NBA star-studded opening night featuring four Finals MVPs promises preview of crazy West

It is a star-studded opening night in the NBA.

When the 2023-24 season tips off Tuesday, the two games – Denver Nuggets-Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns-Golden State Warriors – will feature five of the NBA’s all-time 75 greatest players.

LeBron James. Steph Curry. Kevin Durant. Chris Paul. Anthony Davis.

They weren’t in the league – some weren’t even 10 years old – when it announced its 50 greatest players in 1996. Those five represent 20% of the 25 new players on the list.

And a sixth player, two-time NBA MVP and 2023 Finals MVP Nikola Jokic, will make the league’s next list of the top 100 players, and he will crack the top 50. A seventh player, Klay Thompson, may find himself on the list of top 100 players in 2046. And perhaps Draymond Green and Devin Booker, too.

The two games include four league MVPs and four Finals MVPs – James, Curry, Durant and Jokic.

Beyond the historical context, the Nuggets (2023 champions), the Lakers (2020 champions), the Warriors (four titles in the past nine seasons), and the Suns (2021 finalists), are all title contenders this season.

Coincidence or not, it’s not a surprise that the two games on TNT feature four West teams.

And they’re not the only ones in a loaded West.

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Sacramento, Memphis and the Los Angeles Clippers have the personnel to make a deep run in a perfect situation. When healthy, specifically with Zion Williamson, New Orleans was one of the top teams in the West last season, and Dallas has the Luka Doncic-Kyrie Irving combo.

Oklahoma City and Utah are rising and Minnesota has higher expectations. There aren’t many gimmes in the West.

“The West is so hard because there’s such a thin margin for error,” new ESPN NBA analyst Bob Myers said.

Myers should know. As Golden State’s top basketball executive for a decade, he oversaw those four titles and six Finals appearances since 2015. Myers is a two-time NBA executive of the year but stepped down after last season, taking the cushy on-air gig.

“Denver, you clearly have to separate them out a little bit because they just did it,” Myers said. “They lost a little bit of their bench depth, which is not something just to ignore. But they still have what you might argue is the best player, if not one of the first-, second-best players in the league in Jokic who can control possessions on offense as good as I think LeBron ever even did from a different type of position. Denver is great.

“After that, it gets muddled.”

Longtime NBA coach Doc Rivers lost his job with the Philadelphia 76ers following last season and transitioned back to TV where he has experience and will join Mike Breen and Doris Burke as the lead broadcasting crew for ESPN and ABC games.

Rivers sides with Myers.

“You’ve got to make Denver the favorite,” he said. “After that, it’s wide open. The West right now, it’s rough. They have old challengers. They have young challengers.”

The San Antonio Spurs have rookie Victor Wembanyama who will make his debut Wednesday. Portland’s Scoot Henderson, the No. 3 draft pick in June, is also worth watching, and Houston has intriguing young talent (Jabari Smith, Amen Thompson, Jalen Green) infused with veterans. Those three teams aren’t ready for contention, but they are the league's future.

It doesn’t mean the champion will come out of the West. Boston, Milwaukee or another team from the East will have a say. But night in, night out during the regular season, the competition for the top seed in the West is the NBA’s best storyline.

Follow NBA columnist Jeff Zillgitt on X @JeffZillgitt