{"id":816820,"date":"2026-08-20T21:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T21:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/816820\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T21:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T21:06:17","slug":"northwest-notes-richardson-nuggets-wolves-jazz-blazers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/816820\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwest Notes: Richardson, Nuggets, Wolves, Jazz, Blazers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n By Luke Adams<\/a> |
\n at August 20, 2026 3:01 pm <\/p>\n

Altitude Sports has unveiled its new broadcasting team for Nuggets\u00a0games in 2026\/27, and former NBA guard Jason Richardson is being brought on board as a studio analyst, per Alexander Kirk of 9 News<\/a>. Richardson, who put out a statement on social media expressing his excitement (Twitter link<\/a>), will also join the in-game coverage as a second color analyst during certain home games, according to Altitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cDenver has always been a special place for me and my family,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve built so many lifelong friendships here and have always considered Colorado home. To be back in Denver and now have the opportunity to be part of the Nuggets organization makes this next chapter even more meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have more from around the Northwest:<\/p>\n

The Timberwolves earned a grade of C-plus on their offseason work from ESPN\u2019s Zach Kram<\/a>, who believes the decision to part with Julius Randle<\/a>, Naz Reid<\/a>, and most of the team\u2019s tradable draft assets for LaMelo Ball<\/a> carries a significant amount of risk. Kram also identifies Terrence Shannon Jr.<\/a> as Minnesota\u2019s biggest X-factor in 2026\/27 after the 2024 first-rounder played some of the best basketball of his career in the playoffs.
\nConversely, Kram gives the Jazz an A grade for their summer moves within ESPN\u2019s offseason review and season preview<\/a>. While Kram lauds Utah\u2019s front office for the value it extracted by signing-and-trading Walker Kessler<\/a> to the Lakers for two unprotected first-round picks and two swaps, he notes that the deal will complicate Will Hardy\u2018s plans at center, where neither Jusuf Nurkic<\/a> nor Jaxson Hayes<\/a> is a long-term solution. Kram suggests he\u2019ll be keeping an eye on how often Jaren Jackson Jr.<\/a> is deployed at the five.
\nTom Dundon\u2018s actions as a first-time NBA team owner overshadowed the Trail Blazers\u2018 offseason transactions to some extent, but Portland has put together a fascinating roster that is \u201cheavy on scoring-minded guards and light on frontcourt difference-makers,\u201d writes ESPN\u2019s Ben Golliver<\/a>. Assuming the team doesn\u2019t make any trades to clear its backcourt logjam, one or more of Portland\u2019s veteran guards may be asked to make \u201cuncomfortable\u201d sacrifices, Golliver notes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Luke Adams | at August 20, 2026 3:01 pm Altitude Sports has unveiled its new broadcasting team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[7,496,956,423,6,2287,422,427,3972],"class_list":["post-816820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-utah-jazz","tag-basketball","tag-jaren-jackson-jr","tag-jason-richardson","tag-jazz","tag-nba","tag-terrence-shannon","tag-utah","tag-utah-jazz","tag-utahjazz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117129876853020475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}