NBA trade season: Breaking down the Northwest Division landscape

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After taking stock of the trade picture in the Eastern Conference, we’ll now turn our attention to the West as teams ready themselves for the Feb. 6 trade deadline. Next up is the Northwest Division.

Previous divisions: Atlantic | Central | Southeast

Denver Nuggets

Status: Competitive
Approach: Open to shuffling the deck around

We all know that Nikola Jokić is the best player in the world — and if you don’t know, now might be a good time to get up to speed.

But one great player does not automatically a champion make, particularly if the team he plays for has a tendency to not be proactive in terms of adding talent to the roster from the outside.

Now, the Nuggets have done fairly well developing their own talent, which does have merit, but they’re a far cry from the team that won the 2023 championship.

Fortunately for them, they seem to be aware of this and are reportedly looking at Chicago’s Zach LaVine — which is frankly a great idea — to strengthen their offense and possibly help alleviate their net rating plummeting whenever Jokić sits.

The Nuggets cannot afford to not optimize the prime of Jokić, even if this year’s plan of “one step back, two steps forward” isn’t necessarily bad. Jokić is playing the best ball of his career and is challenging the all-time greats for one of the best seasons in history.

The Nuggets have to embrace the roll that Jokić is on and do everything within their power to get him as much help as possible.

Likelihood of trade: Big

Nikola Jokić needs more efficient players he can pass to. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Minnesota Timberwolves

Status: Competitive
Approach: Flexible

Despite an impressive, deep postseason run in last season’s NBA playoffs, the Wolves drastically altered their roster, sending Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks in a deal for Julius Randle, who can become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Naz Reid, last season’s Sixth Man of the Year, can also become a free agent, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker is already on the last year of his deal.

This is all a long-winded way of saying that changes could come this summer, as opposed to this deadline, if the Wolves…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-trade-season-breaking-down-the-northwest-division-landscape-144545829.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-12-20 14:45:00

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