The Northwest NBA teams you need to know
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Here are the three NBA teams from the Northwest you should know about and why they are so good.
The Portland Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers commonly known as the Blazers, are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league’s Western Conference Northwest Division The franchise was founded in 1970, and played its home games in Memorial Coliseum before moving to Moda Center in 1995 (called the Rose Garden until 2013). The team has advanced to the NBA Finals three times, winning the NBA Championship once in 1977. Their other NBA Finals appearances were in 1990 and 1992. The team has qualified for the playoffs in 34 seasons of their 48-season existence, including a streak of 21 straight appearances from 1983 through 2003, tied for the second longest streak in NBA history behind only the 16-year playoff streak of the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Seattle SuperSonics
The Seattle SuperSonics were an American professional Basketball team based in Seattle, Washington. The SuperSonics played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league’s Western Conference Pacific and Northwest divisions from 1967 until 2008. After the 2007–08 season ended, the team relocated to Oklahoma City Oklahoma, and now plays as the Oklahoma City Thunder
The Vancouver Grizzlies
The Vancouver Grizzlies were a Canadian professional basketball team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. They were part of the Midwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was established in 1995, along with the Toronto Raptors as part of the NBA’s expansion into Canada. Following the 2000–01 season, the team relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, United States where they were renamed as the Memphis Grizzlies
The Oklahoma City Thunder
The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional Basketball team based in Oklahoma City Oklahoma. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball Association as a member of the league’s Western Conference Northwest Division The team plays its home games at Chesapeake Energy Arena
The Thunder were established as the Seattle SuperSonics, an expansion team that joined the NBA for the 1967–68 season. The SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 after a dispute over arena financing with the city of Seattle. The team is owned by Professional Basketball Club LLC, an entity created by Clayton Bennett, who bought the SuperSonics and South Florida’s NBA Franchise — now known as the Miami Heat — from Starbucks mogul Howard Schultz in 2006.
The franchise has appeared in four NBA Finals winning in 1979 and 1996 and losing in 1978 and 2012. As of 2019, it has qualified for the playoffs nine times since arriving in Oklahoma City with each appearance resulting in a first-round loss except for 2010–11 and 2012–13, when it reached the Conference Finals both times.
The Utah Jazz
The Utah Jazz are a professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City Utah. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member club of the league’s Western Conference Northwest Division. Since 1991, the team has played its home games at Vivint Smart Home Arena. The franchise began play as an expansion team in 1974 as the New Orleans Jazz The Jazz were one of the least successful teams in the league in their early years. In 1985, they traded star player Adrian Dantley to the Detroit Pistons for Mark Aguirre, and Rodman later claimed that was when the franchise’s “bad boy” image began.
The Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets are a professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league’s Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as one of the charter franchises of the American Basketball Association (ABA), but changed its name to Rockets before the first season. It changed its name again to the Nuggets in 1974. After the name change, the Nuggets qualified for post-season play in nine out of their next ten seasons. However, they failed to make a significant impact and missed the playoffs again after 2005. The team reached playoff status for 14 years straight between 2009 and 2017—making five consecutive trips to at least the Western Conference semifinals—but fell short of an NBA Finals appearance during that time frame despite having some talented players on its roster such as Carmelo Anthony Allen Iverson and Kenneth Faried
The Minnesota Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves are a professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league’s Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded in 1989, and playing their home games at Target Center. The team has made the NBA playoffs nine times but have yet to make it to the NBA Finals
The franchise entered the NBA as the expansion Minnesota Timberwolves in 1989. Timberwolves GM Milt Newton worked on reviving the franchise by adding young talent such as Kevin Garnett, Stephon Marbury and rookie of the year Wally Szczerbiak to a core that already featured Tom Gugliotta and Chauncey Billups this led to an appearance in the 2004 Western Conference Finals
The Portland Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers commonly known as the Blazers, are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league’s Western Conference Northwest Division.
The Seattle SuperSonics
The Seattle SuperSonics, founded in 1967, were a professional Basketball team based in Seattle, Washington. The SuperSonics won the NBA Championship in 1979 and were one of the most successful teams in the league between the late 1970s and early 1990s. However, the team fell on hard times in the mid-1990s and was eventually sold to a group of investors who moved the team to Oklahoma City in 2008.
The Vancouver Grizzlies
The Vancouver Grizzlies were an NBA team that played in Vancouver, British Columbia, from 1995 to 2001. The team was relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, in 2001 and became the Memphis Grizzlies Prior to the 1995–96 NBA season the Vancouver Grizzlies expansion draft took place in which the team’s roster was filled with Expansion Draft choices and free agents
