Utah Jazz: 2017-18 Northwest Division Comparison – December

Following the first full month of the season, the Utah Jazz and their Northwest Division counterparts have all had ups and downs and the pecking order is far from clear.

The month of November is already in the books and the month of December of the 2017-18 NBA season is well underway. You’d think that by about the quarter mark of the season, we’d have a little bit more clarity in regards to where certain teams stand, but in the Northwest Division, things appear murkier than ever.

All five teams have had stretches where they’ve looked both really good and really bad, be it due to injury (Utah, Denver), inconsistency (practically all of them) or chemistry issues (Oklahoma City in a big way and Utah somewhat as well). That has resulted in their current place in the standings seeming unsettled and as if a whole lot could change.

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However, it also appears almost certain that all five Northwest Division teams will be fighting for playoff berths, which will make for an extremely exciting season and plenty of hard-fought rivalry games against one another. And while a lot could change over the remainder of the season, it does feel like little by little we’re getting a better understanding of each of the Utah Jazz’s divisional foes.

With that being the case, let’s take a closer look at how each is faring and what we should expect for them moving forward.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Current Record: 9-12

Standings: 5th in Division, 9th in Conference

It’s no stretch whatsoever to say that the Oklahoma City Thunder have been one of the most disappointing teams in the league this season. Sure, a 9-12 start that includes big wins over the likes of the Golden State Warriors and most recently the Minnesota Tiimberwolves isn’t a death sentence by any means, but considering the talent on that roster, they really should be doing much, much better.

In fact, many NBA experts as well as myself had the Thunder pinned as easily the fourth best team in the Western Conference with a significant drop-off in talent after that. However, considering their struggles with chemistry, they currently find themselves outside of the playoff mix completely and certainly not as foreboding as several of the teams ahead of them in the standings.

They’re just 5-5 in their last ten and somehow have managed a worse road record than the Jazz of 2-9. Simply put, the Thunder have not figured out how to best utilize their three stars and if they’re unable to right the ship soon, they’ll be facing an uphill battle to get back in the thick of things in the Western Conference.

Strictly from an individual stats standpoint, all three of OKC’s Big 3 are playing relatively well, especially in terms of points per game, but their shooting percentages leave something to be desired, they’re not closing games out well at all and quite frankly they just aren’t working well enough together to produce wins.

OKC might need to make some significant shake-ups to get out of this funk and improve, but whatever they end up doing, I do think they’ll find a way to figure this out. Paul George and Russell Westbrook both have figured out ways in the past to push a lackluster team to the postseason and with their combined talent they ought to be able to do the same with this OKC team.

We’ll see where they’re at by the end of December, but I believe that one way or another the Thunder will figure out a way to qualify for the playoffs.

Portland Trail Blazers

Current Record: 13-10

Standings: 3rd in Division, 6th in Conference

The top three teams in the Northwest Division – the Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves and Portland Trail Blazers are all right with one another. Denver has a slight edge at 13-9 whereas Minnesota and Portland are both 13-10 but Minnesota holds the tiebreaker with a slight edge in divisional play.

Therefore, all three of these squads have been relatively close to the same level and any of them could flip-flop their positions in the standings quite quickly. In fact, that’s exactly what happened Saturday night as Denver defeated the Los Angeles Lakers and the Portland Trail Blazers fell to the New Orleans Pelicans causing Denver to rise to the top of the division and Portland to fall to third.

However, Saturday’s loss aside, I’ve been impressed with the Portland Trail Blazers. Several people had written them off as likely having a lackluster year this season and many had them finishing outside of the playoff picture. I was actually quite high on the Blazers even heading into this season as I was excited to see what they could do with a full 82-game slate with Jusuf Nurkic in action, and despite their recent slip, they haven’t disappointed up to this point.

But it should be noted that their schedule hasn’t exactly been all that daunting to start out the year and while it can’t hold a candle to Utah’s brutal December, the next month is going to be significantly harder for the Blazers. The way they perform over the course of the next 30 days or so could very well give us a better idea of how good or bad this Portland team truly is.

Although their record indicates that they’ve been pretty solid up to this point, there’s a few attributes about them that surprise me. First of all, while both Damian Lillard and C.J McCollum are playing well, Lillard’s shooting percentages are pretty lackluster – 42.0 FG% and 32.9 3PT%. Meanwhile, McCollum is ripping the nets from deep at 47.2 percent.

Even more odd is that while last year Portland wasn’t exactly a defensive force but they were solid offensively, this year they’re just 24th in points per game but third in the league in opponent points allowed per game. This switch to a more defensive identity is certainly helpful, but they’d probably like to get their offense up to snuff as well. They’ll need Lillard to get a little more efficient if they hope to accomplish that.

What’s more disheartening than Lillard’s shooting struggles though has been Nurkic’s abysmal field goal percentage, especially for a big man. He’s currently converting on just 46 percent of his attempts. There’s no doubting that the Bosnian Beast helps improve Portland’s defense, but his teammates will need to look to get him more involved and better looks if their offense is going to be able to keep pace in the West.

I could see Portland coming down to earth somewhat in a tough month of December, but I believed in them coming into this season and I still believe in them. I’m still convinced the Blazers are a playoff-caliber team. They’ve showed as much so far and I only expect them to keep it up.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Current Record: 13-10

Standings: 2nd in Division, 5th in Conference

The Timberwolves have been a pretty confusing team this season, although I suppose as I mentioned when I kicked off this piece that the same could be said for pretty much all of these teams. They’ve had games where they’ve come away with impressive wins, but others where they have looked far from a force at all.

Last year some of their big problems included their lack of depth, struggles on defense and inability to close. They’ve added more talented players so naturally they’ve patched a lot of that up, but I think all three are still significant underlying issues. Minnesota’s scoring is pretty evenly distributed among its starters, but it takes a big drop when you go to the bench.

Not coincidentally, the same could be said about their minutes. Now, of course the starters are going to clock more minutes and get more playing time naturally – they’re the best players on the team. But the way Coach Thibodeau manages his minutes can be absolutely mind-boggling to me.

All of his starters are playing more than 30 minutes per game easily with Andrew Wiggins leading the way at 36.9. Meanwhile, the leading man off the bench, Tyus Jones, is only playing for 17.9. For comparison, the Jazz only have one player over 30 minutes in Rudy Gobert, and Rodney Hood who has largely come off the bench plays 28.3, Thabo Sefolosha plays 21 and Alec Burks plays 18.6.

The fact that Minnesota’s starters are getting so much run could very well explain all three of their issues. They’re too worn down to close out games or play defense throughout and their bench players don’t get enough time to assimilate thus explaining their lackluster depth.

Regardless of whether the Timberwolves resolve these issues or not, I’m pretty confident that they’re going to be a playoff team. However, if they hope to truly reach their full potential and be as good as they can be, they’ll need to improve in those areas that are costing them valuable wins. If they don’t they’ll only be a good, but not great team.

Denver Nuggets

Current Record: 13-9

Standings: 1st in Division, 4th in Conference

Although it’s by the narrowest of margins, the Denver Nuggets just so happen to find themselves atop the Northwest Division for the time being. This is particularly surprising considering that they lost Paul Millsap to a wrist injury and that Nikola Jokic recently went down to an ankle injury as well.

Quite frankly, though, those are two major injuries that I don’t know that Denver can truly bounce back from. Although they’re staying well afloat right now, their last four wins were over the Los Angeles Lakers, over the Chicago Bulls in lucky fashion, over the reeling Memphis Grizzlies and over the hapless Sacramento Kings. None of those opponents are formidable in the least and in between those contests, Denver was blown out by the Utah Jazz, Houston Rockets, and the Lakers in an earlier bout.

Therefore, Denver’s 13-9 record may be more than a little misleading considering that they’ve had a pretty easy schedule of late and I don’t know that their success is sustainable with their two best players out of action. I was quick to doubt the Nuggets after their early season woes that saw them start out the month of October 3-4 and even though they’re currently atop the division, I still think they’ll have more issues than they have thus far.

They have some promising guys and plenty of depth in the frontcourt while Jokic and Millsap are ailing (maybe we shouldn’t have made fun of them for signing so many power forwards), but I don’t think it’s going to be enough to keep the Nuggets on top of the Northwest by the end of the month, especially considering how narrow their lead already is.

They start out the month of December on a six-game road trip and things don’t get much easier from there. December is a tough month for most of the Northwest Division and so as difficult to discern as things are right now, they could become much clearer by the next edition of this series.

Utah Jazz

Current Record: 12-11

Standings: 4th in Division, 7th in Conference

Last of all, let’s briefly touch on the Utah Jazz, shall we? Just when it looked like discouragement was about to set in, the Jazz came back to life and have now won five straight and six of seven. Utah appeared to be slipping out of the playoff picture completely, but now have come soaring right back in as they’re above .500 and solidly in seventh in the Western Conference.

And while December gets much, much harder than what they’ve faced of late, based on what we know about Quin Snyder, Donovan Mitchell and the rest of the gang, I truly think that Utah is going to be able to sustain their hot play somewhat and that this latest burst isn’t just a fluke.

They may go right at or under .500 for the remainder of the month, but even that should still put them in a very favorable position to be able to keep pace with their Northwest Division peers. I don’t know that Utah will have the firepower to overcome all their injuries and survive a rough December in a way that will allow them to repeat as the division winner, but I am still sticking to my guns from preseason and last month and saying that Utah will make the playoffs.

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And that in and of itself would be a big accomplishment considering all that the Jazz have had to undergo heading into this season and in adjusting to new faces. Nevertheless, Utah has been red hot of late and if that keeps up, there’s no telling just how good they can be.

The Northwest Division was predicted to be a powerhouse this year and while it hasn’t fully lived up to it’s expectations – at least not yet  – it’s still been the most intriguing division in the league in my mind and it will be exhilarating to see how things unfold for all five teams in December.