Did the Wolves improve? | Northwest Division Preview
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What is the opening preview and why is the Northwest Division considered the deepest?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily. I'm Dave DeFore here with Espera Henne. Coming up, we finish off our offseason grades with the Northwest Division. Is this the deepest division in the NBA? Good morning, everybody. What is up? S the low offseason grades almost over. We start thinking about next season, man.
Yeah, I know. I'm actually kind of excited for next season. Would you say 78 days, 77 days, something like that? I think as we're recording it, it's like 78 days by the time it comes out. You know what's crazy? It's like 78 days and Kawhi Leonard is still not a Toronto Raptor. Insane. And the investigation is still pending, by the way, depending on when you were listening to this thing.
Where are you putting this now? Give me a percentage that he's actually a Raptor.
You know what? I still I lean like 90 percent. Like I'm still very maybe this is wishful thinking. I got to pull out my rose colored glasses. But I think it's very it feels like all of this is a formality to me. Maybe. How do you feel? I have I honestly I'm waiting for Pablo Torre to tell me how to feel on this. Look, it's been exhausting for us and we are not part of the investigation. I can only imagine how exhausting it's been in the league office and with the millionaire lawyers that are doing this.
We're going on a year of this. So, you know, hopefully we get some sort of conclusion before the season starts. Look, let's jump into what I think is the deepest division in the NBA. I know divisions don't really matter that much, but it is a nice way to break things down. But it's the Thunder, the Nuggets, the Timberwolves, the Trailblazers, the Jazz. Man, there's a decent chance that. All five of those teams are in the top 10. There's just as good of a chance because of how deep the West is that two of those teams just missed the playoffs.
Yeah, absolutely. It's it's I would say it's between this and the Atlantic division that houses the Raptors and Celtics and Sixers, LeBron and everybody. Obviously, the New York Knicks, the champs like these are the two best divisions in basketball. And you're right. I wish divisions mattered more because the stakes would be incredibly high for this.
Yeah, and speaking of, Andrew Schleck joining us just in time to talk about the Oklahoma City Thunder and the offseason that they had. Not a lot of big moves there, Andrew.
I would say they were big moves that Lou Dort ripped out from the foundation.
Well, it's a big move away, but they didn't really make any kind of big changes to the team.
Is Kawhi Leonard likely to become a Toronto Raptor and how does the investigation affect the league?
Yeah, I would say there are a lot of things that happened for the Thunder this summer. The biggest thing that happened is they re-signed Isaiah Hartenstein to a very palatable deal for them. That's probably the biggest thing that happened for them that will change the way they operate for years to come. Now, they lost three rotation players. That's a ton of minutes for them. And in the process of doing that, saved like $200 million. So that's a part of this. And I think if you're looking at what the Thunder are going to be moving forward, say I pressed an interview with my guy, Justin Martinez of the Oklahoman, about the Lou Dort move specifically. Because if you look at the Isaiah Joe move, the Aaron Wiggins moves, both of those can be explained as that, hey, they needed roster spots.
You look at the roles they had in the playoffs. Aaron Wiggins played under 100 minutes in the playoffs total through three rounds. Isaiah Joe played 140 minutes, I think, total and was like... not contributing at the level he did in the regular season. It kind of makes sense to move on from both those guys. Plus you need the roster spots of the two first round picks that you're acquiring. Those made sense. Lou Dort, however, played a big role for them in the playoffs. Yeah. He's been a starter for them for years and years and years. He's like him and Shea are like best friends. Yeah. And really the only reason that you would do this is so that you avoid the second apron, not necessarily the second apron penalties, but the second apron money that you have to spend.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the opening preview and why is the Northwest Division considered the deepest?
0:00–2:42
2
Is Kawhi Leonard likely to become a Toronto Raptor and how does the investigation affect the league?
2:42–10:07
3
How do the hosts break down the Thunder’s offseason moves and roster strategy?
10:07–37:18
4
What grades do the analysts give the Thunder after evaluating their trades and player development?
37:18–39:24