The Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder spent the off-season undergoing massive overhauls in hopes of keeping up with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics. To say that any of the four teams were keeping up with the defending champion Golden State Warriors would probably be an overstatement, and that notion was reinforced when 93 percent of the league’s general managers picked the Warriors to repeat as champions.

The 2017-18 season begins tonight with the Boston Celtics facing the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Houston Rockets facing the Warriors in a doubleheader on TNT. A look at the Western Conference, with teams listed by predicted order of finish in their division, reveals some serious turnover from last season. (The Eastern Conference preview can be found here.)