NBA Series: The Southwest Division

Young Blood on the Rampage

2024-2025

The Southwest Division was an exciting place last season despite very little post-season success, and it looks like it will be an even more dynamic division this year. 

The Houston Rockets, who clinched the division title, won 52 games and made it to the first round of the playoffs. It was a great run for a lot of young guys–Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr, Alperen Sengun, and Amen Thompson–but they were taken to a game 7 by an aging Golden State team. 

The Memphis Grizzlies won 48 games because of (and in spite of) their young players. They had some off-court shenanigans during the season (ahem, Ja). They were also plagued by injuries during the season.

No one remembers how many games the Dallas Mavericks won last season, and nobody cares. The only thing people will remember about the Dallas Mavericks last season is Nico Harrison and his Luka Doncic–Anthony Davis trade.

The San Antonio Spurs won 34 games and had stretches of great basketball during the season, but those stretches disappeared when Wemby was off the court. Nonetheless, they are still developing, and with their recent offseason shuffle, they seem to be more competitive.

The New Orleans Pelicans won a disappointing 21 games, and they have a Zion Williamson-sized problem. The Pelicans have been waiting for Zion to shape up and step up, but the thing people remember about him last season is not even basketball-related.

2025-2026

The past year has not been very kind to this division, but the coming season seems to promise a good turnaround.

The Rockets re-signed most of their players, and added some key pieces. They let go of young star Jalen Green who was inconsistent and seemed to be unwilling to step up in the postseason. He scored an impressive 38 points in game one, but got locked down the rest of the way. During the summer, the Rockets acquired the Slim Reaper Kevin Durant, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Clint Capela. They need the shooting KD and Finney-Smith can offer, because last year, they’re pretty much cooked when defenses contained the Sengun pick and roll. Still, getting a marquee player in Durant definitely warrants a celebration.

The Grizzlies actually did well last year, but after a certain time, they began to sucked. They sucked so much that they went into panic–they fired their coach, who brought them to a #2 rank in the Western Conference, and traded one of their best players in Desmond Bane. The Ja-Wells-Bane-JJJ-Edey lineup was so good that pundits are asking if they did the right thing. In the summer, they got Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Ty Jerome, who they are hoping to complement their star players.

The Mavericks were crucified by the basketball world for trading Luka, but by some stroke of luck, got lucky for getting the #1 pick, who turned out to be a guy named Cooper Flagg. They got D’Angelo Russell and let Spencer Dinwiddie go. This season, Dallas is a big-ball team–Anthony Davis, Derek Lively, Daniel Gafford, PJ Washington, and Cooper Flagg. Kyrie is not expected to return yet, but Mavs fans are hopeful that the team will do better this year.

The Spurs got the next best player after Flagg–Dylan Harper. Right now, the Spurs have the second-longest active playoff drought. Wemby has been working hard and doing a lot of sidequests this offseason, but pundits believe that he will be stronger and better this coming season. It will be interesting to see how Harper, Fox, and Castle will play around Wemby.

The Pels lost CJ McCollum and Bruce Brown, but got Jordan Poole and former Warriors big Kevon Looney. They now have an even younger core–Zion at 25, Poole (26), Trey Murphy III (25), and Herb Jones (27). Not really a lot of changes, but at least they have been busy. Will this be the year that Zion finally drops 30 and 10?

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