The NBA season is just over a month away, and we're ramping up our season preview offerings with a look at the most important players on every team, division by division. These aren't necessarily the best players on each team — they're the pivot points, the ones who could make the biggest difference between success and 82 games of grinding frustration. Check out the Atlantic, Central,Southeast and Southwest, and come back Friday for the Pacific.
Denver Nuggets — Cam Johnson
At first pass, swapping Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson may not seem like a clear win for the Nuggets. It saves them about $40 million over the next two years and opened the financial flexibility for other upgrades. Both players are a similar archetype — big wings, off-ball scoring threats — but Porter Jr. is two inches taller. Their numbers are very similar but, over the past three seasons, Porter Jr. has averaged more points and rebounds and has been a slightly better shooter from beyond the arc.
But even at 29 years old with six seasons under his belt, Johnson seems to have the capacity for evolution and adaption that Porter Jr. hasn't really shown. The latter is functionally the same player he was when he entered the league — an elite shooter who understands space and does a great job of finishing from the myriad open pockets Nikola Jokić creates.
Johnson can do all that, but he's also developed far more upside as a complementary creator. He drove more than twice as often as Porter Jr. last season, shooting 53.5 percent off his drives. He was in the 66th percentile in score efficiency as the ball-handler in the pick-and-roll, and ran about three times as many as Porter Jr.
A successful Nuggets season is still going to primarily come down to Jokić's dominance and Jamal Murray's ability and availability in the postseason. Jonas Valanciûnas and Bruce Brown are meaningful upgrades to the second unit but the offensive diversity Johnson adds has the potential to give the Nuggets a different gear and a different approach than they've had in years past, something that could be crucial deep in the playoffs against contenders like the Thunder.
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Minnesota Timberwolves — Rob Dillingham
Over the past two seasons, the Timberwolves are 16-5 in the first two rounds of the playoffs, with four series wins. In their two Western Conference Finals, though, they've managed just two wins total against the Mavericks and Thunder. A consistent problem, has been complementary scoring against these elite defenses.
Karl-Anthony Towns wasn't the answer against the Mavericks, and Julius Randle certainly couldn't solve the Thunder. The Timberwolves enter this season hoping the answer will come from internal growth, namely Rob Dillingham.
The Wolves traded up to get Dillingham in the 2024 NBA Draft, but he only appeared in 49 games for a total of 516 minutes as a rookie. Take his largely garbage-time numbers with a grain of salt, but average 15.3 points and 6.8 assists per 36 minutes. He'll need to shoot better from beyond the arc, both off the catch and off the dribble, but he's the kind of creative shotmaker defenses will have to account for and give Minnesota a new dimension. He's struggled a bit in the preseason and will get pushed by Johnny Juzang and Terrence Shannon, but Dillingham has the highest ceiling and the best chance to be a transformational offensive present on the Wolves' bench.
Oklahoma City Thunder — The next guy up
The Oklahoma City Thunder are embarrassingly deep. They brought back every key contributor from last season's championship team and have spent the preseason watching complete randos look like key rotation players.
Their third-string center, Jaylin Williams, is hitting 40 percent of his 3s and blocking over two shots per game in the postseason. Ousmane Dieng — 22 and heading into his fourth season — is averaging 12.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.6 steals per 36 minutes. Nikola Topic, the No. 12 pick from the 2024 NBA Draft, is set to miss 4-6 weeks with injury after missing all of last season and it's not even a minor concern.
An undrafted second-year forward named Malevy Levens, who I had never heard of three weeks ago, has hit 7-of-13 3s and is averaging 8.2 rebounds, 2.7 steals and 1.0 blocks per 36 minutes. The fearsome trio of ... umm ... checks notes ... Jazian Gortman and Chris Youngblood have combined to hit 38 percent of their 3s and average 22.4 points per game. Brooks Barnhizer, on a two-way contract, has nine steals and nine assists to just four turnovers, and has gotten to the line 25 times in five games.
And this team is so deep, four of those guys aren't even going to make the roster, Barnhizer and Topic are fully developmental project sand Dieng and Williams are break-in-case-of-emergency. They're all playing behind Alex Caruso and Lu Dort and Cason Wallace and Isaiah Joe and Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren and Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Hartenstein.
Look, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is incredible, maybe the best player in the world right now. But the Lakers have Luka Dončić and LeBron James. The Bucks have Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Nuggets have Nikola Jokić. The Rockets, Cavs, Clippers and Knicks have devastating units that can look unbeatable.
But no one has what the Thunder have — more productive players than they can actually fit on their roster, a literal mountain of young, versatile, two-way talent ready for any challenge.
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Portland Trail Blazers — Shaedon Sharpe
If everything goes according to plan this season, the Trail Blazers will make the playoffs and Shaedon Sharpe will emerge as the centerpiece of this roster. He quietly averaged 18.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game last season, and there's every reason to think he's just getting started. He's going into his fourth season, but he's still just 22 and, because of an injury-shortened second year, has played fewer than 200 career games.
Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara are intriguing pieces for the future. Scoot Henderson and Donovan Clingan still may pop. Jrue Holiday and Jerami Grant are solid veteran contributors who can help hold things together, and Yang Hansen may be the NBA's biggest wild card. But Sharpe has the talent and skills to set the ceiling for this roster. If he emerges as a legit lead scoring threat and continues to build out his contributions as a playmaker, defender and rebounder, the Blazers are going to be a lot better than people think.
Utah Jazz — Ace Bailey
Tendonitis has limited Ace Bailey to just one preseason game, but the Jazz has to be happy with what they saw — 25 points on 11-of-16 from the field, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, just two turnovers and two personal fouls. He was fantastic curling off down screens, hitting jumpers in the middle of the floor and finding space when the ball wasn't in his hands.
Lauri Markkanen is the best player on the team, but things are going to have to progress really quickly for him to be more valuable to the Jazz as a win-now building block than as a trade piece over the next year or two. There are a lot of intriguing young players on this roster, but Bailey is the mostly likely candidate to pop as a primary scorer, the kind of offensive creator who brings order and defines roles for the rest of the roster.
If that happens this season, it makes it a lot clearer what the timeline is for the rest of this roster, what the best way to handle Markkanen is and what the future will hold for players like Taylor Hendricks, Keyonte George, Isaiah Collier and more.