Team to beat: The Utah Jazz not only won the Northwest Division last year, but made the playoffs for the first time since the 2010-11 season, finally digging out of the mess GM Carl Rando made in the brief time he served as skipper, between GM Proid and GM Merencio. The Jazz went from worst to first last season and Merencio has taken pains to surround Derrick Rose with a talented cast. Andrew Wiggins did not disappoint in his rookie season while Victor Oladipo and Kenneth Faried round out this strong starting lineup. The Jazz signed Chris Kaman to play center. While it’s unclear if he is an improvement over Timofey Mozgov will be seen, the Jazz now have rookie Willie Cauley-Stein waiting in the wings. Julius Randle, who missed the entire last season, is waiting to break out and getting Gerald Henderson for essentially nothing was a key pick-up.

Key story line: Rising from the ashes. All five teams in the Northwest Division have something to prove and each need a strong season to convince fans and pundits that this division isn’t the weakest in the league. Utah already made the case last season that things have improved, pushing into the second round of the playoffs.

The Oklahoma City Thunder, so bad for so long, have finally seen the light of day as GM Nenjabin has what could be the most promising team we’ve seen in a while, loaded with young talent and featuring Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green and the newly acquired Ricky Rubio. No one on the team is older than 26 and they could be exciting like the Raptors used to be back when Chris Bosh, Kevin Durant and Brandon Roy all played together.

Meanwhile, the Nuggets, so good when GM Nick ran the show, took a step back when GM Rootsey took over. Derrick Favors and John Wall won’t stand for failure, so they should help keep the team viable.

The Minnesota Timberwovles have long been the butt of many a league joke, especially with GM Javijoe making deals right and left, many that make no sense. This season we (might) see a newly measured Javijoe, one that has a great core with Nerlens Noel, Paul George, Bradley Beal and Kyle Lowry. But the Wolves are always one trade away from disaster. Can Javijoe keep still long enough to let the team survive?

And lastly, the Portland Trailblazers. I predicted that this would be the team to beat last season but GM DJDrew blew it up and created, what is could be, one of the worst teams in the league now, trading away stars Joe Johnson and Dwight Howard and getting nothing in return for his troubles. The Blazers are still awful and have a lot of work to do if they hope to match last season’s 27-55 record. But it’s only up from here and hopefully this team will soon also rise up from the rubble of destruction and poor GMing.

Five best players:

1) Nuggets PG John Wall- Wall is easily one of the best point guards in the game. Last season, he averaged 26 points per game and dished out 6.3 assists per game for the Nuggets. He is the type of player who can both control the game and make his teammates better. He is just 25-years-old and is about to enter his best basketball years. This should be an exciting season for him. 

2) Thunder SG Jimmy Butler- It’s time for Jimmy to become a star. That’s what the Thunder need right about now. Last season he scored 18.6 points per game. We need to see more than that. And he can certainly do it. He is super aggressive and is even more dangerous after working on his three-pointer over the summer. Butler is injury-prone, however, showing in only 62 games last season. The Thunder need 82 from him this time around.

3) Timberwolves PG Kyle Lowry- Minny has more talent now than in years and a few of those guys can go into this slot. But with Paul George and Bradley Beal missing so much time for injury reasons, the workhorse Lowry gets the nod at this spot. He can be really awesome, hitting long shots and dishing up some tasty passes. He can also shoot really poorly. Like everyone else on the Wolves, Lowry also has had his injury issues. But he lost weight over the summer and got into better shape. He has only shot in the 30s% the past few seasons. Still, he has to potential to do more, putting him at #3 on this list.

4) Nuggets PF Derrick Favors- Although Favors isn’t going to be the superstar everyone predicted, he is a solid player who will look even better on the court with John Wall. Still young at 24, Favors is still growing as a player and numbers have improved each season. Last year, he had 15.6 points per game and 11.5 boards, for example. He won’t become the next Dwight Howard, but he is a super valuable role player to have a team with non-selfish guys there to bump him up.

5) Jazz SG Victor Oladipo- Yes, Derrick Rose would be the sexier pick but he has missed too much time and is too much of a liability to make my list. So, I am going with the less flashy, but equally important Oladipo. With Rose and Wiggins getting all the spotlight, we tend to overlook Oladipo’s contributions (14.7 points per game on 45% shooting, 3.8 rebounds, 3.1 assists). Given the chance, Oladipo can do even more. With a likely Derrick Rose injury or lawsuit always looming, he may very well soon get the chance.

Sleeper: The Oklahoma City Thunder could be the team that knocks the Jazz over the pedestal here, especially if some of its young players come into their own sooner than expected. If Robert Covington takes off the way the pundits expect, watch out. But with a lot of untested players on the bench, it will take a lot for this team to really compete for another couple of years, unless GM Nenjabin decides to trade a few for some veteran talent.

Breakout star: It’s time for Nerlens Noel to make his critics pay. He is an amazing perimeter defender and could soon become the league’s Defensive Player of the Year. Last season, his first after missing his entire rookie year, Noel pulled in 11.2 boards and blocked 1.2 shots per game. He’s only going to get better and with a dearth of good bigs in Minnesota (Bargnani starting at center, really?) Noel will have to up his game to prevent his team’s opponents from scoring hundreds of points against them.

Best newcomer: You can’t argue with the acquisition of Ricky Rubio. The Thunder didn’t give up too much to get him and he does have the skills to be one of the best floor generals in the league. However, injuries are such a big issue that this could also become a nightmare acquisition for the Thunder. But we’re going to think positively and hope Rubio pushes Oklahoma City to a new level this season.

Prediction: It will be sweet music for Jazz fans as the team will win the division again this season. The Nuggets will come in second, barely scraping into the playoffs with a near .500 record. The Thunder will end up in third place because they are just too green to do better. Minnesota will finish fourth for one of two reasons: a) Javi will make some dumb trade and deep-six the team again or b) we will never see Noel, Evans, Beal, George and Lowry in the same game because at least one of them will constantly be hurt. The Trail Blazers will finish dead last. There is a good chance a D-League team could beat these guys.