NBA Northwest Division Preview: Healthy Denver Nuggets Try to Hold Off Minnesota Timberwolves
The Mile-High City Nuggets and two-time reigning MVP Nikola Jokic are the betting favourite to win the NBA northwestern United States Division at -140 odds. That’s thanks to safety Jamal Murray River and forrard Michael Katherine Anne Porter reverting from serious injuries.
The Gopher State Timberwolves are a team on the upswing after they won the horse opera Conference Play-In Tournament lastly season. They landed single of the NBA’s premier defensive players in a megahit swop for centre Rudy Gobert, which is wherefore they’re the indorse favourite to win the northwestern United States at +140 odds.
2022-23 NBA Northwest Division Odds
- Denver Nuggets -140
- Minnesota Timberwolves +140
- Portland Trail Blazers +800
- Utah Jazz +20000
- Oklahoma City Thunder +25000
** Odds via DraftKings
Meanwhile, the Utah Jazz’s run of consecutive Northwest Division titles is about to come in to an end. The Jazz imploded their squad when they traded forth Gobert and safety Donovan Reginald Joseph Mitchell this summer.
Denver Nuggets -140
The Mile-High City Nuggets are ready to rip. James Augustus Henry Murray missed all of utmost flavor recovering from an ACL injury. Katherine Anne Porter only when played a few games before he missed the repose of the time of year with a rear harm and subsequent surgery.
Jokic carried the Nuggets on his rearward without the two max-contract players to win 48 games in conclusion season. His Herculean exertion earned him MVP honors for the back time of year inward a row. Jokic narrowly edged come out snapper Book of Joel Embiid from the Philadelphia 76ers inwards the closest MVP run in to a greater extent than two decades.
The Nuggets upgraded their defense lawyers by acquiring safety Kentavious Caldwell-Pope inwards a merchandise with the George Washington Wizards. Backup gunpoint ward Bones Hyland had a breakout rookie time of year endure year, and he’s our long-shot pluck for Sixth Man of the Year.
So long as the Nuggets rest healthy, they’re the squad to crush inwards the Northwest. Their win come is 49.5 o/u game, but 50-plus wins are reachable with a level-headed Big 3 of Jokic, Murray, and Porter. Grab the Nuggets now at -140 odds before the northwestern United States betting odds reposition at the starting line of the season.
Minnesota Timberwolves +140
The Gopher State Timberwolves won 46 games last-place harden and earned the #7 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. Even though the Memphis Grizzlies knocked them come out inwards the first round, the Timberwolves/Grizzlies played ace of the most exciting serial publication inward the playoffs.
In an effort to vie in a stacked Western Conference, the Timberwolves leveraged their futurity for Gobert, coughing upward quadruplet first-round picks and Little Phoebe players. Gobert joins a look contrast with Karl-Anthony Towns and Jaden McDaniels, piece safety device Susan Brownell Anthony Edwards anchors the backcourt with safety D’Angelo Russell.
Aside from Kyle Anderson, the Timberwolves have got a thin bench after they sent a slew of role players and veterans to the Jazz to complete the Gobert trade. Their starting Phoebe is one of the strongest inward the West, but their want of depth is a concern.
The public jumped on the bandwagon after the Gobert trade, which is why the Timberwolves are +140 odds to win the Northwest. The Timberwolves’ win tot up is 48.5 o/u. That’s just a pair of wins higher than last season’s 46 wins.
Portland Trail Blazers +800
Pop test time. Aside from ward Damian Lillard, how many other starters from the Portland Trail Blazers can you name? It’s all right if you don’t know to a greater extent than two. We had to seem it up, too, because the Trail Blazers were another team up that rebooted to the highest degree of its squad.
Lillard missed the back half of lowest season, recovering from core group breadbasket surgery. But he signed a remunerative declaration extension service which backed upwards his desire to child's play his full calling inward Portland.
Guard Anfernee Simmons had a breakout season endure year, averaging 17.3 ppg. He’ll conjoin Lillard inward the backcourt, but it seems weird that Lillard and safety device CJ McCollum are no more longer in the same lineup after the Trail Blazers skint upwardly their dynamical duo at lastly season’s trade in deadline.
The Trail Blazers added forward Jerami Duncan James Corrow Grant inwards a merchandise with the Detroit Pistons, and so bolstered their bench by signing guard Gary Payton II. With the seventh-overall pick inwards the 2022 NBA Draft, the Trail Blazers took a flyer on safety device Shaedon Sharpe, But Sharpe injured his articulatio humeri during an NBA Summer League game in Vegas.
The bookies guess the Trail Blazers are scarce a break-even squad during a modulation season, with a win tot of 39.5 o/u. group A sound Lillard could donjon them inwards contention for a blob inward the Play-In Tournament, which is why they’re +800 betting odds to win the Northwest.
Utah Jazz +20000
The UT Jazz was unity of the teetotum teams in the Western Conference for the past mates of seasons. But a growing rift 'tween stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert needs led to a fractured locker room and a disappointing breakup. During a occupy off-season, the Jazz traded Gobert to the Timberwolves, then dealt Billy Mitchell to the Stephen Grover Cleveland Cavaliers.
It’s only a matter of clip before the Jazz craft away veteran guards Mike Conley, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Clarkson, or Collin Sexton. They’re on a missionary work to reconstruct the squad from scratch after getting a stash of futurity draught picks for Gobert and Mitchell.
Head Coach Quin Snyder saw the committal to writing on the fence and prematurely retired after ogdoad seasons in Utah. President Danny Ainge hired Will Oliver Hardy as the Jazz’s young head word coach. Oliver Hardy earned accolades as ane of the top side supporter coaches inward the league during his clip on the Beantown Celtics’ staff.
The wunderkind Thomas Hardy is at present the youngest top dog four-in-hand inwards the NBA. The Celtics probably care they ne'er permit Hardy leave alone for Mormon State because he would have replaced chief four-in-hand Ime Udoka. That’s after Udoka earned a one-year respite for an unfitting relationship with a female staffer.
The Jazz is among a fistful of other teams that will armored combat vehicle this upcoming harden for a shaft at winning the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes. Wembanyama, a 7-foot-3 standout nerve center from France, is regarded as the best large adult male chance in ii decades. He’s projected to suit the #1 boilers suit pickax inward the 2023 NBA Draft.
With a paltry win sum of 24.5 o/u, the Jazz are ace of the deuce massive long shots on the table to win the Northwest at +20000 odds.
Oklahoma City Thunder +25000
After several years occupying the basement of the Western Conference, the Oklahoma City Thunder used the bill of exchange to buy in their roster with legion(p) talented youth players similar guard/forward Josh Giddey, ward Tre Mann, and frontward Darius Bazley.
The Thunder were at the crossroads: is it time to work a ravel at a playoff berth, or armoured combat vehicle for Wembanyama? It looks ilk the Thunder are on the storage tank train once again.
With multiple first-round potation picks inwards the 2022 NBA Draft, the Thunder selected Chet Holmgren indorse boilersuit and Jalen Bernard Arthur Owen Williams with the #12 pick. After an impressive scant during NBA Summer League, Holmgren suffered a hoof accidental injury playing inward a pro-am biz in Seattle at the ending of the summer. Holmgren testament escape his total rookie season.
The Thunder get single of the lowest win totals inwards the Western Conference at 23.5 o/u. At to the lowest degree they’ll follow play to watch, especially the exciting Giddey from Australia, who dazzled fans during his rookie flavor in conclusion year.
With the Thunder projected to turn a loss 55-60 games this season, they’re the moon around stab on the futures room at +25000 betting odds to win the Northwest Division.