With the league’s two most popular franchises in the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors, the Kawhi Leonard-driven Los Angeles Clippers, the Devin Booker-led Phoenix Suns, and… well, the Sacramento Kings, the Western Conference’s Pacific Division has more name recognition than any other in the league.
It also tends to provide the most intrigue, as the Lakers, Clippers and Warriors are all in relatively similar stages at this point in time. The Suns and Kings were also at the top of the division as recently as just a few seasons ago, but those two franchises have since run into problems as they traditionally do.
Pacific Division Projected Order Of Finish/Record
- Los Angeles Lakers: 52-30
- Los Angeles Clippers: 49-33
- Golden State Warriors: 47-35
- Phoenix Suns: 41-41
- Sacramento Kings: 38-44
Los Angeles Lakers
Last season: 50-32
Predicted 2025-26 record: 52-30
Tier: Conference Finals threat
Write up: The second year of the Luka Doncic era and perhaps the final season of LeBron James’ legendary career, almost surely his last one in Los Angeles, comes with some large but also realistic expectations. It’s probably too tall a task for the Lakers to have reasonable aspirations of beating the Oklahoma City Thunder or even the Denver Nuggets in a seven-game series, but they should still see a slight win increase as Doncic continues to assert himself as the team’s No. 1 option.
The addition of De’Andre Ayton this offseason should help shore up a front court that had abysmal production after Anthony Davis was traded for Doncic in February. For the Lakers’ needs specifically, it seems that Ayton will be a valuable fit on both ends of the floor.
It’s likely that LeBron will miss a sizable portion of the season, due to load management and the natural challenges of staying healthy for an 82-game regular season as he approaches his 41st birthday in December. I expect the Lakers to be extra conservative with him toward the end of the regular season, as this could legitimately be his final attempt at the playoffs before he steps away from the game.
As a result, I think the Lakers at least win one playoff series, while having the potential to go as far as the Western Conference Finals.
Los Angeles Clippers
Last season: 50-32
Predicted 2025-26 record: 49-33
Tier: Under investigation and trying to make everyone forget
Write up: No team in the NBA has had an offseason quite like the Los Angeles Clippers, who made sizeable transactional splashes by acquiring Bradley Beal, Brook Lopez and Chris Paul in what was an otherwise slow free agency period for most of the remaining 29 organizations in the league.
That wasn’t really why the Clippers’ offseason has been so eventful, though. If you follow the NBA in any capacity, you should be somewhat aware of the scandal involving Kawhi Leonard, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and fraudulent environmental front Aspiration. The long story short is that Ballmer invested into Aspiration, who then paid Kawhi Leonard an amount coinciding with Ballmer’s investment for a mafia-style “No Show” endorsement job with the company.
As you might imagine, circumventing the league’s very rigid salary cap by partnering with a fraudulent company is a big no-no. However, the investigation is still ongoing and the show must go on at the Intuit Dome. This roster will greatly benefit from the scoring that Beal provides and the veteran savviness that Paul and Lopez will bring in their reduced roles, while a healthy Harden and Leonard (assuming he avoids suspension) could make the Clippers a more viable playoff threat than they were last season.
With that being said, I do think the cloud of the league’s investigation will ultimately weigh on the Clippers at times during the regular season, so I’m not expecting a win increase and am actually projecting one fewer win this season.
Golden State Warriors
Last season: 48-34
Predicted 2025-26 record: 47-35
Tier: Playoff team
Write up: The Golden State Warriors went on an impressive run after acquiring Jimmy Butler at the trade deadline this past February, going from a team that was at risk of missing the Play-In tournament entirely to a 48-win seven seed that advanced into the playoffs before beating the upstart No. 2 seed Houston Rockets.
It looked like the Warriors had a legitimate chance at making an NBA Finals run until disaster struck in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Minnesota Timberwolves, when Stephen Curry went down with what ended up being a season-ending hamstring injury late in the first half.
The Warriors’ offseason has been a disappointing one, as the organization’s contract stalemate with Jonathan Kuminga has held them from adding any free agents as the regular season quickly approaches. The Warriors reportedly have their targets set on Al Hoford, DeAnthony Melton and Gary Payton II, but they haven’t been able to put pen to paper because of the Kuminga situation officially.
Ultimately, it will get resolved and Horford will almost certainly end up a Warrior, but this is still a team that’s going to do just enough to get into the postseason with the hopes that by the time early April rolls around, they’re able to get hot enough to make a legitimate playoff push. Is that necessarily likely? Maybe not, but with Stephen Curry, anything is possible.
Phoenix Suns
Last season: 36-46
Predicted 2025-26 record: 41-41
Tier: Middling
Write up: The Suns will see a moderate improvement without the cloud of a certain Kevin Durant departure hanging over their heads, but the reality is that their roster just isn’t where it needs to be to meaningfully contend in the Western Conference in 2025-26.
After emerging from the doldrums of the NBA to make the 2021 NBA Finals with an island of misfit toys complementing star Devin Booker, the Suns front office and ownership has exclusively made only the wrong moves in an attempt to elevate a really good championship contender into one of the superteams that defined the previous decade-plus of basketball. The issue with that is, superteams are long out of style.
The game now favors well-rounded, depth-driven teams instead of teams with two or three seismic superstars at the top, and while members of that 2021 team continue to thrive in winning situations throughout the NBA, it seems that the Suns now find themselves devoid of those complementary pieces needed to compete in today’s league.
Sacramento Kings
Last season: 40-42
Predicted 2025-26 record: 38-44
Tier: Middling
Write up: Like the Suns, the Sacramento Kings had what seemed like all the potential in the world just a few seasons ago when they earned the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference and electrified the league with their signature postgame “Light the Beam” celebration.
Every key member from that team, aside from Domantas Sabonis (DeAaron Fox included), has now been shipped out of town. The Kings are back to being a struggling organization in an area that may as well not exist to prospective free agents and the ownership group is as clueless now as it was when the franchise was the joke of professional sports as recently as a decade ago.
The Kings won’t be as bad as they were in some of those past seasons, but they won’t be an actual threat to compete in the Western Conference. It’s hard to imagine the status quo changing in Sacramento unless major changes happen at the top.
Up Next
Our next preseason NBA preview will feature the Southwest Division.
