Get Well Soon, Brooklyn
I want to start this article off by wishing DeAndre Jordan and Spencer Dinwiddie a speedy recovery, and that this article is simply written from a basketball perspective.
With the recent news of Nets center DeAndre Jordan testing positive for the coronavirus, the Nets are potentially losing two of the better players on their roster. This comes on top of the news that Wilson Chandler is opting out of the return, and Nic Claxton already being out of the picture. Jordan immediately came out and said that he was opting out of Orlando, while Dinwiddie said he is weighing his options. If it were me, I would most likely sit out and make sure that I get healthy, especially since there are reports that he is showing symptoms of the disease. That being said, the Nets will definitely feel the effects of missing a few of their key players. Not to mention the fact that they’ve already been missing Kyrie for most of the year, and KD for the entire year.
Now obviously, as my good friend @AdamTaylorNBA pointed out, the Nets’ timeline was never about this year. They were always planning on waiting it out and then making a real run next season. However, the point of this isn’t to point out the obvious, it’s to talk about the doors that have been opened by these unfortunate events.
The Nets being a weaker team than before shakes up the East quite a bit, and in my opinion changes three key things - the Wizards have a better chance at making the playoffs, the Magic have a better chance at the 7 seed, and the two seed is all the more valuable.
First of all, looking at the very bottom of the East, we have the Wizards and the Magic. While the Magic were always most likely to have a playoff spot, the Wizards were being essentially counted out until this recent news. I was always hopeful that the Wizards could push their way into the playoffs, considering they have by far the best player out of all three of the bottom teams. With the Nets now down a couple more guys, Washington has an even better shot at sneaking into the playoffs.
All that being said, the 7 and 8 seed are almost irrelevant due to the level of competition fighting for the top spots in the Eastern Conference. The Raptors currently hold a 3 game lead over the Celtics for the 2 seed. Whichever team cliches that seed gets to play the Magic or newly weakened Nets instead of the Pacers or Sixers in the first round, and that’s huge. I would much rather play one of the first two teams than either of the second two - that’s a giant gap in skill.
Get well soon DeAndre and Spencer, and good luck to everyone in Orlando, because the East just got interesting.
