Northwest Division (Part 1)
The NBA season has arrived, with games due to tip off Oct 22nd, on Tuesday. Bovada has released odds of divisional crowns for the 30 NBA teams, and we are going to handicap that aspect as well as take a quick glance at each team as it enters the 2019-20 season.
There are no over/under for season wins currently available for betting on Bovada, but we are going to predict season win totals for each team in the brief synopses of each of the six divisions in the NBA, moving here into the NBA’s Northwest, with a look at the top two teams first (Part 1).
Utah (+120)
The Utah Jazz made a few tinkering moves to its roster, but those few moves could make all the difference. It starts with importing veteran Mike Conley to run the point, a player who has spent the majority of his NBA career both extremely steady and just as under-appreciated. Conley joins rising superstar Donovan Mitchell in the backcourt. Mitchell suffered something of a “sophomore slump,” particularly in the playoffs, but he is indisputably one of the best from his draft class and a future superstar.
Rudy Gobert is the best defensive center in the league, and he has the accolades (Defensive Player of the Year) to prove it. Joe Ingles is a useful rotation player who can comfortably play three positions and knocks down the triple at a high clip. The Jazz still is unsure what to expect from the oft-injured Dante Exum, and it also took on reclamation project Emmanuel Mudiay to come off its bench. The fate of the Jazz mostly relies upon just how good Mitchell can become, and how quickly, though, with few other players on its roster expected to make massive leaps.
Former Pacer Bojan Bogdanovic is a nice addition because he will help spread the court while Ingles rests. Both of them are knockdown shooters, and if used together could really open things up for Mitchell. Utah has all the requisite pieces to be a contender in the West, and with Golden State in something of a nadir, that top spot is wide open for Utah to claim.
Prediction: 58-24
Denver (+130)
The Denver Nuggets spent the first half of last season atop the West, and it has enough talent to string together a full season occupying that spot, yet it finds itself on nearly even ground with the Utah Jazz according to NBA oddsmakers. Perhaps it should not be. For starters, the teams are quite different, but it is Denver that sports the superior offensive lineup, while it is Utah that has a defense-first approach. This is almost a case study in which works better.
Nikola Jokic is an MVP candidate at center and the focal point of Denver’s offense, but expect Jamal Murray to make the leap as an elite performer this season. Murray functions very well in 2-man sets with Jokic, so the Nuggets are counting on that chemistry to spread into the rest of the lineup.
Veteran Paul Millsap is seemingly on the tail end of a great NBA career, so the Nuggets will hope that Michael Porter Jr. is healthy and ready, eventually, anyway. For the time being, it is a team loaded with scoring options, and there is not an offense-deficient player in its entire rotation. Malik Beasley and Monte Morris are one of the best second unit backcourts, and Plumlee is a solid enough passer that most sets for Jokic function quite well with Plumlee giving him a rest. Denver has an unorthodox offense, a strange model of success, and for all that, it still might be the best team in the West this season.
Prediction: 61-21
