Welcome back to the Athletic NBA show.

Coming up, it's our Western Conference preview.

Can the Mavericks running back to the finals?

Will Nicola Yokic come back for revenge?

Or is it time for the thunder to roll?

We're only a few days away from opening night in the NBA, and it's time for our annual

conference previews.

Did the Eastern Conference earlier this week with S. Barahetti.

So I brought in Zena Kata to help me do the Western Conference.

Zena, ooh, we keep getting news. We got the Kauai Leonard injury,

sort of not news. It's more of an update. You know, Law Murray checked in and he says,

hey, we already knew all this stuff. But needless to say, the West is shaking up just a little

bit at least. Absolutely. It's the worst type of news you could possibly

want when you're a Clippers fan, banking on your older talent, that they're still hurt from over

the summer. I mean, listen, I would just say this. This isn't news to them. This isn't really news to us,

but it does sort of change our framing when we're thinking about the Clippers, because now you don't have to play the game of, well, if Kauai is healthy.

Kauai is not healthy. I don't think Kauai necessarily is going to be healthy. He's not starting the season with the Clippers.

He hasn't practiced. The coaches seem confused as to what he's doing.

I mean, I'm assuming he's doing rehab work, but he's not participating with the team.

So any thoughts that you had on the Clippers somehow having Kauai Leonard in the mix, I'm guessing minimum he's out until Christmas, just given his track record and who even knows beyond that.

But that's neither here nor there.

We've got questions about the Western Conference that are burning holes in our pockets.

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