randolph out, and with Randolph due back soon, they could easily climb higher. They’re also built for the playoffs in a way few other teams are.

The Houston Rockets, the Moneyball team of the NBA, are at No. 8, followed by the Minnesota Timberwolves, a team that was absolutely pitiable a year ago, and the Portland Trail Blazers, a team on the verge of the playoffs despite having lost two of its three main pieces for the year, if not indefinitely.

It’s almost a microcosm of the West. The worst shall be best and the best shall be worst. And we should all get ready for a stretch run like we haven’t seen in years.