It’s been a busy off-season in the Northwest Division. Let’s take a look at where the Timberwolves’ new ‘Big Three’ ranks among their division rivals.
To say that the NBA offseason has been exciting would be an understatement.
Players have been leaving teams to make “super teams” left and right. The Chris Paul trade to the Rockets and the Gordon Hayward signing in Boston are just a couple of examples, plus, Kevin Durant stayed in Golden State to keep the biggest super team together. And just when you thought all the big time moving was done, Kyrie Irving stayed in the Eastern Conference but moved to the Celtics along with Hayward.
The biggest winner of the wild offseason has to be the Northwest division. Three of the biggest moves, mixing free agency and trades, happened to take place in one of the most crowded divisions in the NBA. Paul George and Jimmy Butler were sent to Oklahoma City and Minnesota, respectively, for what seemed like cents on the dollar. Butler left Chicago in exchange for an injured Zach LaVine, a rookie in Kris Dunn who had a down year his rookie season, and swapped draft picks. George was sent packing from Indiana for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis.
The biggest free agent domino to fall in the division is Paul Millsap moving from Atlanta to the Mile High City. With him joining an outstanding young big man in Nikola Jokic, Denver should boast one of the better frontcourts in the association. Combine that with the promising Jamal Murray and Emmanuel Mudiay and the Nuggets have a squad that should be competing for the seventh and eighth seeds in the loaded Western Conference.
We have not even mentioned the Trail Blazers, who have one of the best backcourts in the NBA with Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. And there’s Utah, too: even though they lost the former Butler Bulldog to Beantown, they have one of the best defensive centers in the game in Rudy Gobert and a passing genius in Ricky Rubio.
In other words, the Northwest Division is absolutely loaded. Also, there is not one team that is head and shoulders above the rest. The battle for the top should be a very fun one to watch.
Another thought is that the teams are very top-heavy. Each team seems to have two or three players that are superstars, stars, or budding stars. With one of the most popular trends (and terms) in basketball being the “Big 3”, let’s rank each team in the division based on exactly that.