Minnesota’s biggest challengers in the NBA Northwest division

Utah Jazz

We all imagine the reigning Northwest division champion, the Utah Jazz, to fall off this season right? After the blockbuster trade that sent the defensive game-changer, center Rudy Gobert, to the Timberwolves, it’s not likely Utah will experience the same success.

The Utah Jazz were +6.3 with Gobert on the floor, per Cleaning The Glass. That was because he was an integral piece to their number-one ranked offense. The screens alone that he was able to set up to get players room to operate had massive value. Gobert was always a bailout shot option at the rim as he shot a cool crisp 77 percent from one-to-four feet away from the basket.

How valuable was Gobert to the Utah Jazz? The team only managed a 7-9 record without Gobert in the lineup. With scoring star Donovan Mitchell traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Utah is officially entering its hate in the Victor Webanyama sweepstakes.

Timberwolves fans know from first-hand experience just how impactful both Jarred Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley are on an NBA roster (They are just two of the five players traded for Gobert).

But those players don’t bring the rim protection Gobert did that single-handedly made the Jazz a competent defense. Veteran guard, Mike Conley, was a shell of himself defensively last year. So was Bojan Bogdanovic and Mitchell hasn’t been a plus-defender for two seasons now. I don’t envision a scenario where Utah finishes higher than Minnesota in the standings. There is a talent gap, an arguable coaching cap from their head coach(Utah hired rookie head coach Will Hardy), and an obvious defensive gap.

Minnesota should handle the Jazz next year with or without Mitchell, but will they have an answer for the back-to-back MVP winner Nikola Jokic and his Denver Nuggets?