How Each Northwest Team Can Cover Their Biggest Weakness

Free agency in the NBA is underway and teams across the country are looking for different players to fit into their rosters to push their team in the direction they desire. Some teams will go star hunting, some will be looking to take on bad contracts in exchange for future draft compensation and some will be looking for role players to put themselves over to hump and squarely into title contention. For the teams who fell short last season, especially in the postseason, glaring issues made themselves known throughout the year. Teams can change rosters to solve these problems, but the key to fixing a team’s fatal flaw is a change in play style.

Oklahoma City Thunder: A Commitment to Defensive Rebounding

Having centers like Chet Holmgren and Jaylin Williams allowed the Thunder to play a five-out offense, taking advantage of the team’s three point prowess. In turn, though, the Thunder struggled on the glass, especially on the defensive end of the floor. Throughout their second round playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks, Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively gathered an outrageous number of offensive rebounds, giving the Mavericks more opportunities to score, which was ultimately the difference in the matchup. How can the Thunder fix this problem? Sacrifice some transition opportunities and send wings to crash the glass instead of leaking out early. The Thunder don’t necessarily want to play this way, but if Mark Daignault can hammer home the importance of cleaning the glass, the Thunder have shown the ability to buy in and believe in his coaching.

Denver Nuggets: Finding Production Outside of the Two-Man Action

The Nuggets had another dominant year, staying near the top of the league standings throughout the season. Concerns did arise, however, about the supporting cast around Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray, especially their bench. The Joker had the largest difference in net rating from when he was on the floor versus on the bench getting his rest. Teams took advantage of this, making up ground and cutting leads that the starting five had put together. Mike Malone can take two paths to solve this issue, and both concern shaking up the rotation. He can either stagger Jokić’s and Murray’s minutes with the other starters or he can split up the dynamic duo, pairing each of them up with one of Aaron Gordon or Micheal Porter Jr. to spread the wealth of talent throughout all of his lineups night in and night out. Losing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hurts a lot, but the Nuggets have players who can step up and pick up the slack.

Minnesota Timberwolves: Taking the Offensive Pressure Off ANT’s Shoulders

The Timberwolves hung their hat on the defensive end of the floor throughout the season, largely in thanks to Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels. Offensively, though, the Wolves were a bit behind the 8 ball when it came to creating consistently good looks for all five players on the floor. Much was put on the plate of Anthony Edwards and the responsibilities only grew in the playoffs. He accepted the increased workload, but as the postseason dragged on, he was notably exhausted, failing to make good playmaking decisions against the Mavericks when it came to involving his teammates. By splitting Edward’s and Karl Anthony-Towns’ time on the floor helps to spread the scoring and giving ANT a point guard to playmake every time he’s on the floor helps to relieve him of that offensive pressure and put him into a better place as he continues to develop into a top all-around player, similar to Paul George.

Utah Jazz: Injecting Life into the Transition Game

Despite having players like Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson and Collin Sexton on the team that bring veteran presence and experience to the floor, the Jazz are a young team. Teams like this tend to struggle on the professional level, largely due to the fact that they are hampered in the half court when they are facing a set and structured defense. Good news for the Jazz; the blueprint for how to overcome a high turnover offense can be seen within their own division. If Utah can copy how the Thunder play in transition and make the conscious decision to push the ball whenever they can, they will come across more easy points, which can get them in a rhythm, helping them to avoid lulls in slower-paced games.

Portland Trail Blazers: Stop Stunting the Development of Young Players

In the later half of the regular season, Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups gave more and more minutes to the veterans on his roster. While it can be thought that this decision was made to try to increase the potential trade value of players like Malcolm Brogdon, Matisse Thybulle and Jerami Grant, fans were upset that younger players weren’t given more of an opportunity to gain experience and make mistakes that they can learn from. Moving forward, expect the Blazers to balance lineups featuring their future franchise cornerstones, Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe and Donovan Clingan. While this would be a step in the right direction, Anfernee Simons and DeAndre Ayton will receive heavy minutes as the team tries to see if they are worth keeping or increase their trade value to deal them at the trade deadline, if they aren’t moved in this offseason.