Kevin Garnett was joking. Or maybe he wasn't.

	Shawn Marion's Suns are certainly no playoff lock this year.

Either way, Super Kev served up one of the best quotes coming out of All-Star Weekend.

"No disrespect to the East," KG announced, "but it's not like the West, where you need 60 to 70 wins to get a decent seed."

No it ain't. Last year's West had seven teams with 50 wins and an eighth seed -- KG's Wolves -- with 47. This season's Wild Side is a little more top-heavy, with a clear-cut Fab Five.

And then a Next Five.

And with so much cyberink devoted to the Fab Fivers -- Kings, Mavericks, Lakers, Wolves and Spurs -- we decided to emerge from the All-Star break by breaking down those Next Five. It's a quintet of interesting teams, playing for three playoff spots, with 30-odd games left to sort out the jumble.

And here they are, listed in order of where they sit in the standings:

PORTLAND (25-23):

The Blazers, at present, rank No. 1 among our Next Five. Thing is, that really isn't such a great spot to be. Finishing sixth in the West, you see, almost certainly means a first-round matchup with Sacramento or the Lakers, neither preferable to playing the eventual Midwest champion: Dallas, Minnesota or San Antonio. Then again, this being the Blazers, staying where they are is no lock. Not with a tough February schedule remaining -- only two games against non-playoff teams -- after the recent 11-2 run against mostly patsies to overcome a 13-18 start. There's also some trade uncertainty that could unsettle the lads, with the Blazers at the heart of almost any rumor with life and a slew of swingmen (Bonzi Wells, Scottie Pippen, Derek Anderson and Ruben Patterson) understandably wondering if the logjam will ever be unclogged. The other concern here (surprise!) is the increasing volatility of Mr. T (Rasheed Wallace) and his understudy (Wells). Thanks largely to those two, the Blazers haven't made it to the buzzer of a single game without a technical foul since Jan. 24 -- racking up 14 techs in the ensuing six games. Sheed had five and Bonzi had four in that stretch, undoubtedly warming up for this spring's implosion.

SEATTLE (25-23):

	Payton

At this point, it wouldn't be a shocker if the Sonics hang on to a top-eight slot and make the playoffs. It likewise wouldn't be a shocker if they miss out, too. As we've seen from both teams residing in the purportedly tranquil Pacific Northwest, things can change fast up there. The impact variable here, as always, is Gary Payton. As long as he continues to be The New Gary Payton -- happily, quietly leading his young team in hopes of snaring a contract extension -- the Sonics have a real shot to sneak in. They've got a formidable cast of smalls to play with GP (Rashard Lewis, Desmond Mason and Brent Barry) and one of the more surprising Euros (Vladimir Radmanovic). Seattle also returns from the break with the best ratio of road wins-to-home losses of anyone in the Next Five at plus-2. What's missing? Consistency from Vin Baker, as usual, and MIA free-agent signee Calvin Booth, whose first season as a $34 Million Man has been an injury wash. Something else to file away: The new GP could not be found on All-Star Saturday after promising to help Mason in the dunk contest, forcing Mason to track down Earl Watson. An innocent mix-up, we're sure.

UTAH (25-24):

If you think the geezers are going to be fazed by a small inconvenience like the Olympics, you haven't been paying attention for the past two decades. This season alone, Karl Malone and John Stockton have already overcome rules changes that limited the effectiveness of their trusted pick-and-roll (no team has been hurt more) ... and the introduction of a rookie foreigner (Andrei Kirilenko) as the No. 3 scoring option ... and the presence of another tyke (Jarron Collins) in the starting lineup when the veteran centers (John Amaechi and Greg Ostertag) failed to live up to their millions. Also consider that this month's supposed nine-game, 25-day trip includes breaks of six days and five days. Meaning that the Jazzmen get to spend more than 10 of those 25 nights sleeping at home. Most crucially of all, Malone and Stockton still don't miss any games -- even with both pushing 40. They're always there, which is why you should expect the Jazz to be in the playoffs as always, albeit this time without homecourt advantage for the first time since 1994. Just to make sure, though, the Jazz has to win a close game or two, especially when confronted by a Fab Fiver. "We're probably 0 for 7 in dramatic finishes," Jerry Sloan snapped.

PHOENIX (24-24):

	Marbury

Strange but true: Somebody actually did have a worse All-Star Weekend than Kobe Bryant. Or did you miss what happened to the Phoenix Suns? While the rest of us were migrating to The City That Loves You Back (not) for the mid-season showcase, Stephon Marbury was getting hit with a DUI charge. That's the same Marbury acquired for Jason Kidd. The same Kidd, now an MVP favorite in Jersey, exiled by the Suns in the wake of his arrest last season. The same Suns who also dispatched Clifford Robinson to Detroit after Uncle Cliffy's own DUI arrest a year ago. All of which means Phoenix returns from the break in much the same condition it spent the first half. In turmoil. The players want to be free-wheeling offensively like Milwaukee and Dallas, the other teams built around a perimeter-oriented threesome. Coach Scott Skiles wants a team where Marbury and Penny Hardaway don't take swings at each other after a shootaround, as seen in December. Shawn Marion wants people to stop calling him a dunker, which is why Phoenix didn't have an All-Star Weekend rep (Marion passed on the dunk contest) for the first time since 1988. We're guessing Suns fans, meanwhile, just want Kidd back if they have go through all this again.

LA CLIPPERS (25-26):

They might be sitting fifth in the Next Five rankings right now, but we still say the Clips could well pip the Sonics and Suns for No. 8 in the West. Crazy, you say? Don't forget that playing 16 of their last 21 games on the road, and most of them without Lamar Odom, didn't kill the kiddies. They went 9-12 overall, 5-11 in away games and, of greatest significance, posted away victories at Dallas, San Antonio and New York to build some confidence for the stretch run. LA's JV will need the boost, mind you, with another stretch of nine road dates in 10 games looming. But they've got a legitimate All-Star (Elton Brand), a Sixth Man Award contender (Quentin Richardson), a future Defensive Player of the Year (Darius Miles) and a slowly awakening center (Michael Olowokandi). If the Clips get anything from Odom when he returns, and maintain the road improvement that led to a 3-4 showing on their seven-game death march before the break, we could be looking at a tasty LA City Championship showdown in Round 1 of the playoffs. Something to talk about this summer when Donald Sterling starts nickel-and-diming Olowokandi and Odom.

Marc Stein, who covers the NBA for The Dallas Morning News, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.