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Kawhi Leonard is out indefinitely as he tries to get his knee right, again. Just to remind you, the Thunder have a pick swap with the Clippers if they want it. If these guys end up with Cooper Flagg …
Speaking of:
Northwest Division Preview
Can anybody keep up with the Thunder?
We are previewing the 2024-25 season leading up to opening night on Oct. 22, going through each division and major individual award. We got through the East and the Southwest Divisions this week. We’ve also done the MIP, Sixth Man, Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year awards. For each team, I’ll make a bold prediction and offer a take on the over/under set by BetMGM. Five 🥶 emojis on the hot seat meter is job security. Five 🔥 means update that résumé. Let’s preview the Northwest!
Best-case scenario: This team stays healthy, wins 65 games and competes for the NBA title, and maybe even wins it.
Worst-case scenario: Everything is good during the regular season, but the Thunder have another early playoff exit due to inexperience.
Confidence in the Thunder: 💪💪💪💪💪
Best-case scenario: Braun fills in perfectly for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jokić plays like a god and Murray is in All-Star form as Denver wins the West again.
Worst-case scenario: Development of younger guys is slow, and a frugal summer bites them as Denver is out early in the playoffs.
Confidence in the Nuggets: 💪💪💪💪
Best-case scenario: Edwards continues to ascend, and Julius Randle plays perfectly in his role to earn a new deal as the Wolves win the West.
Worst-case scenario: Randle is a square peg in a round hole, Rudy Gobert regresses and Edwards loses steam. Early playoffs exit.
Confidence in the Wolves: 💪💪💪💪
Best-case scenario: They embrace the tank early. Utah doesn’t let pride get in the way, so it trades veterans to develop the young guys, and the team lands a top-five pick.
Worst-case scenario: The Jazz remain middling, win 30-35 games and pick 10th instead of guaranteeing a chance at a franchise piece.
Confidence in the Jazz: 💪💪
Best-case scenario: Massive improvement from Henderson, Simons cooks, Shaedon Sharpe stays on the court and Donovan Clingan looks like a starter … and they get a top-tier draft pick.
Worst-case scenario: Henderson looks like a bust after two seasons, Sharpe can’t stay healthy, Clingan looks mediocre and the Blazers wind up around sixth or seventh in the draft due to bad luck.
Confidence in the Blazers: 💪
Awards Predictions
Who will win Defensive Player of the Year?
Back in the 1985-86 season, Alvin Robertson won Defensive Player of the Year honors. In just the fourth year of the award, he averaged a ridiculous 3.7 steals per game. That remains the highest single-season average in NBA history. Then only 23 years old, Robertson was a shooting guard for the Spurs and in his second season in the NBA. Three other players have won DPOY at 23 years old (Dwight Howard, Jaren Jackson Jr. and another then-San Antonian named Kawhi Leonard). Nobody else has won it by their second NBA season.
Oh, hello, Victor Wembanyama, who happens to be the latest Spur entering a second season with a chance to win DPOY — he’s the overwhelming favorite, in fact. Wemby won’t turn 21 until January. If he does win this season’s award, he’ll be by far the youngest to do so.
Honestly, I have no idea when we can expect someone else to win it next. There will be great defenders with worthy cases, but they might only end up winning due to voter fatigue. With that said, here are BetMGM’s favorites for the 2024-25 season’s Defensive Player of the Year award:
- Favorite: Victor Wembanyama (-150)
- Threats: Chet Holmgren (+1200), Evan Mobley (+1400), Bam Adebayo (+1600), Rudy Gobert (+1800)
- Darkhorse: OG Anunoby (+3000)
- My prediction: Wemby. I mean … could we just bet on the next time he doesn’t win it?
Giannis Talking Trade?
Does he really think the Bucks would deal him?
If you haven’t read Sam Amick’s feature on Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, you really should check it out. It ranges from the Bucks entering their first full season with Doc Rivers in place to hopes of a more cohesive roster to the following excerpt, which caught everybody’s eyes. (And by everybody’s, I do mean the aggregator army.)
As a Bucks staffer walks by, Antetokounmpo grabs the man by the shoulder and asks a remarkably pointed question.
“If we don’t win this year, would you get fired?” Antetokounmpo asks with a wry smile to his co-worker. “Do you have it in the back of your mind, like, ‘(What) if this year doesn’t go well?’ Yeah, if we don’t win a championship, I might get traded. Yeah, this is the job we live. This is the world we’re living in. It’s everybody.”
If this feels loaded, it’s because … it is. Antetokounmpo has made a career out of a couple of things: 1) He’s an absolute monster on the basketball court. We’ve seen that with his two regular-season MVP seasons and his 2021 NBA Finals performance as the Bucks won it all. 2) He’s really good at playing the “aw shucks” game with people who want to be disarmed. In his first couple of seasons, I believed the act was genuine, but he’s learned to leverage his savvy as he’s become a more established veteran.
Almost three years ago, the Greek Freak had us believe that he’d tried Oreo cookies with milk for the first time. A year and a half ago, he threw Mike Budenholzer under the bus after top-seeded Milwaukee lost to Miami. (He said he wished he could have guarded Jimmy Butler but hadn’t been told by Budenholzer to do so.) The coach was fired about a week later. Last season, Antetokounmpo played innocent about the abrupt dismissal of Adrian Griffin. I didn’t buy the humility in these instances, but appreciated the savviness of the 29-year-old’s comments.
His latest remarks, though? Those could be a soft launch of a trade request/demand (for him or about someone else), if the Bucks don’t resemble a legitimate contender to the defending champion Celtics and the conference’s improving teams. Last season, Milwaukee was supposed to be right there with Boston, but we quickly realized the Bucks were not in the Celtics’ class. The former cashed out its coach for Doc Rivers, and things just never came together. For a few years, the conversation around Antetokounmpo was about him possibly finding somewhere new, if the Bucks didn’t compete for a title.
Here’s the good news with that, though: Whenever he does directly or subtly pressure the Bucks, the team responds with a big move. In 2020, the front office got Jrue Holiday, who signed an extension before a title run. Milwaukee needed to make a big move last year, so it traded for Damian Lillard. Not for one second do I believe Antetokounmpo thinks he could be traded if the Bucks aren’t good enough. I do buy that he could seek team changes, though.
Bounce Passes
Hall of Famer Rick Barry is 80 years old but will cook you and your loved ones at pickleball.
Josh Hart might be the key for making the Knicks’ offense elite.
New Thunder big man Isaiah Hartenstein fractured his hand. He’ll be re-evaluated in five to six weeks.
Most-clicked in yesterday’s newsletter: John Hollinger’s preview for the best of the East, with a shocking pick for second.
(Top photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images )
