By Brett Goldman
Today's games conclude the first half of the NBA regular season. We've learned a lot about teams and players since December, but there's still a long way to go until we can crown a champion. In this series, I'm asking one question that every NBA team will need to answer in the second half of the season. If you haven't seen my article on the Pacific Division, click this link to check it out.
Minnesota Timberwolves: What are we doing?
The Minnesota Timberwolves are probably the only team in the NBA that appears like they have no idea what direction they're going in. Before the season, many picked them as a dark horse team to sneak into the playoffs. They have one of the best centers in the NBA in Karl-Anthony Towns as well a solid young backcourt of D'Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards. Yes, Russell and Towns have barely shared the court this season due to injuries and COVID, but this team should be better than their 7-29 record. The worst thing about this team is that they don't own their first round pick this year unless it's the top 3. They traded away Andrew Wiggins and that pick to the Warriors for Russell. Assuming they continue their run of being the worst team in the NBA this season, they're going to have about a 50% chance of keeping their pick. The Wolves have to decide what kind of team they are. Towns and Russell are going to be in their prime years soon. They have to start getting players who can help those two win now. My suggestion: tank and pray that you get a top 3 pick. Because if you don't, you're really screwed.
Oklahoma City Thunder: What's the plan with all these draft picks?
Between the Paul George trade, the Russell Westbrook-Chris Paul trade, and the Kelly Oubre-Chris Paul deal, the Thunder (and Pelicans) own basically every pick in every draft for the near future. Before the season, everyone outside of Oklahoma City assumed this team was tanking after trading away Chris Paul. As the season has progressed, this team has been sneaky good. Led offensively by young star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and defensively by the Dortress, Lu Dort, this team is just 4 games out of the play-in game. They come to play every single night and are able to surprise teams, including the Lakers, who they took to OT twice in a row. The Thunder have so many draft picks that they might struggle to make room for them all. They have a very young roster outside of Al Horford and George Hill (and Trevor Ariza, who isn't playing), with players such as Isaiah Roby and Théo Maledon showing a lot of potential. Their first round pick, Aleksej Pokuševski, is 19 years old and more raw than the eggs Rocky drinks. Who do you move on from and who do you try and develop?
Denver Nuggets: Who is going to defend LeBron, Kawhi, and PG?
The biggest loss any team faced this offseason was Jerami Grant leaving the Nuggets to play a bigger offensive role in Detroit. The Nuggets have a void to fill at wing defender because of this. Will Barton and Gary Harris are solid. But, they're injury prone and aren't big enough to slow down the elite wing players of the west. It can't be understated how good of a job Jerami Grant did guarding Kawhi in the playoffs. Despite the fact that Jamal Murray is apparently an elite defender now according to the NBA DPOY ladder, they just don't have the guys to get the job done. The good thing is that the Nuggets have plenty of assets to make a trade for one. Michael Porter Jr and Bol Bol are intriguing young players who can definitely be flipped with picks for an elite wing defender (*PJ Tucker*). The Nuggets are currently 7th in the west, and they need to figure some things out in order to get back to the conference finals.
Portland Trail Blazers: When do Nurkic and McCollum come back?
Every season, Damian Lillard's Portland Trail Blazers have high expectations. And every season, something stands in their way. For a while, it was the Golden State Warriors. The last two years it has been injuries. Even though they're 5th in the west right now, they are down 2 starters to injury. Jusuf Nurkic and CJ McCollum are both very important pieces to them making a playoff run. Yes, Gary Trent, Carmelo Anthony, and Enes Kanter are doing a great job replacing them for now, but you can't rely on them to be great 4 out of 7 times. Nurk is one of the few guys in this league who has the potential to make things difficult for the best bigs. CJ McCollum has the rare ability to take over a playoff game. The Blazers are above water for now, but health is the number one question for them at the moment.
Utah Jazz: Is this real?
The Utah Jazz have the best record in the league. They're 3 games up on the next best team in the NBA. And they still think the refs are out to get them. After starting a little slow, they went on an insane run this year, winning 20 of 22 games. Yet the question still stands: Can they do it when it matters? Unfortunately, we won't know the answer until we see it. They take the most 3s in the league and make them at an exceptionally high clip. They're number 1 in the league in Net Rating, and most of their wins on that streak came by double digits. Jordan Clarkson is the frontrunner for 6th man of the year, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert are all-stars, Mike Conley is having a bounce-back year, and Royce O'Neale and Bojan Bogdanovic are starring in their roles. On Twitter, people have compared them to the 2015 Atlanta Hawks, who won 60 games before being swept by the LeBron James and the Cavs in the conference finals. 3 pointers tend not to go in during the playoffs. Defenses get tighter, shooters get more nervous, and every possession counts. Will they continue their run through the rest of the season and the playoffs? Only time will tell. What we do know is that the NBA stars will continue to show absolutely no respect to the Jazz, as we saw what happened with LeBron and KD during the all-star draft.
That's it for the Northwest Division. Be sure to stay tuned for my thoughts on the rest of the NBA over the next week!
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