Way Too Early Season Preview: Northwest

[The Athletic]

Denver Nuggets 

PG Ricky Rubio
SG Victor Oladipo
SF Kyle Anderson
PF Paul Milsap
C Nikola Vucevic
UTL Jeremy Lamb
UTL PJ Tucker
Key Bench – Tomas Satoransky

Championship Contender

Kevin and the defending champion Nuggets are looking to go back to back for the first time in BBall26 history. Armed with a similar team led by surprise stud Victor Oladipo, Kevin and the Nuggets are in a pretty good spot. They traded Elfrid Payton to the Clippers due to some money problems but resigned Kyle Anderson on a reasonable deal. Anderson should be slotted in for a much bigger workload this year with the Grizzlies. Ricky Rubio is also always a gold mine of a player here along with Vucevic. The Nuggets should be in the mix to make another championship run.

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Utah Jazz 

PG Mike Conley
SG Terrence Ross
SF Wes Johnson
PF Nikola Mirotic
C Jusuf Nurkic
UTL Eric Bledsoe
UTL Tristan Thompson
Key Bench – Jerian Grant

Playoff Contender

TJ and the Jazz are in a difficult spot here. After coming off a disastrous year seeing Conley going down for the year, Mirotic getting beat up by his teammate, and Bledsoe tweeting out of a barber shop – they failed to hit the .500 mark. This time around, Conley should be healthy, Mirotic looks solid on the Pelicans and Bledsoe find himself decently happy on the Bucks. All three of these guys have the ability to score 30+ here. Along with that trio, the Jazz have Jusuf Nurkic. Nurk’s pretty damn solid himself but outside of him there isn’t anything to get excited about with almost no cap room to work with. TJ is going to have to pull some TJ magic and make things in Utah work out.

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Minnesota Timberwolves 

PG Michael Carter-Williams
SG Gerald Green
SF Jaylen Brown
PF Anthony Davis
C Rudy Gobert
UTL Markieff Morris
UTL Wendell Carter Jr.
Key Bench – Kelly Oubre/Malik Beasley

Borderline Contender

AD and Gobert form a new look for this T-Wolves squad as they dealt away CJ Mccollum and a highly coveted pick to make it work. They’re both absolute studs and will no doubt produce as upper echelon players but after that, there isn’t much. The T-Wolves have had depth problems since the very beginning of BBall26 and its evident when you have a guy like MCW starting. Jaylen Brown and Wendell Carter are both great young core pieces but can they help AD and Gobert reach that next level? I do like the Markieff Morris and Gerald Green pickups but the glaring hole here is PG, if that is fixed then this team could make a serious run with the Brow and the Stifle Tower.

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Portland Trailblazers 

PG Kemba Walker
SG Bradley Beal
SF Andrew Wiggins
PF Lauri Markkanen
C Frank Kaminsky
UTL Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
UTL Al-Farouq Aminu
Key Bench – Chieck Diallo/Moritz Wagner

Playoff Contender

I was pleasantly surprised after seeing this team on paper. The Blazers have low-key depth and have some nice young talent. Bradley Beal and Kemba walker form a solid 1-2 punch that can go up against the best in the league. Markkanen proved he can ball in this league with an incredible rookie year and KCP/Aminu prove to be two great depth pieces. The only question is Mr. Andrew Wiggins. The Maple Jordan himself has just looked awful and has not lived up to his potential at all. He puts up empty stat line after empty stat line and looks lazy out on the court. He has all the athletic ability in the world but hasn’t put anything together. I’m impressed with the starting 7 of the Blazers and even without a true superstar, they look to improve on their 8-6 season.

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Oklahoma City Thunder 

PG Kyrie Irving
SG Eric Gordon
SF Will Barton
PF Domantas Sabonis
C Kelly Olynyk
UTL Bogdan Bogdanovic
UTL Jordan Clarkson
Key Bench – Ivica Zubac/John Henson

Borderline Pretender

After dealing away JJJ, Aaron Holiday and their 2019 1st round pick, the Thunder are in clear contention mode. In return, they received their franchise player in Kyrie Irving while also getting rid of a nasty Dieng contract. Loren and the Thunder just pulled off a very nice Will Barton signing who will slot in as the starting SF and in a prime position to put up great numbers. To go along with that, Loren has stuck with his Gonzaga boys Domantas Sabonis and Kelly Olynyk. The two white boys actually form a very solid front court. I also liked the acquisition of Bogdan Bogdanovic (SAC), he showed he can ball out and should have an increased role in his sophomore campaign. Clarkson should also have a much increased role in Cleveland. Zubac is a wildcard as he can end up starting for the Lakers or just be a bench piece. Loren’s formed a pretty solid group and is chasing that elusive Western Conference playoff spot.