NBA 2K16 News Post

NBA 2K16: Northwest Division Team Breakdowns

10:56 AM - November 25, 2015 by RaychelSnr

This is guest content written by Marc Price. You can follow Marc on Twitter, listen to his Post Game Podcast, and read his work on Medium.

Today in our whirlwind tour of the NBA, we are taking a look at the NBA's Northwest Division. From the superstar laden Oklahoma City Thunder to the constantly rebuilding Minnesota Timberwolves to the dangerous Portland Trail Blazers.

In these guides we will look at the strategy for the first year as well as the first three years. Through this, we hope you get an idea of how you should approach managing and building each team in the game.

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# 1 mrprice33 @ 11/25/15 12:04 PM

I wrote this in early September, so I'm going to add some current thoughts to the different teams here:

Denver: I would still dump Galinari. A future starting lineup of Mudiay/Harris/?/Faried/Nurkic is a pretty good group. Gallo won't be able to defend larger wing players, so a prototypical 3+D guy will fit well at the small forward position. Luckily, you get Wilson Chandler back after year one, so that's a decent starting five. Will Barton is a great 6th man candidate that makes Foye pretty replaceable going forward.

Minnesota: Personally, I think Zach LaVine is destined to be a bench gunner who comes in to provide explosive energy. Minnesota is trying to groom him to be a backup point, but I don't see it happening. Nemanja Bjelica is shooting almost 36% from 3 in his first year in the NBA, and he's under team control as long as Wiggins is. Of course, Bjelica is much older than Wiggins, but he could be a potential starter on a playoff team before his rookie deal is up. The biggest concern is still whichever wing spot Wiggins isn't occupying, and I'm not sure there's anyone currently on the roster who is a starting-caliber player at that spot.

My other potential concern is Ricky Rubio, currently shooting 37% from the floor and a whopping 17% from 3. The real-life Wolves are 4 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor, but his lack of shooting might kill a team that doesn't otherwise have it in its starting lineup. He's owed 42.3 million combined in years 2-4, and I'm not sure he compliments what's here in terms of 2K basketball.

Oklahoma City: Presti stuck the Thunder with a terrible contract in Enes Kanter, who is currently making slightly less than Russell Westbrook. This roster isn't as good as I thought back in September, and the marginal starters who are there (guys like Dion Waiters) are going to command much more than they're worth. You can go a pure stars and scrubs teambuild and hope that Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka don't get hurt, but you still need to figure out who plays shooting guard. That player may not currently be on the roster.

Portland: A much cooler team than I envisioned when writing this. McCollum has been awesome and that Aminu deal is already an absolute steal. The Blazers have a ton of interesting young parts, but they need to figure out the front court. Vonleh has been worse this year than he was with the Hornets last year and Meyers Leonard is hurt. Ed Davis and Mason Plumlee have been really good for this team, but there's something missing. I'm not sure Leonard can be a 30+ minute starter on a playoff team, and Davis might only be good in short stretches. A legit power forward is what's most necessary here, I think.

Utah: Point guard is still the issue. I wrote this well before Raul Neto took over as the starter, but he's been bad. Trey Burke has proven himself to be at least a spark off the bench, but I don't think he's anything more than a guy who can fill a Lou Williams/Jamal Crawford-like role on a team. Alec Burks has been good at soaking up possessions and is connecting on 41% of his 3s, but the other wing position has been another big problem for Utah this season. Gordon Hayward is barely above 30% from 3 and Rodney Hood is just behind him at 28%. Utah already has a problem with spacing since they use a traditional 2-bigs lineup, and when they play with only 1 guy who is a threat from deep, it will cause serious problems for their offense.

The lineup of Burke/Burks/Hood/Booker/Gobert is +65.5 points per 100 possessions, and this might be a sign of where this team needs to go. They have two elite bigs in Favors and Gobert, and I think splitting them in terms of rotations is your best bet. 24 minutes each of high-energy basketball surrounded by moving and cutting and shooting is a recipe for success.

# 2 DJ @ 11/25/15 12:13 PM

I've been trying to decide which team to use from this division in MyLeague. Nice breakdown.

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NBA 2K16: Northwest Division Team Breakdowns