The Best Player On Every NBA Team In The Western Conference

The NBA’s biggest strength is its stars. Almost every NBA franchise has a star player that fans pack the arenas to see. Some teams have built their rosters well and deciding who is the best player is difficult because there are multiple great players on the team, while others are rebuilding and don’t have someone who is clearly the guy.

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The Western Conference has an unlimited amount of great players with the back-to-back MVP of the league in the west as well as LeBron James, and the 2022 NBA Finals MVP Steph Curry. The west is loaded to say the least and these are the best players on each team in the conference.

15 Dallas Mavericks – Luka Doncic

Luka Doncic is one of the best examples of a player immediately coming in and being ready for the NBA. Doncic’s rookie season he averaged 21.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 6 assists. He dropped into the Mavericks and became their star player right away and has only improved since.

In just four seasons, Doncic has already made three all-star appearances, with many fans already putting the young guard in the top ten players in the league right now. With the loss of guard Jalen Brunson to the Knicks but gaining center Christian Wood from the Rockets, it will be interesting to see if Doncic has enough pieces on the roster to take the Mavericks to the top.

14 Denver Nuggets – Nikola Jokic

It’s an easy choice to say who is the best player on the team when the team has the back-to-back MVP on its roster. Nikola Jokic is a generational center, whose passing and court vision is something that has not been seen in decades.

Although Jokic is a unique center, he is still a force down in the post that is common from big man centers. Jokic averaged 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds, and 7.9 assists last season and kept the Nuggets stabilized as they were missing point guard Jamal Murray and forward Michael Porter Jr. Without Jokic, Denver would be lost.

13 Golden State Warriors – Steph Curry

Without a doubt, the best player on the Warriors is who it has been for over a decade now, Steph Curry. Curry is coming off of an MVP Finals MVP performance and is riding high as a four-time NBA champion at 34 years old. Curry has revolutionized the way that basketball is played in general due to his three-point shooting.

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Curry is the greatest shooter the NBA has ever seen, with the most threes made in NBA history. The Warriors are loaded with great players with Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Jordan Poole, etc., but Curry is the leader and the machine that makes the Warriors NBA champions.

12 Houston Rockets – Jalen Green

The Houston Rockets are one of the youngest teams in the NBA, and have a lot of budding young stars. The Rockets have the likes of Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr, Jae’Sean Tate, Alperen Sengun as well as new draft pick Jabari Smith. All of these players have immense talent and potential but none were needed to be the main guy of the team last season as veteran center Christian Wood took that role of being the team’s star and leader.

Green though, took that freedom of not having to be the main guy and had a stellar rookie season, averaging 17.3 points per game. The former 2nd overall pick is the Rockets best chance for a star right now as he goes into his sophomore season and will be relied on to be more of a star.

11 LA Clippers – Kawhi Leonard

The Clippers were supposed to be a finals team and dethrone the Lakers as the best team in Los Angeles when Kawhi Leonard and Paul George showed up in the blue and red. However, that has not been the case as the Clippers were bounced out before making the NBA finals two straight years with Leonard and George as a duo, and then injuries wrecked their season last year.

Despite his injuries, when he is on the court there is no denying that Kawhi Leonard is the best player on the roster. His strength and versatility on both the offensive and defensive ends make him a top ten player in the league and a big reason why the Clippers could still win the title next season.

10 LA Lakers – LeBron James

The only negative that can be thrown towards LeBron James in recent years is that he might not be the best player in the world anymore. However, at 37, James is still a top ten player without question and the best player on the Lakers right now.

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Although Anthony Davis can be an elite player, he has not nearly had the consistency that James puts out every year. Davis was touted as the Lakers’ successor expecting the Kentucky alumni to jump up a level while James expectedly declined, but Davis has been hampered with injuries while James has not had this dramatic dropoff in production. At this point, James might be playing at an elite level until he’s in his 40s and nobody should doubt him.

9 Memphis Grizzlies – Ja Morant

Ja Morant took a gigantic leap last season from a budding star to an MVP candidate, taking the Memphis Grizzlies from a bubble team to a championship contender. The former 2nd overall pick has proven that he was the best pick of the 2019 NBA Draft.

That is high praise when the draft contained the likes of Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, and Darius Garland. Morant jumped from a respectable 19.1 points per game to 27.4 points per game last season. The Grizzlies are one of the most promising young teams in the NBA and have a great future and with Morant as the captain, they are in great hands.

8 Minnesota Timberwolves – Karl-Anthony Towns

The Minnesota Timberwolves are finally on the rise and much of that is due to their star center Karl Anthony-Towns sticking with the franchise through thick and thin. The team now has four great players in guards D’Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, and big men Rudy Gobert and KAT himself.

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The Timberwolves just acquired Gobert from the Jazz this offseason, he will be the defensive stopper that Minnesota needs, while KAT will be the offensive force. KAT is arguably the best shooting big man that the league has ever seen, and now with a team around him, Minnesota may finally be a force in the league.

7 New Orleans Pelicans – Zion Williamson

Zion Williamson is one of the most talked about NBA players despite only playing 85 games so far. However, Williamson is so talked about and polarizing due to how good he is when he is on the court. Williamson’s 2020-21 season, which was his last season due to being out all last season with an injury, averaged 27 points per game and made the All-Star team.

Obviously many can make the argument that Brandon Ingram is the better player for New Orleans due to him being consistent and healthy. Although Ingram is a terrific player when everyone is healthy, Williamson is a talent unlike many fans have ever seen.

6 OKC Thunder – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

The Oklahoma City Thunder understood that mediocrity gets you nowhere in the NBA and traded so many of their stars for future picks. While the Thunder team can look like a G League roster at some points, they are gaining more young stars every year with the biggest one being Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. SGA is an incredibly versatile guard that can play both guard positions.

At just 24 years old, SGA is also tasked with being one of the leaders of the group as most of the teams are so young. With new draft pick Chet Holmgren now a part of the team, SGA could have some competition for best player in a couple of years but that is still a tall task for Holmgren.

5 Phoenix Suns – Devin Booker

The Phoenix Suns proved that last year’s finals run was not a fluke, they are one of the best-built teams in the league. If initial reports are to be believed, the Suns’ new best player could be Kevin Durant in the coming week. However, without a trade, it is star guard Devin Booker. Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton are stellar players that complement Booker perfectly, but the team relies on the Kentucky alumni more than anyone.

Booker is coming off a career-high 26.8 points per game last year and is shooting the three-pointer better than he ever has in his career. With Booker entering what should be his prime, the Suns will remain title contenders as long as he is on their roster.

4 Portland Trail Blazers – Damian Lillard

Damian Lillard has been the definition of loyalty to the Portland Trail Blazers. Lillard has spent 10 seasons with the Blazers and has seen the highs and lows with the team. Lillard has reached the Western Conference Finals, and he has gone through rebuilding years, but the one thing that has remained consistent is his production.

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Lillard has averaged 24.6 points per game and 6.6 assists per game while becoming one of the greatest three-point shooters of all time. While many fans have criticized Lillard’s loyalty to Portland, saying he will never win a championship, something has to be said about a player who will carry a franchise on his back and do everything he can to win there.

3 Sacramento Kings – De’Aaron Fox

The Kings’ best player is between either guard Derron Fox and forward/center Domantas Sabonis. However, Fox has been the focal point of Sacramento’s office for the last few seasons. Sabonis is a great complimentary piece to an otherwise underwhelming franchise in recent decades, but Fox is still the Kings’ best hope of building through someone and creating a team that can be competitive.

Fox’s speed and ability to get to the basket are his best assets, and despite not being an excellent three-point shooter, he is still one of the best point guards in the NBA.

2 San Antonio Spurs – Keldon Johnson

The Spurs are one of the most difficult teams to talk about right now due to them just trading away their all-star guard Dejounte Murray to Atlanta. Murray was the main guy with Demar Derozan for years in San Antonio and established himself as the guy last year.

Now with Murray gone, San Antonio finds themselves in a position they haven’t been familiar with in decades, they are without a star. However, if anyone on the roster is likely to make that leap to stardom, it is 22-year-old forward, Keldon Johnson. Johnson averaged 17 points and 6.1 rebounds per game last season and will have a ton of opportunities to boost those numbers this season.

1 Utah Jazz – Donovan Mitchell

The best player on the Utah Jazz is absolutely Donovan Mitchell, for now. After the Jazz traded star center Rudy Gobert, it has become clear that Mitchell is the best player on the team if he wasn’t already. However, quickly after the Gobert trade, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Jazz were also open to listening to trades for Mitchell.

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Mitchell is a stellar guard, averaging 23.9 points per game and beginning to enter his prime at 25 years old. It will take a lot for any team to trade for him, but with Mitchell being a New York native and the Knicks having a great trade package for Utah, this entry could be very different for Utah soon.