The NBA’s Northwest Division rates as the league’s most mysterious collection of five teams.
We know which team will rule the division, but after that, the picture becomes very cloudy. Sure, the Utah Jazz are a strong favorite to finish second in the division and make a push for a playoff spot, but it’s hard to view a young team as a surefire playoff participant. The other franchises in this division are all immersed in oceans of change and dislocation. Which non-marquee players need to be counted on to stitch together these lineups and help the bigger names make a push to the playoffs… or at least a better record than the pundits expect?
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MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES: ZACH LaVINE
When one sees Zach LaVine dunk a basketball, it’s impossible to ignore his upside. Yet, the fact that LaVine did not make that much of an impact at UCLA only magnifies the extent to which this young man is a walking embodiment of unfulfilled potential. On a Minnesota roster with luminous young talents, LaVine is the player overshadowed by his teammates. Andrew Wiggins is expected to make another great leap forward this season. Karl-Anthony Towns is believed to be a cornerstone player for the franchise, learning at the foot of Kevin Garnett. Ricky Rubio remains a magician with the rock. All of these players have either accomplished more or are expected to do more than LaVine.
If the reigning slam-dunk champion can make a name for himself based on overall basketball aptitude and not just his dunking prowess, Minnesota could definitely exceed expectations in the West and ripen into a team that could end the 2015-2016 season a little bit ahead of schedule.
DENVER NUGGETS: GARY HARRIS
As the Nuggets begin a slow rebuild under Mike Malone — with Emmanuel Mudiay getting the keys to the offense and beginning his NBA education with Jameer Nelson by his side — the organization needs to know what it has at the shooting guard spot. We saw Draymond Green become an indispensable Michigan State player on an NBA championship roster with the Golden State Warriors. Can Harris, who entered Tom Izzo’s program the season after Green left it, make himself essential to Denver’s plans?
Harris did not come into the NBA with deficient teaching; Tom Izzo players are exposed to the rigors of basketball and made aware of what it takes to be a complete performer. Mudiay needs to have a knockdown shooter to feed on the perimeter, and a Denver team which slacked at the defensive end of the floor last season can use a lockdown defender at the two. Harris was bothered by injuries at Michigan State, but he showed during his time in East Lansing that he can rain in jumpers and defend like a madman. He has a situation tailored to his skills; will he take advantage of it, and in the process, elevate the Nuggets in the Mile High City?
PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS: AL-FAROUQ AMINU
One of the first deals from the free-agent frenzy of the past offseason was Portland’s signing of Aminu, a relatively unremarkable player who is being brought to the Pacific Northwest for his defensive abilities. The range of opinion which greeted this particular transaction was noticeably expansive. For that reason alone, Aminu is a question-mark player who holds the fate of the Trail Blazers’ season in his hands. Other players such as Meyers Leonard, Noah Vonleh, and Mason Plumlee will also shape Portland’s season, but Aminu might be the player most emblematic of the identity shift we’re seeing in Rip City. With Nic Batum and LaMarcus Aldridge gone, the Blazers have to become more of a defense-first team in order to play above expectations. Aminu is the player who can engineer a new springtime for Portland in the building formerly known as the Rose Garden.
UTAH JAZZ: ALEC BURKS
Many Jazz fans and bloggers have said it for years: “FREE ALEC BURKS!” Not given enough of a chance by Ty Corbin and still overshadowed by his frontcourt teammates in Salt Lake City, Burks — whose last name blurs together with the one owned by a more high-profile running mate, Trey Burke — has not yet made a name for himself on a number of levels.
Utah is one of a number of NBA teams with lots of length and size — Memphis and Milwaukee being other prime examples — and not enough perimeter shooting. Burks has to be able to leave a larger footprint on this part of the Jazz’s portfolio. With Dante Exum out, the Jazz’s perimeter defense won’t be as imposing. An instant-offense marksman can compensate for the team’s defensive deficiencies 20 to 25 feet from the basket. A big season from Burks would do a lot to ensure that the Jazz play some playoff music again.
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER: DION WAITERS
This is a very thorny problem for first-year coach Billy Donovan: How can Dion Waiters be meaningfully and effectively integrated into the rest of the Oklahoma City roster?
Waiters’s presence in the lineup — even in a bench role — poses problems for the Thunder. Chiefly, Waiters is a ballhog, a man in love with the hoist, the not-well-chosen jumper which is too tempting to resist. Waiters’s habits are poison on a roster with two guys who need to be shooting the rock, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant.
The main source of hope for OKC is that Waiters is not yet 24 years old. His habits are not entrenched to the point of permanence. Billy D. can break down Waiters’s game and rebuild it in a much more sensible manner. If this reconstruction occurs over the course of 82 games and the Thunder enter the playoffs in good health, Waiters — with a focus on defense and improved shot selection — could be the sixth or seventh man who makes this team a threat to Golden State and San Antonio in the West.
