Northwest division preview

PREVIOUSLY: ATLANTIC, SOUTHEAST, PACIFIC, SOUTHWEST.

OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER

Last season: dominated NBA from stem to stern, won 68 games and 2025 title.
Offseason: NBA did little to dissuade anyone from thinking the Thunder aren't back-to-back-to-back-to-back-viable.

C: Isaiah Hartenstein – do-it-all center is without question the league's greatest luxury, the filthiest note in OKC's bank. About to enter his prime and Hartenstein's best moments with this team might be in spring 2026, he is not nearly as comfortable with his teammates at this point as he will be by his second postseason with the club.
PF/C: Chet Holmgren – noticeably hamstrung and second-rate (to Chet's taste) in 2025-26, will blossom even further once he and Hartenstein start playing off each other, rather than returning each other's interests.
F: Jalen Williams – playoff hand injury makes sense in retrospect, the Thunder shoulda swept each series. Upon return he requires a few weeks to round into shape but after that, terrifying. Until then, keeping J-Dub off his feet, limiting his exposure to a game he played deep into June, could be a boon.
SG: Luguentz Dort – 40 percent from deep the last two seasons, not 27 until April.
G: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – too famous for me now, I liked him better when he shot more two-pointers.

Shai's can't-read-me approach is the best brand of leadership for these defending champions, the youngest group of title defenders we've watched since Shaq and Kobe informed and sometimes inflamed sportswriters with use of the word "bling."

The Thunder's season will feel like an extension of 2024-25, with zero break in between. This can enervate, nonstop basketball is what typically dims back-to-back title hopes, not some emerging monster, previously unspotted. Gilgeous-Alexander can keep each outing fresh, and thin the perspective.

Shai's not only the best player, but its most Canadian. This title defense will be hard but things are mellow, the Thunder will be fine.

Alex Caruso hit 41 percent from deep in the postseason and was healthy for every second of it. Everything that coulda gone correctly, gone that way.

Nikola Topic is out until December but any bit of heads-up minutes this second-year rookie gives OKC helps keep the pups from chirping. Topic doesn't need to look like the best point guard not in the NBA or a future All-Star or even starter, he just needs to roll out for a few minutes per game, make his teammates' evenings shorter.

Ousmane Dieng is still only 22 and the stretch big could be roped into minutes with rookie Thomas Sorber out until 2026-27. I can't imagine the Thunder expected a ton from Sorber (a Georgetown center drafted No. 15) before his season-ending ACL tear, but they were banking on him picking up minutes, take a load off the guys who had to work in June last season. Dieng can help this, so can Topic, the Thunder don't need to win these minutes, they just need fewer of them.

Cason Wallace has 85 free throw attempts in 183 career games (including playoffs) and I say it is time to dig into that bag, Cason Wallace, maybe blow off a play or two and let the NBA see what you're made of. I'm using Cason Wallace's limited free throw rate to encourage rebellion amongst OKC's award-winning ranks, anything for an edge.

Aaron Wiggins passed more last season, turned the ball over less, hit over 41 percent from long-range in the regular season and defenders were falling over themselves to close out on Wiggins in the postseason ... Sam Presti grabbed Isaiah Joe off the waiver wire, Isaiah Joe rounds into a double-figure bench scorer for a championship team, hitting 41 percent from deep in the playoffs, missing four two-pointers in 17 tries ... Kenrich Williams has a championship ring, reflecting Kenrich Williams' good taste, diligence, and the integrity of anyone who helped Kenrich Williams along the way.

Branden Carlson, baseball-ass name I submit, is good and can dunk and is already 26. The 7-footer should find time for minutes in the pivot while Sorber soaks ... Malevy Leons is an interesting and 6-9 and does a bit of everything and also is 26. Leons worked with the Thunder's minor league affiliate last season, OKC is replete with prospect to step into the sort of second-season minutes which tend to annoy and eventually defeat defending champions.

Jaylin Williams' three-year, $24 million extension is enviable value, Ace Bailey will be paid more this season just to forget plays. The contract declines each year. Oklahoma City is No. 17 in salary this season and projected to be well under $200 million payroll through 2028 save for Hartenstein and Dort's extensions and we're getting them next.

Ajay Mitchell for $3 million this season, then declining, already peppered with playoff minutes, perfect deep bench help at the tiniest of prices.

Fatigue, mental oblivion, increased exposure to accidental injury. What will any of this matter to a bunch of 20-somethings?

Staying on top of the hill for 200 games, two full seasons, it ain't easy, it is rare in NBA history. OKC isn't a normal champion, though. Rather, the most precocious top-to-bottom champion we've seen since Golden State's 2015 winner, that club appearing somewhat greyed (Curry was Shai's age, 27, Klay and Dray 25, Barnes was only 23) by comparison. Each were end-to-end champions, too, not some usurper rolling at the right time, jumping the order.

The 2016 Warriors met injury in the first round the next season, the limp never left, Steph was never Steph but a loss is a loss. OKC could endure much, survive more, still come out a 2026 winner.

Outside Bill Russell's first title team, no other NBA champion comes close to this youth. Look up and down the Finals list, four successful playoff rounds are not fertile territory for the unripened. OKC's current lineup of pre-prime prospects, including Shai (the MVP with several better seasons ahead of him), is unrivaled in NBA history.

Then, the picks. This rotation would be utterly daunting even if the Thunder didn't own a cache of first-round draft picks from other, less-successful teams, but OKC has so many coupons to work with. Either for salary relief, to excuse shit ownership, or incoming youth to relieve the stars as they near their 30s (in five or six or seven or eight years).

Everyone is less successful than these Thunder, status assured, but how high this moon?

With this depth, 74 wins is an absolute option. We'd expect a six-win increase anyway from a squad full of up-and-comers turning from 23 to 24 or 22 to 23, why not expect the same from stars?

Because I'm chicken.

Guess: 68-14, tops in the West.

DENVER NUGGETS

Last season: 50-32, appropriately fired the feuding coach and GM at inappropriate times, lost in second round to champion in Thunder in seven games.
Offseason: Wal-Mart will only spend money unless Wal-Mart's kid gets to be GM but, hey, Wal-Mart spent money on the Nuggets for once.

C: Nikola Jokic – so we got our own Wilt, it turns out. Worked 36.7 minutes per game last season and that can't happen again, Denver's Jonas Valančiūnas pinch should make hoop fans squeal.
PF: Aaron Gordon – could not overstate the basketball value of this man, even before he began splashing north of 40 percent from deep. Forced to launch too much in the playoffs (48/38/86), new teammates should take the edge off this.
F: Cameron Johnson – even an average outing from deep (it is awfully hard to run and shoot in thin air) is enough, his minutes and ability to draw defenders will leave Denver opponents slappy. Will look and play way differently around Jokic in 2026 than he'll look and play the next two months.
F/G: Christian Braun – familiarity with the only fantasy he's ever known will continue to pay off: Braun's cutting and pressure release will help the new additions with any ongoing confusion. There is nothing like a role player who grew up in the system.
PG: Jamal Murray – the 28-year old parked 41 minutes a playoff game last spring and if you think it showed then, wait until May. The Nuggets still require productive point guard-sized players, anything to sustain Murray's bounce.

DaRon Holmes is in another rookie year, and even with Michael Malone gone Holmes is still young, which means he ain't gonna be anyone's favorite. Barely played in the exhibition season:

Peeling away from an Achilles repair is not what his veteran teammates need right now. They need availability, a few minutes, no fouls, defensive rebounds. Rooting for the guy.

Tim Hardaway Jr. turns 34 on that day between the Ides of March and St. Patrick's Day. Shouldn't that be a day? Anyone else imagining Caesar salad dressing drizzled over corned beef? That's how the Turkish invented Russian dressing, you know.

Hardaway isn't a marksman, but a scorer who runs hot from outside. He can't be expected to pull the same stuff Cameron Johnson knocks in, catch-and-shoot quickness, but he will win few second and third quarters and believe me Nugget fans have waited a while for a reserve like that. He could also completely fall off.

Bruce Brown hasn't been the same since he left Denver, relatively stiffened with the Pacers and Raptors and Pelicans, his right knee a little balky, his role somewhat undefined. The 30-year old is ready to grab a board, start the break, give it up, get it back, make the extra pass. Cowboy shit:

No cowboy hats allowed in Indiana, Canada, Louisiana.

How'd Wal-Mart get the money for all these additions? Budget stayed the same, all they had to do was take a little of that mascot money ...

The Denver Nuggets are asking a judge to dismiss a disability discrimination lawsuit that was filed by a man who played the team’s mascot, claiming that his hip condition is not a disability and, even if it is, the team was not wrong to hold open tryouts after his surgery.

“Any actions taken with respect to the plaintiff’s employment were taken for legitimate, non-discriminatory and non-retaliatory business reasons,” team lawyers wrote Sept. 25.

... and put it back on the court.

Peyton Watson blocked three more shots than Ivica Zubac last season in about a thousand fewer minutes. Shaky jumper looked less shaky last season, he only recently turned 23. Born the same day Johnny Unitas died, he could be Johnny United reincarnated, I'm not ruling anything out.

Julian Strawther is pushed down the rotation a little (unless Hardaway and Brown fall off) and suddenly within the best possible spot, presuming he continues to round off his 3-and-D minutes. Julian Strawther was born the same day Wahoo McDaniel died and, listen, I can be talked into so, so much.

Hunter Tyson spent five years at Clemson and and two years watching from the bench and he recently turned 25 and, no, not this year, Hunter. Missed 70 percent of his shots in the exhibition season.

Moses Brown was here because heck yeah, Moses Brown is fun. The Nuggets waived him, but had a chance to be the 7-footer's eighth NBA team since his debut in Nov. 2019 plus second stints in Portland and Dallas. Ten groups in six years

Swingman Spencer Jones spent five years at Stanford to look normal, composed, during NBA Summer League ... Kessler Edwards could start in a deep pinch and I wouldn't be unhappy, the Nuggets waived him but he is NBA quality and now he knows the plays if Denver needs a call-up.

If Jalen Pickett is gonna go he's gotta do it now. I like the new move he came up with during the offseason:

DeAndre Jordan is not here anymore, presumably ready to be the NBA's best podcast guest in 2025-26. I need a second job as a podcast fact checker, for when Karl-Anthony Towns thinks Cole Aldrich was a rookie.

Vlatko Čančar is Slovenian for "good cheer and wisdom, hearty appetite, please hold elevator door." I think I translated that correctly.

Jonas Valančiūnas can make this team his own for four minutes at time. The second unit, the second quarter, all manner of creative marks in between. The Nuggets surely promised him much during that tumultuous offseason, I love to watch much.

The Zeke Nnaji contract extension began last year, 2024-25, so we have a little while to go (2027-28 is a player option) on that. I'd like to believe the 25-year old pops up for more minutes with Malone gone, but David Adelman was at the same Nugget practices as his predecessor, saw the same Zeke. Nnaji sent back one shot every 16 minutes last season but if he (single-digit rebounding rate in his fifth pro season) outplays Holmes this year, we'll have trouble.

Rooting for David Adelman is easy, inside any scenario. That his entrance into NBA head coaching was executed so thoughtlessly stings, but neither side said anything embarrassing, coaching ranks handle things with class.

(NBA coaches' password-protected message board must be AMAZING.)

OnHoops is undaunted by the Valančiūnas hype, unashamed to add to it. The Nuggets will get to hand the team over to a Marc Gasol-type for 15 minutes each night, dollop him into spots which work, yank him out of the places where Jonas should not roam. If that means large swathes of postseason, oh well, matchups are matchups.

Jonas Valančiūnas, he did not want to work an NBA schedule anymore, his body telling him to avoid endless flights and three or four opponents in a week. No brain tells a person to turn down NBA millions, neither would the ego.

But something in Jonas knew he wanted to be a professional 7-footer elsewhere, and the Nuggets will have to go easy with the most talked-about backup center since Mychal Thompson came into Los Angeles in 1986 (and even that talk was mostly from Mychal).

Bruce Brown's knee? Not encouraging, but the Nuggets need help with minutes until April, anything after that is a treat. Remember Russell Westbrook, Denver Nugget? Imagine this, but different, a little milder on the ball, that's Bruce Brown. Now, imagine Russell Westbrook in a cowboy hat. Not that one, different.

The expectation that Nikola Jokic will turn in another year for the ages, arguably the best NBA season ever played, is reasonable. If Aaron Gordon continues to make two out of every five three-pointers, if Cameron Johnson adapts to the crisp air with alacrity and a similar percentage from long-range, it is on. Every minute Hardaway helps is a help and it may only be a few minutes a month, does not matter, they are replacing nothing.

Guess: 56-26, No. 2 in the West.

PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS

Last season: 36-46, gradual improvement across the field in spite of all the hallmarks of youth and inexperience. Which is the name of a Hallmark movie, filmed not too far away.
Offseason: added experience, almost 30 years' worth, while committing to youth. Also, Danica McKellar is home from the Big City to help her ailing auntie decorate during the holidays and she never thought Thanksgiving then tinsel could be so much trouble.

C: Donovan Clingan – blocks, fouls, sweat. Ten points and eight boards and three fouls and two blocks in 24 minutes a starter. Changes the games he's in.
F: Jerami Grant – wants to start but also what is he going to say? Grant wants to work for that money as much as Portland fans want his production to reflect his contract. He didn't look finished last season, he just stunk. Three years left on the deal, $102.6 million, dig in and hope to figure out some way to live with it.
F/G: Deni Avdija – ball of box score down the stretch of 2024-25, the rock was in his hands and when it wasn't Avdija was cutting toward a pass. Won't be an All-Star but can keep up the terrific play. Even if every opponent now knows he's capable of being the best player on the floor for the final 16 minutes of a game.
G/F: Shaedon Sharpe – 18 points per game at 21, pay that. Nobody can play defense these days anyway, I blame hand-checking rules and also political correctness. If I can't press on the two-liter bottles of plain seltzer at the store then I have no way to determine out if they have enough carbonation, that's common sense and my right as an American and what, I ask, happened to free speech? Anyway, this guy is money in the lane. Smooth. Bubbly.
PG: Jrue Holiday – not great in the playoffs last spring, that shouldn't bother Portland fans this spring. Jrue Holiday is NBA-old, the first time he played the Blazers, Juwan Howard started for Portland. Strong chance debilitating stiffness sets in this season, signs were there in Boston last year, owed $104.4 million over next three seasons. (Anfernee Simons, the man Jrue was exchanged for, is a free agent in summer). And with Scoot Henderson aching early, Holiday can't ease into his age-35 season. Travel in the first two months will annoy.

That's an age when point guards typically take a dive, or done dove already. Holiday isn't there, and his decline could be gradual, taking the length of that contract. Which Portland can afford.

Scoot Henderson could be out until deep November with a hamstring tear. Sportswriter trope alert but sometimes it works: Scoot watching His Team from floor level for two months could do wonders for his outlook.

Scoot eyeing Jrue Holiday as Holiday leads the possession until Scoot forgets he's supposed to be watching Jrue Holiday, because that's what a great point guard does, he blends, disappears. You're supposed to watch the conductor run the symphony but at some point your gaze will shift over to those dudes playing crazy violins or that lady going wild on whatever that is, a viola? Lite cello?

Holiday will be fantastic for Henderson. This is only Henderson's third season, it feels like he's been there for a half-decade. Last year Scott was caught in the air too often, forced Portland's possession into Scoot's own devices too often. He also got to the line a ton and improved all the efficiency marks, the percentages, the turnovers.

He's about the same age (22 midseason) as Reed Sheppard, Anthony Black, Cody Williams, the players we're willing to roll patiently with through another season or two.

Toumani Camara earned a four-year, $82 million contract extension and yeah, you don't want him anywhere near your team's best scorer ... Matisse Thybulle's ankle curtailed his 2024-25, he didn't play in the exhibition season, he'll make over $11 million this season and is only 28 ... Rayan Rupert was alright in the minors last season, his three-point shot hasn't settled but he is only 21. Fouled a lot in the exhibition season.

Blake Wesley was a high-end prospect who fled the college ranks and into Gregg Popovich's arms as soon as he could. When he played for the Spurs, he took jumpers like he was still being held by Gregg Popovich's arms. The Spurs released him from those arms before his rookie contract elapsed, he is super-athletic and it is hard not to pay attention to him on the court (even when he stinks).

Javonte Cooke worked well for OKC's minor league squad last season and was signed for point guard depth with Henderson out. He's 26, you'll probably watch him this fall, late one night when there's no other game on.

News for Portland: Robert Clingan's gleaming forehead is not supposed to play more than 30 minutes a contest, even if he Robert Clingan delivers All-Star level production during this term. Clingan can go 30, he worked over 30 minutes a night several times as a starter last season, but if the Blazers see something in Yung Hansen, then run with it.

The Blazers are set on swingmen, trading Cedric Coward to slip five spots and take on two second-rounders and a 2028 first (from Orlando) is crucial: Portland needs picks to move off Jerami Grant's contract.

Apologies if this was brought up on every NBA podcast this summer but we all predict the Blazer front office assumes Damian Lillard will opt out of his contract after 2027? Because even after a successful 2026-27 return, I don't know any championship contender daft enough to give 37-year old Dame Lillard a two-year, $28 million guaranteed deal, even if his injury setback weren't real.

A little projection from me, guessing at projection from Portland GM Joe Cronin, who just gave 36-year old (when he comes back from injury) Dame Lillard essentially a one-year, $27.5 million deal to work in 2026-27.

Portland's payroll is in the middle of the pack, even though they'll pay DeAndre Ayton and Dame nearly $40 million not to play basketball this season, even if Holiday and Grant combine for over $64 million. Hope for them to combine for over 40 percent from the floor.

The veteran allure is real, and functional (with a young coaching staff), and cliches work here, on either side. It isn't our money, also, get that bag. Scoot and Clingan extensions kick in after the vets expire. By 2030, top-five lottery picks will earn nearly as much as Sharpe and Camara's yearly rate. The books are odd, but they're not in the way.

Robert Williams had knee surgery in the offseason and Sean Highkin reports he's cleared for contact, so Bob's not lost. This is his eighth NBA season and Robert Williams' next NBA game will be his 236th.

Kris Murray is on odd one, there is a world where I can see him creating a niche as a Grant Williams-styled big forward, but he ain't big enough, or Grant-enough. Good touch even if he can't shoot or hold onto the ball. Already 25, the former first-round pick better start (25 percent career) hitting threes. And stop getting his shot blocked.

Duop Reath is a 7-foot, third-string center and I wonder if NBA refs use his game tape to help instruct young refs on defensive zoning restrictions and also three-second violations ... Caleb Love was in the spotlight for five years at North Carolina and Arizona and appears ready for this particular stage:

How in the world are Minnesota and Portland in the same division? Western Oregon, middle of Minnesota. Expansion can't get here soon enough. The NBA can handle the influx of watered-down expansion talent, 15 players' worth, because the other 30 teams will be so much better rested.

Underwhelmed by Portland's roster? Put off by its offseason? The problem is the Portland Trail Blazers are still good. Not amazing or dynamic, but Portland puts up enough on both ends to make it interesting.

If Holiday plays, the communication increases. Talking on defense. No standing around on offense. Camara and Sharpe, better in places they weren't before. Clingan stays back, Grant steps up. Someone requires filling the buckets Anfernee Simons left behind, Holiday is here to remind everyone that every, one of them should go home with a bushelful.

The rookie won't win any games this season, but Robert Williams should, even in limited action. Clingan will win more, Scoot certainly. Meanwhile, Avdija lays the baseline, making sure creative lanes develop, getting out of the way when it is time for Sharpe to spin his cycle.

I'm not in the business of guessing at injury, either via old age or via Tupperware Theory. I don't think it is called the "Tupperware Theory." Anyway, all these kids just throw themselves at opponents and Portland comes out with occasional victories.

Portland could cull 20 wins just from the East this season. Maybe they should ask to re-align themselves, not Minnesota.

Guess: 37-45, tied for No. 11.

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES

Last season: 49-33, changed concept of team on the fly and still made Western finals for Minnesota's first time in over two decades.
Offseason: made it past training camp without trading its highest-paid player.

C: Rudy Gobert – 33 in the offseason but not worried about him in the slightest, not until he shows me something to worry about.
F: Jaden McDaniels – 82 games and strong in the postseason, will be more comfortable around Randle in the pair's second season together, more apt to step into areas he may have avoided last season. The post, mainly, the paint. Anywhere in front of Julius Randle. Turned it over but 95 times in 82 starts and turned 25 in the offseason.
F: Julius Randle – turned 31 in the offseason but should have another crusher turn in him during 2025-26. Might trip to the free throw line more often in his second go with these teammates. Opponents blocked 60 of his shots last season, most on the Wolves but No. 36 in the NBA.
SG: Anthony Edwards – stop posting up and go shoot three-pointers. Three-pointers are worth an extra point and they extend your career. I get it, blah blah blah, the post-up footwork helps me free myself for three-pointers or in transition, fine, good for your offseason cardio workout, go shoot three-pointers.
PG: Donte DiVincenzo – not a point guard, not in the slightest, but if the idea is to get out of the way while Edwards and Randle cook, I understand. As Mike Conley ages he'll require the ball to be effective more and more, Dr. Conley needs his string. Donte can bring it up, kind of, and get out of the way.

The move doesn't burden the second-year Dillingham with expectation, no monumental switchovers, torches passing. Nah, just two veterans swapping spots.

Donte's trouble is the initial gag: Donte is no point guard. Players loosen up as they grow older, grow more comfortable, and DiVincenzo turns 29 midseason. The Wolves want to squeeze every moment out of this particular run. They don't want the embarrassment of observers noticing they tend to start every game with a deficit and also, at the same time, a point guard in his 19th season out there first.

Mike Conley just turned 38, it might be best to let him chump NBA reserves off the Minnesota pine. He managed 30 percent from the field in the postseason, missing 27-36 two-pointers.

DiVincenzo's assist rate was a career high and by a lot in 2024-25, his first season with Minnesota, marks which carried over to the point guard. He can do point guard things, which in a pinch might be what his team requires at its moment.

Naz Reid only committed 13 charges last season in 80 games, he used to do that in 8.8 games. Half his shots are from long-range now and fine, he's 26 now, he'll get better at defense ... Rob Dillingham worked 121 exhibition season minutes over five games and earned eight free throws, he is still awfully shaky, not nearly as strong as he needs to be because hasn't even turned 21 yet and won't until next year. He scored and found teammates and is an utter and inarguable baller, we just need a little while ... Joan Beringer could be an All-Star and all of Minnesota will still think about Juan Berenguer. Juan Berenguer did something awesome with a broken bat or ball hit up the middle once, can't remember, saw the clip recently but can't find it in my history.

Cool rookie though, only 18 but plays way older:

Terrence Shannon was born 11 months after Naz Reid, he is expected to step into the sort of minutes we'd expect from a good 25-year old NBA player, in spite of fewer than 400 minutes (regular and postseason combined) of on-court NBA experience ... Bones Hyland is also about the same age as Terrance Shannon and Jaden McDaniels the Wolves want another look at these Bones, because playoff-worthy NBA talent is finite and performers are better at 25 than they were at 22. And because he's Bones Hyland! Ball in the goal, is the goal.

Hoped-for Naz Reid-clone Leonard Miller was strong in the minors and played well in the exhibition season and there are minutes available here.

Johnny Juzang and Rocco Zikarsky are the two-way players and, yes, "Johnny Juzang" and "Rocco Zikarsky" are two prominent character names from my script treatment and no, you can't see it, not until it is finished.

Juzang played a lot for the Jazz last season, kinda like Kyle Anderson mixed with Max Strus. Rocco Zikarsky is, as you'd guess, Australian. He is 7-2 and he turned 19 three months ago:

Jaylen Clark is already 24 and already not that bad, I thought he worked a lot more than he did last season (40 games, 500 minutes) so that's gotta be good, right? Because Wolves games are on at a really tough time for me, lotta East going, lotta West starting up. Not a lot of work available at backup shooting guard for the Anthony Edwards-led Minnesota Timberwolves, but the if job exists, Jaylen has it.

This doesn't look like a group frustrated with its task. Wishing it could skip past all the nonsense they're above, get right back to May and trying to figure out a way to steal a playoff win in Denver or Oklahoma City.

Apparently Anthony Edwards, Football Fella, found charm inside the summertime idea that basketball never stops. He isn't suave like D-Wade nor pointed like Kobe, isn't spindly like Jimmy Butler or sopping wet from three-point range like Ray Allen. Nah, his closest physical comp is Michael Jordan, and nobody knows this better than Anthony "Ultra-Wispy Mustache" Edwards.

Good, Wolves will win behind that. Gobert and Julius will drop off someday, not now, and not this spring. Donte is in prime and the young bigs look good. The only thing in the way is health but unlike so many other clubs, Minnesota isn't made of performers with recurring injuries, there are no important rotation pieces peeling off a lost year. Nah, Minnesota is just filled with guys they hope don't get hurt.

The Wolves nearly played into June earlier this year, that's the baseline expectation, taking more than one game in the Western finals.

Anthony "Doing That Croaky Jordan Thing With His Voice" Edwards may own grander plans.

Guess: 50-32, tied for No. 4 in West.

UTAH JAZZ

Last season: 17-65, superquit.
Offseason: traded John Collins, Lauri Markkanen tried to sneak on the flight out.

C: Walker Kessler – is great, doesn't foul even though he's forever tapping at offensive rebounds, hasn't had to care yet. Would be nice to see him games which matter but this will have to wait. Turned 24 in offseason.
PF: Lauri Markkanen – turns 29 in May but won't play in May or anything close to it unless Utah trades him. Jazz sat him early in exhibition season to rest a bum wrist, not risk anything with the NBA's most-mentioned trade possibility, he returned nicely. I bet Markkanen didn't think anything could be worse than being left out of Jim Boylen's Leadership Council, but here we are, courtside at Salt Lake City, wondering how our 20s got away from us.
SF: Brice Sensabaugh – is definitely a thing, do check in. Still isn't 22. I wrote this and then the exhibition season happened: 20 points per game.
SG: Keyonte George – blitzed around boring League Pass nights last season, a supremeo bench scorer on a terrible team. Slick, not starving, should be a free throw line staple.
PG: Isaiah Collier – thrust into starting role midseason and played like a 20-year old rookie, produced like a No. 29 overall pick. Still, heaps of possibilities with this one, last season was impossible, and he'll want to learn to win without constructing laudable statlines. Heart in right place but game is years away, the more minutes he plays, the better Utah's lottery odds.

Every second I watch the Jazz this season and Ace Bailey doesn't have the ball will be a second I wonder what we're all doing here, how lucky it is some other planet hit ours and now we have waves, mountains. How we might be the only thing around with these sorts of things, we're not seeing much out there in terms of anything beyond frozen, microbial life. I'm probably thinking about this because of the mountains on the Jazz uniforms. Pass Ace Bailey the ball.

The first time Kevin Love played the Utah Jazz, Matt Harpring was there.

Georges Niang broke his left foot at the start of camp, will be reevaluated in a few weeks, these types of Jones fractures are not the sorts of things to rush back from (because it hurts to run). The Jazz need professional guidance in the locker room, anyway, not tangible court production to translate into victories.

Taylor Hendricks is quite skilled and was awfully interesting in his rookie year in 2023-24, starting occasionally, trying to find space among another messy Jazz roster. He still isn't 22. People his age come back from broken legs all the time, jet-skiing accidents or roof-jumping accidents or grocery cart racing accidents or from slipping while scaling a locked stall at a campus bar to try to rescue a passed-out friend. These guys all end up fine.

Cody Williams, woeful in his rookie season, 32 percent from the floor. He did not look like he belonged, his time in the minor leagues was up and down. Appeared solid enough in the Summer Leagues, put on a little heft in the offseason. We're not done here, but it was not a promising start for any caliber rookie, let alone one drafted with a late lottery selection.

Jazz brass watched the Pacers ride a heap of small guards to the Finals and dug in with Walter Clayton Jr. and as someone who watched a lot of Jazz games in 2024-25, thank you:

The Jazz don't have a star yet and will need to manufacture buckets so as not to embarrass themselves, and top 80 points in a game. Kyle Anderson outlining the proper way to befuddle opponents with goofball footwork seems like a strong thing to have around.

Kyle Filipowski is a tasty fucking player man and I'm sorry I cursed, I just missed basketball.

There is a good chance the Jazz plug Filipowski into Markkanen's spot and don't miss a bloody beat, that's barely a curse.

Jusuf Nurkic and Mo Bamba in practice is absolutely something I would pay to watch. We need some sort of junior circuit for outmoded centers where attendees like Kelly Dwyer can go to sip seltzer and watch jump hooks. Also can I get a press pass? I can't afford a ticket.

Cheerful health and Full Markkanen and the Jazz are still no guarantee to win a dozen times in 2025-26.

I only recently heard about the lottery bound, can't-miss BYU kid, so, go ... Cats?

Checked: Cougars. Go 'Gars.

Collin Sexton kept this Jazz team afloat so many times, kept me from flipping away, John Collins took the ball off the glass and put it in the bucket. Not always with ease, but routinely. That's lost, Jazz will be worse.

Sensabaugh will step into new shots, the Jazz aren't hopeless: Nurkic and Hendricks help, Slo-Mo still connects on the extra pass. Lauri can at least pick up where he left off, which was outclassing Collins' production in many ways. Kyle is here, he can fill it.

Yet so many of these ticks will be taken up by Clayton, by Bailey, Collier when he comes back, and Cody Williams as they try to figure out what's wrong. The Jazz have tanked for years without dogging it, they won't dog this season. They'll sure as hell tank, look at all these neophytes, but they'll bust ass.

We'd certainly prefer watching them – Lauri or otherwise – than Washington, Charlotte on most nights, the Pelicans on others.

All these shot-missing guards got after it last year, the holdovers, it is an interesting group. Everyone on this team is aware the West expects Utah to roll itself up into a rug this season, some resentful and respectful young players can go a long way toward upending that prediction.

This group will likely bottom out, but I'm a fan. Nepotism sucks but it isn't boring, we can watch the Ainge Family weasel their weird, little my dad explained it to me like this once-ways out loud again.

Will Hardy coaches fun teams, I'm tuning in again. I'll know which side will win the game, but I'm still gonna watch.

Guess: 16-66, last in West.

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