The Wild, Wild Northwest Division

by Tyler Lane

One of the most un-watched divisions in all of professional sports, yet continuously provides the NBA a beautiful story line year in and year out. The Denver Nuggets (43-22) are sitting at a stout third place in a gritty Western Conference, immediately followed by the Utah Jazz (41-23) and the Oklahoma City Thunder (40-24). It is no secret the Thunder have been a success story this season when the entire world called them a rebuild. Yet curiosity reigns as the fact of the matter is, any team previously mentioned has some off the wall chance at the NBA’s biggest stage: The Finals. 

With Covid-19 taking away all of sports, especially with the NBA playoffs shortly around the corner, things were just starting to peak for these teams. The Nuggets have taken two games from the Jazz they arguably should not have, meanwhile Oklahoma City has fleeced the Jazz and the Nuggets for wins that may seem unwarranted. What makes this interesting you might add? Considering the Denver Nuggets have a 7 foot point guard, and the Thunder have arguably the best pure point guard of all time, that just leaves the Jazz. The Jazz have the back-to-back Defensive Player of The Year in Rudy Gobert, while also farming one of the best players in the league under twenty-five. 

It is these small stories that build up, along with the fact these three teams have years of chaotic rivalries with one another. The bottom half of the Northwest is even more intriguing. Starting with the boys in Portland, the Trail Blazers. The Trail Blazers have not had the best post season success until last year, when they defeated Denver in the second round to make their first Western Conference Finals appearance in over twenty years. Since then they have dropped off, sitting at 29-37 and struggling immensely just to string a few wins together. Along with that the Minnesota Timberwolves remain in the pit at 19-45. The T’Wolves have the future to look at holding two young elite talents in Center Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell – the question just remains if they can build around this duo to have success. 

All in all, keep the Northwest division in mind. Three to maybe four of their teams usually end up representing the West in the playoffs. Look for the same thing this season, as the playoff matchups between some of these divisional rivals can be something of legendary.