Northwest Division Preview
Utah Jazz
In 2007 the Jazz had their most successful season since the departure of Stockton and Malone. Despite the decline of former lone all-star Andrei Kirilenko, the Jazz continued to role as the trio of Williams-Boozer-Okur led them to the Western Conference finals. Williams spent the summer with team USA learning from Jason Kidd and Chauncy Billups, while Boozer had to tend to the health of his child. Kirilenko seemingly had found his game with his country’s team as they won Eurobasket 2007.
However, the high from winning MVP of the Eurobasket tournament did not carry over for Kirilenko as he unhappily reported to Utah training camp after his trade requests were not fulfilled. On the court for the Jazz, Kirilenko appears to be far from the player that was an all-star in this same system just a few years ago. Even without Kirilenko playing at a high level this is still a very strong Utah Jazz team that is capable of going deep into the playoffs.
At the shooting guard spot there is a lot of pressure on Ronnie Brewer to step up and be the starter. Defensively Ronnie Brewer is ready to play - which will keep him on the floor under Sloan. Despite how awkward his shot looks, he actually hits it at a fairly successful rate. Morris Almond and CJ Miles will push him for time, but CJ’s game is still not NBA ready and Morris athletically is going to have some really big problems his rookie year. If Brewer doesn’t produce, Utah will have some trouble at the shooting guard spot.
Due to the amount of question marks about the Denver Nuggets, the Jazz should win this division. They are the deepest team in the league, but they’ve got a solid group that really executes what Coach Sloan preaches. If Kirilenko finds his game this Utah team could vault itself into championship contention.
Denver Nuggets
To judge how the Nuggets did last season you cannot look at their overall record as it’s not indicative of the team that went 10-1 when it got Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson, probably the leagues most lethal offensive duo, working well together. However, the Nuggets were one of the worst teams defensively, despite having one of the leagues best off ball defenders in Marcus Camby. Injuries and suspensions also really hampered the Nuggets last season, but all of those are in the past.
The Nuggets will welcome back explosive, although maybe not as much before the surgeries, Kenyon Martin. Martin brings energy, around the basket offensive, and another shot blocker alongside Camby. However, where he is at this point of his career with all the knee issues he’s had is a really big question mark. If the Nuggets are depending on Martin heavily, it’s a big mistake because at any point his knees could take him out. Nene Hilario played for Brazil this summer and he’s been a bit of a disappointment after garnering a ten million per six year deal. How in shape he is was in question, but considering that he did play in the FIBA Americas tournament he should be better prepared for this NBA season than he was last.
The offensive side of the ball is not really a big issue for the Nuggets. They are a bit weak at the point guard position, but they can always slide over Iverson and put JR Smith at the two. However, where the Nuggets really need to worry about is the defensive side of the ball. They’ve got several guys who are better off ball defenders than they are on, which is why they were one of the worst defensive teams in the league last year. The point of emphasis during training camp was defense - and considering now that they have a training camp together, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this team win the division if they really get rolling. There is just too many question marks about this team though to predict so.
Portland Trailblazers
The Blazers won the 2007 draft lottery despite having just a 5% chance to do so after a lackluster season that was hampered by injuries. They made several drastic changes in the off season including trading the work horse from last year’s team Zach Randolph. While Zach was their leading scorer and rebounder, his contract was disastrous and in order to keep the young studs that they have trading Randolph was absolutely necessary. It also opens up time for Lamarcus Aldridge, who looks ready to explode. Greg Oden’s knee surgery really hampers this team for this coming season, but considering his age he should be able to recover fully. It will also have a similar type effect on his overall game that it did for Amare. When Amare came back from his injury, his touch on his jumper was improved ten fold - hopefully the same can happen for Oden.
This up coming season is really all about development of the Blazers young players. Brandon Roy had a smooth transition from college and it led to him earning rookie of the year honors. This season is more about those guys that they invested a lot in that haven’t really found their spot in the NBA. Martell Webster and Travis Outlaw are both going to get their chances this year to step up and earn the starting small forward spot. Martell’s shooting stroke is picture perfect, but his all-game is not at the level that Outlaw’s is. Outlaw offensively has made some strides after coming out of high school as a very raw prospect on that end of the floor. If one of those two can develop into the man at the small forward - Portland will be a lot closer to being a playoff team next year when Oden comes back.
What is beneficial for the Blazers this year is that while they are working towards developing their younger guys, they’ll also be getting a fairly high draft pick this year in an extremely talented draft pool. Luck like this rarely strikes twice in a two year span, but they should be getting another solid prospect to add to this tremendous young core come draft night.
Seattle Supersonics
Seattle had another disappointing season as they battled injuries and really just a lack of talent. Outside of Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis this team really had little scoring punch. They continue to be focused more on where the team is going to move to rather than improving the actual team. They blew it up this summer trading away both all-stars from the team and putting the franchise in the hands of one of the best freshman basketball players to come along in twenty years.
Kevin Durant was a tremendous pick for the team. His versatility and uncanny ability to put the ball in the basket really made it a no-brainer at pick number two for the Sonics. However, KD is still extremely weak and to make him the face of the franchise in his first year was a big mistake. If he’s ready to carry an NBA franchise at just twenty years old, than he is a lot better than everyone said he was - and we’re not talking about an under hyped guy.
They’re an extremely young team that has no leadership. This will make it very hard for them to win more than thirty, maybe even twenty games. If Kevin Durant goes down they’re looking at their point guards as their two best scorers. They made big investments in three big men: Robert Swift, Saer Sene, and Johan Petro. All three of these guys have done very little in their pro career and so far in preseason none of them look ready to step in and be the starter. Petro couldn’t even beat out Frederick Weiss this summer on the France national team.
Durant will have a huge year - rookie of the year worthy if he plays enough games, but this Sonics team is going to be among the leagues worse and Durant can look forward to OJ Mayo or Derrick Rose coming in to end the controversy at the point come next year.
Minnesota Timberwolves
The mismanagement of this franchise once again landed them in the top ten of the lottery this past season, but it also rid them of the best player in franchise history: Kevin Garnett. McHale had a chance to keep this team at least in the playoffs because when you have a player like Kevin Garnett there isn’t a whole lot you have to do. But McHale continued to butcher draft picks, make illogical trades, and it has now lead to a complete and total rebuilding of this franchise.
Just last week the Timberwolves were looking at their leaders being Juwan Howard and Antoine Walker - which has twenty five wins written all over it. During the weekend though reports came out that Howard will be bought out and now they look to only Antoine Walker as their only veteran leader. Expect flashbacks from his Celtic days where he used to throw up an insane amount of three pointers and played very little defense.
As far as young talent goes - this team has one of the most intriguing young cores in the league. McCants, Foye, and Jefferson appear to be the only three that are ready to contribute this year. Jefferson is really being depended on to put up some really big numbers. This is by far going to be one of the worst teams in the league this year. They have no sure thing. There isn’t a player on this Timberwolves roster that you know you can depend on night in and night out. If all those question marks turn into big contributors, then they have the potential to win 35-40 games, but this is a very bad team put together by Kevin McHale. It has potential - but as far as this year is concerned, things look pretty ugly.
Northwest division standings predictions
1. Utah Jazz
2. Denver Nuggets
3. Portland Trailblazers
4. Seattle Supersonics
5. Minnesota Timberwolves
