I allowed you guys to ask me questions about the NBA and I would answer them in an article. So here we are, I’m gonna be answering 4 questions today, and giving a little reasoning as to why. I am happy to do more of these if people like them, but I thought it would be a good way to get my followers engaged and start a little conversation.

Question 1: Who wins the west? – @williamsu11

Right off the bat, the Clippers are my favorite to win the west this year. However, unlike past years the race is much tighter, and there are a lot of really good teams that have a good chance. I put the Clippers at the top because of the starpower that they hold with regards to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. I think that those two, along with players like Patrick Beverley, Louis Williams and Montrezl Harrell have the best chance to win the western conference playoffs. It would be disrespectful to not consider the Lakers, they do have LeBron James and Anthony Davis, which is very scary and I would not be shocked if they were the team that make the finals. The Clippers and Lakers are my top two, but the Rockets could beat either of them, and teams like the Warriors, Jazz, and Nuggets could surprise some people and pull off an upset.

Question 2: How will the new duos in the west produce together? – @a_effenson24

I wrote a bigger piece on James Harden and Russell Westbrook, but to sum it all up, I think that they will either fit really well together, or it could be a big problem having two guys that always want the ball in their hand. With LeBron and Anthony Davis, I think that they will be good together, LeBron is very unselfish, and he can get the ball to AD in good positions to score. Davis has never played with anyone like LeBron, so my guess is that LeBron makes him even better, like he does with a lot of his teammates. In my mind, the best of the three is Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. I am a big fan of players that can defend, and Leonard and George are two of the best defenders in the league. It will be very hard to score of them due to their length, and how talented they are on the defensive end. They’re both elite offensively too. We have seen them put up big numbers, and hit big shots. While I think all three duos will be just fine this season, the Clippers might have landed the best pair of superstars.

Question 3: Will the Clippers win more than 2 championships in the next 5 years? – @d_weinbaum13

I’m going to go with no. If they win two in the next five years I won’t be surpriseed, but I think three or more is pretty unlikely. There’s a lot of really good teams in the league, and winning a title three out of five years is very difficult to do. The Warriors just won three out of the last five championships, and while the Clippers are shaping up to be really good this year, they are not the Warriors, and there are other teams that are probably going to win championships in the near future as well. The Clippers might be the favorites now, but I don’t think a dynasty is in their future.

Question 4: Why do you think teams haven’t picked up Melo? – @tgiacin7

I haven’t dove deep on the whole Carmelo Anthony situation, but there’s a thing that stands out to me. Melo is having a hard time that he isn’t the same star that we saw in Denver and New York, his skill level has gone down at a high rate for the past couple years, and of course he thinks he can still get the job done, but general managers disagree with him. He hasn’t fit well with the Rockets or Thunder, and has been a smaller part of the rotation than Carmelo believes that he deserves. Teams just aren’t interested becasue they are either content with their rotation, or they’re trying to stay young and let prospects develop. Melo’s only 34, so there’s a chance he can still produce, we just don’t know if that chance will come up.