The Northwest Division, home of the NBA Champions two of the last three seasons, could end up being one of the most competitive divisions in the league. Of all six divisions, the Northwest is the only one with no teams below .500 eight days into the 2025-26 season.
Oklahoma City Thunder (5-0)
It’s nice to see that the Thunder have figured out how to win games without going to double overtime, which they had to do in Game One and Game Two of this new season.
They also remain undefeated, and while they are one of four teams (the others being the Chicago Bulls, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the San Antonio Spurs), they are the only ones sitting at 5-0 for the moment. San Antonio doesn’t play until tomorrow and Philadelphia not until Friday night, so that position is safe for at least 24 hours.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander leads the Thunder and the league with 174 points scored, averaging 34.8 points a night (fourth in the league) and has the season’s highest scoring game – 55 points – against the Indiana Pacers in an NBA Finals rematch for the ages. The reigning MVP is also averaging 6.2 rebounds and 5.4 assists, and has – not surprisingly – been to the free throw line 48 times, 40 of those coming over the first two games.
A healthy Chet Holmgren has been no slouch, by any means, dropping 23 points an outing, with 10.3 rebounds, and leading the Thunder at 41.7 percent from downtown. Holmgren sat last night’s game with the Sacramento Kings due to back soreness.
The Thunder will be severely tested when they visit the Los Angeles Clippers on November 5th – assuming there’s no load management that night.
Denver Nuggets (2-1)
The NBA Champion in 2023, the Nuggets have had a couple of re-tooling moves, bringing Bruce Brown back into the fold and adding Cam Johnson’s shooting to replace Michael Porter, Jr.’s often questionable back.
Though Porter had a solid 2024-25 campaign (19 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists) which was his best year since 2020-21, the appeal of better shooting from Johnson was too good to pass up. While Johnson broke out with a little bit better numbers in Brooklyn than he had in Phoenix, he also had a lot more touches and freedom with the Nets. He left the game versus the Minnesota Timberwolves with right shoulder soreness.
Numbers are about half that three-year average currently, but that 16.1 ppg average should be in its rhythm soon. Brown chose to chase the bag after 2023, landing with Indiana and then stints with the Toronto Raptors and New Orleans Pelicans before signing the contract to come back home to Denver this season. Through three games back, he is a shade below his career averages, but is shooting 50 percent from downtown in Denver’s thin air. Should have no issue reacclimating sooner rather than later.
Twenty-six year basketball guru Bill Ingram sees the Nuggets as a very legitimate contender to steal Oklahoma City’s thunder (pun definitely intended).
Utah Jazz (2-1)
It’s been awhile since the Jazz made sweet music early in the season – they’ve had a tough few years since Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Bojan Bogdanovic, and ultimately Jordan Clarkson (along with winning head coach Quin Snyder) all went their separate ways.
Lauri Markkanen has taken the mantle, and despite heavy interest in prying him away from Salt Lake City, he has remained a Jazz and leads the team in scoring at 34.7 a night, a mere percentage point behind Gilgeous-Alexander, and in two fewer games. The Finnisher has also averaged eight rebounds a night and is shooting 50 percent from the field and 95.7 from the line.
Utah’s other much-talked-about trade target, Walker Kessler, continues to make himself to other teams (ahem, the Los Angeles Lakers) with 16.7 points, 85 percent shooting from the field (second in the league), 75 percent from three (second in the league), and second in the league with 2.7 blocks per game.
“Other teams” could indeed certainly utilize his talents. Currently, Utah holds the rights and would certainly be ill-advised to let them go.
Minnesota Timberwolves (2-2)
While I expected Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves to be more competitive than 2-2, even early on, the one positive is that they can really only go up from here.
Edwards and Julius Randle are virtually neck-and-neck with their points per game (25.7 and 25.0, respectively), but it’s Randle that leads the Wolves in assists at 5.3 dimes a night. You know Ant isn’t giving it up – and maybe that’s the issue. He’s making shots at a 47.4 percent clip, but if you don’t pass the ball, defenses will learn to isolate Edwards and clamp him down, and if that happens, instead of playing for a championship, they’re jockeying for the best draft pick.
Edwards will be out at least a week with a strained right hamstring, so we’ll see how the pack rallies around Randle.
The team needs more from Gobert and Naz Reid to be a threat.
Portland Trailblazers (2-2)
The season couldn’t have started any worse for Portland with the allegations levied against currently suspended head coach Chauncey Billups.
Damian Lillard has returned to Portland and one starts to wonder if the issues with Billups and other bad actors are what made him want out of Portland after the 2022-23 season.
There are inferences that certain bad actors let it be known what games a ‘high profile’ player would and would not be playing and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at seasons with 29 and 58 games played in successive seasons to presume who that ‘high profile’ player might be. That doesn’t implicate any one particular individual by any means … but it does complicate perceptions nonetheless.
Despite the noise, the Blazers have at least played .500 basketball, gradually improving over previous years’ season starts. One shining silver lining in gloomy Rip City has been the emergence of Deni Avdija, who leads the club with 23.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, and four assists a night.
Jerami Grant seems to be re-engaged with 22.5 points at a 57.4 percent pace, and Jrue Holiday has stuck around a little bit longer than the last stint with the Blazers, and will be a good mentor for the players on the court, and even those young men (Scoot Henderson, Matisse Thybulle) recovering and working their way(s) back as a veteran voice in the locker room.
Whether it’s with Billups or interim replacement Tiago Splitter, these Blazers will continue to improve and excite, as we saw in their win versus the Lakers – you can bet on it.
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Tracy ‘T-Money’ Graven is the Senior NBA Analyst for BackSportsPage.com owner of TMoneyMedia.com and also has his posts on SubStack at allballs.substack.com
He has written the NBA, appeared as a guest on NBA Radio, and the last 25+ years for HoopsWorld, Swish Magazine, HoopsHype, the Coach Scott Fields Show, NBARadioShow.com, and also tackles the NFL and NCAA. He’s spent 25+ years in locker rooms in Orlando, Boise (CBA, G League), San Antonio, Phoenix, Denver, Oklahoma City, and Atlanta.
He has raised five kids, and now currently resides in the heart of SEC Country near Knoxville, Tennessee – home of the 2024 Men’s Baseball World Series Champion Tennessee Volunteers.
Reach him on Twitter at @RealTMoneyMedia
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