The Best and Worst Season for Every NBA Northwest Division Franchise (2024)

The NBA Northwest Division is one of the league's newest divisions. It was introduced during the 2004-05 season, when the league realigned to have six divisions, three in each of the Western and Eastern Conferences.

The Midwest Division was dissolved, and two divisions took its place, with some teams from the Midwest and Pacific divisions scattering into the new Northwest and Southwest Divisions.

Today, the division is one of the more competitive divisions in the NBA, with the top three seeds in the Western Conference playoffs all being Northwest Division teams.

The division has several superstars, and teams have cores that will remain intact for the foreseeable future.

Although the division has only seen one NBA title winner since its initial season, the franchises had prior success before the division was introduced.

Overall, it is one of the weaker divisions in the NBA, with only three championships in the franchises' histories. Still, several Hall-of-Famers have played within the division.

That said, here are the best and worst seasons for each Northwest Division franchise.

1 Denver Nuggets

Best Season – 2022-23

The Denver Nuggets recently had their best season in franchise history when they won the NBA Championship for the first time.

It took them 47 years to finally win a championship, one of the longest droughts in the NBA's history. Still, they were able to pull it off due to their starting five, which has players with complementary playing styles that mesh terrifically with Nikola Jokic 's unselfish play.

The Nuggets cruised to the top seed following the regular season and were nothing special stats-wise, but they flipped a switch in the playoffs, having the best net rating at 8.0.

They handled business with an overall record of 16-4, winning the NBA Finals in a 4-1 series victory over the Miami Heat .

This Nuggets squad was the most talented team in the franchise's history, which is a massive reason they were able to secure the franchise's first ring.

Worst Season – 1997-98

The Nuggets' worst season came in the late 1990s during the 1997-98 season.

They had a pitiful record of 11-71 that year, tied for the fifth-worst winning percentage in NBA history. They were in the bottom three of the league for points per game, rebounds per game, assists per game and field goal percentage.

The Nuggets traded Antonio McDyess before the season, leaving them with no clear star player. Their leading scorer, Johnny Newman, only averaged 14.7 points per game.

To make matters worse, the Nuggets only received the third pick in the NBA Draft, which they used to select Raef LaFrentz over Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison.

2 Minnesota Timberwolves

Best Season - 2003-04

The Minnesota Timberwolves have historically been among the worst franchises in the NBA.

Despite that, in the 2003-04 season, Kevin Garnett had the best season of his careerand one of the best individual seasons this century, winning the Most Valuable Player award and leading the Timberwolves to the first seed in the West and the second-best record in the NBA.

The Timberwolves boasted one of the best two-way rosters in the NBA. They had a top-10 offense and a top-10 defense, both anchored by Garnett.

They were second in field goal efficiency and fourth-best in opponent field goal percentage, averaging 4.8 percent better shooting per game than their opponents.

After two hard-fought series to open the playoffs, they reached the Western Conference Finals, where they ultimately lost to the L.A. Lakers in six games.

Worst Season – 2009-10

Inexperience and youth were massive themes for the Timberwolves in the 2009-10 season.

Fresh off of the 2009 NBA Draft, where the Timberwolves drafted Jonny Flynn and Ricky Rubio in the top six picks, the franchise was looking for a turnaround.

Flynn never panned out despite a solid year in 2009-10, and Rubio was solid but never reached star status.

Kevin Love and Al Jefferson were bright spots in a dim season as the young Timberwolves learned to play in the NBA. The team was awful at both ends of the court.

They were 20th in points per game and 29th in opponent points per game while ending the season in the bottom 10 of many other categories.

They were 25th in both field goal percentage and opponent field goal percentage, being outshot by an average of 3.1 percent per game.

3 Oklahoma City Thunder

Best Season – 1978-79

The Seattle Supersonics existed from 1967 to 2008 before becoming the Oklahoma City Thunder .

The franchise has one NBA Finals victory, which came in the 1978-79 season.

The NBA saw an increased amount of parity during that particular season, when the Supersonics held the best record in the Western Conference and second-best in the league with only 52 wins. They put forth a solid team effort, as seven players averaged over 10 points per game.

Their first and only NBA championship hinged on their top-ranked defense.

The Supersonics ranked first in opponent points per game despite having the fourth-worst points per game themselves. It was a classic example of the phrase "defense wins championships."

They held their opponents to 46.3 percent shooting from the field, the best in the league, while only shooting 46.8 percent themselves. They won the championship in five games over the Washington Bullets.

Worst Season – 2020-21

The Thunder's worst season came only a few years ago, the season after they hired 2023-24 Coach of the Year award winner Mark Daigneault.

The Thunder finished with a winning percentage of .306, the fifth-worst in their history, but how they lost games that season made it their worst.

At one point in the season, the Thunder were 19-24, looking like a fringe playoff team. After that point, they went 2-26 over their next 28 games before winning the final game of the season. They lost 20 of those games by double-digits.

That 28-game stretch defined their entire season, especially since it closed out the year.

Overall, the Thunder were 28th in points per game and 26th in opponent points per game while being in the bottom 10 in nearly every defensive category.

4 Portland Trail Blazers

Best Season - 1976-77

The Portland Trail Blazers are the third team in the Northwest Division with an NBA championship. Theirs came in the 1976-77 season, with Bill Walton at the helm, and only in their seventh season as a franchise.

During that season, they finished with the highest net rating in the entire league despite finishing tied for the fourth-best record. They had many blowout wins despite not even winning 50 games.

Teams with a balanced attack excel, especially in playoff situations, and that is precisely what this Trail Blazers team had: a top-10 offense and top-10 defense.

Led by Maurice Lucas and Walton's scoring, who combined for 38.8 points per game, they were third in points per game as a team. Four other players averaged double-digit points per game.

They were also ninth in opponent points per game.

They became champions by beating the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Finals in six games.

Worst Season – 2005-06

Pitiful is the only way to describe the offense of the 2005-06 Trail Blazers, who only averaged 88.8 points per game, dead last in the NBA and nearly 20 points per game worse than the Phoenix Suns , who scored the most points per game that year.

Led by a young Zach Randolph, the Trail Blazers were abysmally bad. They were blown out in many of their losses, and their wins were mostly games won by a few points.

Their largest margin of victory was 12 points, and their largest blowout loss was 45 points.

Of the players who played in at least 50 games for the team, only two averaged double-digits in points per game. The team was so bad that, despite only playing 26.2 minutes per game, the Trail Blazers' best player based on advanced statistics was Steve Blake, a career journeyman who played for eight teams and only averaged 6.5 points per game throughout his career.

5 Utah Jazz

Best Season - 1996-97

The Utah Jazz dominated the Western Conference throughout the 1990s, as Karl Malone and John Stockton created an elite one-two punch on offense and defense.

Together, they created one of the most complimentary and dominant duos in NBA history, and probably the best duo to play together that never won an NBA Championship.

Despite not winning a title together, they helped the Jazz achieve back-to-back appearances in the NBA Finals, starting in the 1996-97 season when they showed their dominance as a team.

Having arguably the best passer of all time alongside one of the best scorers of all time allowed the Jazz offense to thrive in 1996-97. They were second in offensive rating and first in field goal percentage and assists per game.

They had a staggering net rating of 9.7, which wasn't even the highest in the NBA.

After cruising through the Western Conference in the playoffs, they ultimately lost to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls in six games.

Worst Season – 1974-75

The Jazz played in New Orleans for five seasons before relocating to Salt Lake City. The team's worst season was its first season in the NBA, 1974-75.

They got off to a miserable start as they began their first season by going 3-34, including losing their first 11 games before getting their first win in franchise history. They picked it up later in the season, having a stretch where they went 18-14, but it was too little, too late.

The Jazz were second-last in both field goal percentage and opponent field goal percentage. They gave up the most points per game in the NBA and had a net rating of -7.8, the worst in the league.

The bright spot for the Jazz was the play of Pete Maravich, who played much better in the second half of the season, giving them momentum heading into the next season. He was a big part of the organization during its time in New Orleans.