The final edition of Ballislife’s division preview series dives into the NBA’s Northwest Division, headlined by the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. With OKC’s reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Denver’s three-time MVP Nikola Jokic, and Minnesota’s future MVP in Anthony Edwards, it’s hard to imagine another division in all of sports, much less basketball, than this one.
Will the Oklahoma City Thunder become the first team in nearly a decade to go back-to-back? Will Jokic reclaim his position as the NBA’s perennial Most Valuable Player, or will Edwards finally make the leap from a great player to a transcendent talent?
Projected Order Of Finish/Record:
- Oklahoma City Thunder – 61-21
- Denver Nuggets – 51-31
- Minnesota Timberwolves – 50-32
- Portland Trail Blazers – 38-43
- Utah Jazz – 20-62
Oklahoma City Thunder
Last season: 68-14
Predicted 2025-26 record: 61-21
Tier: Back-to-Back threats
Write up: With how dominant the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder looked last season, it might be hard to believe they’re just beginning to scratch the surface of their potential. However, the youngest title-winning team by average age since the 1971 Portland Trail Blazers is retaining essentially all key pieces for the upcoming season while also adding 2024 No. 12 overall pick Nikola Topic, who missed all of last season with a Torn ACL.
While I do expect some regression to their win total, that will primarily be because they now understand the grind of a long playoff run and won’t be prioritizing regular-season accomplishments. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be right back in the MVP award race, and Chet Holmgren is poised to make a significant leap in his third healthy season in the league.
It’s hard to imagine anyone in the Western Conference, aside from Denver, giving the Thunder any type of meaningful challenge in the playoffs again this upcoming season, and my money would certainly be on an improved OKC roster in that rematch (more on that in the playoff preview).
A dynasty is budding in the Great Plains, and 2025-26 already presents well for the Thunder’s back-to-back bid.
Denver Nuggets
Last season: 50-32
Predicted 2025-26 record: 53-39
Tier: Jokić makes anyone a contender
Write up: We can wax poetic about Nikola Jokić all day. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander may have won the MVP award last season, but you could just as legitimately argue that it should have been Jokić’s trophy for a staggering fourth time in five seasons. The point is, no matter where that trophy is, the best player in basketball is the 7-foot equestrian-obsessed Serbian who plays in the Mile High City.
While you can’t discuss Denver without starting with the maestro in Jokic, another plus for the franchise is that it managed to wash its hands of perhaps the worst contract in the NBA in Michael Porter Jr. by sending him to Brooklyn. It cost Denver a 2032 first-round pick, but they also received Cameron Johnson in return, so they still have a player coming in who can contribute in the role MPJ wasn’t very useful in, especially during the playoffs.
The Nuggets are generally going to hover around the 50-to-55 win mark as long as they have Jokic. It would take some pretty favorable health across the board for them to threaten to break 60 wins, but like this team proved in the second round against the eventual champion Thunder, they will always be one of the toughest teams in the league to eliminate as long as they have their demigod.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Last season: 49-33
Predicted 2025-26 record: 50-32
Tier: Not a team you want to see in the playoffs
Write up: Like the Nuggets, the Minnesota Timberwolves showed during the playoffs that whatever they do in the regular season is essentially moot as long as they get to the dance. After trading Karl Anthony-Towns to the Knicks ahead of last season, a slow start had most pundits across the league operating under the belief that Minnesota had made a fatal mistake while attempting to bolster the roster around Anthony Edwards.
A trip to the Western Conference Finals for the second straight year, again led by Edwards and this time without Towns, proved the Timberwolves will remain in the mix as long as the superstar affectionately known as “Ant-Man” is in command. Minnesota extended key contributors Julius Randle and Naz Reid this summer, and the franchise has a strong veteran presence with Mike Conley and defensive stalwart Rudy Gobert that complements the youth movement well without really falling victim to the “two timelines” nonsense that has plagued some other franchises.
A third straight trip to the Western Conference Finals wouldn’t necessarily surprise me, but I think the playoff draw will be more favorable for the Nuggets this year in that their heavyweight bout against Oklahoma City likely won’t be occurring in the second round again. That means the Timberwolves will probably be met with a tougher second-round opponent than the Golden State team they faced largely without Stephen Curry this past postseason.
Portland Trail Blazers
Last season: 36-46
Predicted 2025-26 record: 38-43
Tier: Approaching mediocrity
Write up: The Portland Trail Blazers won’t be close to the playoff race this season, but they do have some legitimate pieces to build around in players like Shaedon Sharpe, Deni Avdija, and second-team All-Defensive team member Toumani Camara. The Scoot Henderson experiment hasn’t been very fruitful, however, as the once-considered-prodigious point guard will be held out for the first month or two of the regular season with a torn hamstring.
Portland made some offseason headlines by reuniting with former franchise cornerstone Damian Lillard, though Lillard’s role with the team this season will primarily be rehabbing and providing guidance for the Trail Blazers’ young roster as he makes his way back from an Achilles’ tendon rupture suffered in Game 4 of Milwaukee’s first-round loss to Indiana in April.
I suspect we’ll see a small improvement in win total, but this team is still a season or two and a few pieces away from sneaking into the play-in round. Especially in a Western Conference that’s shaping up to be pretty deep this season, in terms of teams that could potentially finish with 45+ wins.
Utah Jazz
Last season: 17-65
Predicted 2025-26 record: 20-62
Tier: Still bad
Write up: The Utah Jazz managed to get No. 6 overall pick Ace Bailey to report despite some early hardball from Bailey and his agent, Sharife Cooper.
A good sign for the Jazz ahead of the upcoming regular season is that Bailey parted ways with Cooper as his representation, so perhaps there will be an unexpected level of buy-in from the former Rutgers star, who was presumably getting some bad advice upon his transition to the NBA.
Aside from Bailey, the Jazz are still in purgatory with the Lauri Markkanen situation. Markkanen is a player who could legitimately put an already contending playoff team over the edge, but his presence in Utah is almost a hindrance, as the team’s failure to trade him has meant that they’ve also failed to land the haul of assets that trading a player of Markkanen’s stature would yield.
I do expect Markkanen will get somewhere with a brighter outlook at some point before the deadline, and I have a hard time seeing this Jazz team crossing the 20-win mark.
Editor's Pick
2025-26 NBA Preview: Southeast Division