Northwest Division

My thoughts about the upcoming NBA-season.

Utah Jazz

Jazz, what a offseason! I’ve got to congratulate them for what they have done in Utah. The team was on a downfall when Gordon Hayward got away to Boston but Gobert and the boys did a good job keeping this team alive. The teams defense is their number one source for success with the giant in the middle - Rudy Gobert - together with Donovan Mitchell and Joe Ingles this team has made a really strong core going forward. Now they have veterans Mike Conley who’s an upgrade from Ricky Rubio and Indiana Pacers clutchman Bojan Bogdanovic has come to support this team as building blocks for a championship run. Jazz has been a strong team these last couple of years and now they get a injection with good veteran players who can change the game by themselves, which they have lacked. Conley and Bogdanovic can create their own space to get points on the board but also now when they need Mitchell to have the ball in his hands too. Conley/Gobert will be a killer duo like Conley/Gasol were in Memphis. There are so many alternatives at the offensive end now for this Jazz team and it’s going to very interesting to see what they can do with this lineup and can they be a top 5 team both on offense and defense?

Jazz has had a really good defense but have struggled on the other end we saw that last season when Mitchell wasn’t as effective in his shots as teams were more prepared for him and he had not as much support from other players besides Ingles really. Utah now have created an opportunity where they can go a long ways in the playoffs if they have a good season of course, which they will. They have one of the leagues best defenses and now they got a lot more alternatives offensively, Mitchell will have more open space to operate in now when he has players who can space the floor and shot threes on a good level. He doesn’t need to have the ball in his hands all the time now when Conley is there and can handle the ball handling duties and passing the ball to open guys. Mitchell and Conley will probably alternate between having to initiate the offense and like I said Mitchell will have a lot more space and alternatives to pass to where he knows guys will make the shot, this is very exciting! Coach Quinn Snyder is a very good coach and he has established a culture i this Jazz team to work hard and have discipline in everything they do on the court. Sure, he has a slowed down offense but Jazz can lore teams in with that slow offense to play at their pace, that’s a good thing so they can get back in full force on defensive again. Just one little remark they can do better is to not let other teams play isolation ball against them. There are a lot of times teams have just killed them in iso situations where a player has had 40 points or more. They are a strong team together but when players like James Harden comes by he can just cook them and Gobert will get abused over and over again or that they just leave a teammate on an island and the offensive player is just toying with them all game.

My expectations for this team are high in any case, they have build a solid foundation and created a opportunity to show what they are made of. They are in the west and it will always be tough games but if they play well at home like they have done the last couple of years and play as good away from home like last year then this team will be dangerous. The defensive most be A1 at all times though and if the offense can get going pretty much right away they can have a good starting point when the All-Star break comes around.

Portland Trail Blazers

Portland for this season is a team with high expectations after the playoff run they had last season, I think it’s a bit much to think this team will do it again. Yes, they got Lillard/McCollum and they are All-Stars when they have their day and we saw that in the playoffs last year. It has been a lot of player change though and that gets me a little worried when it comes to chemistry but if we look at what players come with to the court like for example Hassan Whiteside, then it’s great moves for the team. On court and off court are two different things when it comes to Whiteside, he can be petty and childish when he talks to media about his situation like in Miami. Portland have created a culture in the organization and they want to continue to build on that and if Hassan keeps doing the same thing he did in Miami when he got benched then this will not end well.

The team have lost a lot of players from last season, players that have been pretty solid and done their job in the Portland system. Aminu, Harkless and Turner for example were all good defenders and did the hard work at the defensive end when Lillard/McCollum took plays off. Seth Curry is a good shooter that they will miss and with Aminu in Orlando they will miss their quality even though they have taken in Anthony Tolliver who will play in that role off the bench. Bazemore is a okey player, Mario Hezonja likewise and Pau Gasol will probably not play as much when Nurkic comes back, he’s a backup to Whiteside so you never know.

My expectations for Portland are a bit lower than the majority, they have been a team that has overachieved year in year out but this year I think it’s going to be tough in this wasp nest that is the western conference. Like I said they have lost a couple of good roleplayers and they haven’t really replaced them with the same quality, Dame and CJ will play like they have always done, not to uneven in performance but not at that top top level dropping 25-30 every night, more so CJ than Dame. Many believe in Anfernee Simons for this season, I want to wait and see what he can do before I judge someone. Trail Blazers are a hard team to put a finger on, a lot of new players and then there is Zach Collins who I don’t know how he will play, they have belief in him as they traded away Meyers Leonard to Miami but will Collins be a threat from deep like Trail Blazers need for him to be? A tough team to analyze but they have played above expectations for many years now, will it start to decline now?

Denver Nuggets

Denver played really good last season, at home. The defense was good and Jokic was class. Will it keep going this year? I’m a bit questionable about that this team can play as good defense as they did last season. The team was a good defensive team when it comes to defending the three point line and held the opponent down to 30% shooting, it’s doubtful they can be that good this season. It’s natural to decline after having a really good year that’s why I will not be surprised if the Nuggets don’t play as well this season. They still got a solid core in the team with Jokic, Murray, Harris and Barton and all of them are still young and will play on a high level for a long time.

Nuggets this year are in decline year with Jokic defense in the pick and roll and other forms of defense he will get abused every game and Millsap isn’t getting any younger. Jokic is Denvers strength and weakness at the same time and we saw in the playoffs that he can’t keep up on the defensive end, Portland screened with his man all the time and Nikola fouled out in games 5,6 and 7 because of his lack of defensive ability and other teams have seen that to. Jokic will still be an All-Stars and Denvers best player but it’s a big problem that he’s not a allround player.

Murray, Harris and Barton are all good players and good at what they do, but we also see that all three aren’t really their mentally on a high enough level and haven’t yet gotten the experience needed to make fast decisions under pressure. Even if that’s true I still like Denver at the offensive end, Murray/Jokic have a great pick and roll game from the left side so Murray can come in from the side with his strong hand and Jokic can roll to the hoop from an angle to get the easy points either way. They need to keep abusing the defense with this until they figure something out. Harris was a good defender, and he still is, last season and if he can show us the same tendencies to want to guard the opponents best player all game long then he needs to get the chance again to show what he’s made of.

I like the Nuggets bench, they got a lot of different player types that can hurt the other team on both sides of the ball. Torrey Craig for example is a good defender who can tag in for Harris when needs a rest and defend their best player. Nuggets have also interesting rookies to look for in Michael Porter Jr and Bol Bol.

Like I said, Nuggets will have it a bit tougher this year but they have a great team for the future.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Rebuild is the only word I need to write about this team. They are looking for every young player and pick that’s out there to revamp the team and to flip Chris Paul, Steven Adams and possibly Danilo Gallinari too later on in to the season. OKC got Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the trade with Paul George, among others, which already is a good future piece for this team. Shai is a allround player with good length at his position and he showed last season that he’s not scared to take place in the team. He’s going to be a light for OKC this season. Hopefully Paul can mentor him these months before he gets traded away. The only thing that I’m a bit worried about is if Paul take over the offense too much and wants to make everything happen through him, this can stagnate Shais development as long as Paul is there.

A lot of trade talk about Chris Paul and Steven Adams as of right now and they will want to make things happen pretty fast at the latest December they want Paul gone.

No big expectations for the Thunder in my opinion. They are a rebuilding team and this season will be the first step for the future.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Minnesota is a talented team, why can’t they get out of the swamp that is the lottery? Karl Anthony-Towns is the teams superstar, he needs help he needs another star on this team to get this team going to the playoffs. Every other young player that should have helped him hasn’t lived up to the hype at all. Andrew Wiggins i’m looking at you. This season Minnesota has nothing to play for yet again, they don’t have the talent to get somewhere, the have got new blood in the front office and at the GM position and that’s fine but it’s on the court they need to get going. Today the Timberwolves have no team to compete for a playoff spot in the West. The team is still young but KAT is nearing his prime soon and he will want to have success at the club but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be soon.

I like the bench for this team, even though players like Wiggins and Teague haven’t been playing at a high level I still think the roleplayers can be something. Jordan Bell, Noah Vonleh and Jake Layman can be good rotation guys if they can play on consistent level.

The Timberwolves have revamped their team a bit, mostly rotation players but that’s maybe a step closer to get a better team on the floor. It’s going to be a tough year yet again because they don’t have any real talent outside of KAT.

My expectations for this season are like last season, nothing special but it will be interesting to see if they can surprise us.

//@jalsjalley