Yet another team out West joined the arms race late Monday night as the Trail Blazers shocked the league by making an aggressive win-now move for Jrue Holiday. The Blazers had a nice surge to end last season, but they've been in the midst of a rebuild since dealing Damian Lillard two years ago; now it appears they are shifting into contenders.
It's not like they are title favorites now, or anything, but making this move, just one day after the NBA Finals, suggests that Portland is ready to get serious about winning. They dealt Anfernee Simons and two future second-round picks to the Celtics in the deal to add the 35-year-old two-time NBA champion.
Holiday will help Blazers right away
Jrue may be past his prime, but he still has a lot left in the tank. The six-time All-Defensive player will help set the culture in Portland, will be a defensive leader along with youngsters like Deni Avdija, Toumani Camara, and Donovan Clingan, and should be an excellent mentor for Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe.
The Blazers were already a solid defensive team last season, now they have the potential to be outstanding on that end of the floor, and a true pain in the ass to play against. They still have the 11th pick in the draft and plenty of other assets if they want to make another move as well.
As of now, they are definitely still a bit short on offense, and the young players will need to take another major leap to vault into true contender status, but even constructed as is, this team should be a lot better and should vie for a playoff spot.
The Western Conference is absolutely loaded
The West has been a nightmare for years, but next year might be crazier than ever. The Thunder look like a dynasty in the making, the Rockets just added KD, the Wolves have made back-to-back WCFs and Anthony Edwards is just 24, the Lakers are retooling around Luka Doncic and LeBron.
The Clippers looked like the best team in the NBA for parts of last season, the Warriors have a full offseason with Steph and Jimmy, the Spurs are building a juggernaut with Wemby, and even the Mavericks have been gifted new life with Cooper Flagg.
It's very hard to find easy wins out West, and the Nuggets are going to have a battle on their hands just to earn a top-6 seed next season. The Grizzlies have Ja and JJJ and will be fighting, the Pelicans aim to bounce back as well, and the Kings are always up to something.
The only three teams that would maybe not have been vying for a playoff spot were the Jazz, Suns, and Blazers. But now in recent days, we've seen the Suns indicate they want to win, and the Blazers make a win-now trade.
The Jazz hired Austin Ainge, and he said tanking is over, but he may not have a choice. The West is stacked, and there will be several good teams, with title aspirations, who don't even make the playoffs in 2025-26.
Nuggets new front office needs to get to work
It's an arms race, and every West team is getting better while the Nuggets stay the same. Denver finally has a new front office in place, but that group has little to work with and little time to figure it out.
They are going to need to get creative, to find some value, and to hit on the margins in a big way. If they don't make moves, the conference could easily pass this team by, and the Nuggets will find themselves in big trouble.