The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Washington Wizards should, as a team, opt out of playing during the Orlando restart.
I mean, what’s the point of them even showing up. Both of their top two scorers have stated that they will not be participating once the season returns. That combines for 45.9 points out of the 115.6 that they average per game. Without Beal or Bertans playing, the Wizards would hypothetically average 69.7 points a game - a historically low mark. Even with both of the guys they are missing on the floor they were one pretty much the worst team invited to Orlando, so now that they essentially don’t have any scoring whatsoever, what’s the point?
Not only do the Wizards have a rough stretch ahead of them, but the Nets are basically in the same boat. Spencer Dinwiddie has been informed that he should not participate in the restart, and the same goes for forward Taurean Prince. So the list of Brooklyn players not participating now looks something along these lines - Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Spencer Dinwiddie, DeAndre Jordan, Wilson Chandler, and Nic Claxton. If you look at those guys’ combined points output (not counting Kyrie’s because he was hurt most of the year), the Nets are losing out on roughly 43 points out of the 110.8 that they average. This means that Brooklyn would average 67.9 points a night, an amount even worse than the Wizards.
As bad of a situation this might be for those teams, it does mean good things for the Celtics and/or Raptors. The race for the 2 seed in the East has never been more important. It essentially means a guaranteed matchup with the Orlando Magic. The only question is, would you rather face the Magic or an Oladipo-less Pacers squad. Personally, I think I’d still rather face the Magic since the Pacers showed that they are capable of playing well without Oladipo for a decent stretch to start the year. Now if Orlando has Jonathan Isaac back and at 100%, then the answer might be different, but he’s still going through his injury rehab process and is expected to miss all of the NBA Orlando games.
That being said, I think any team who manages to secure the 3 seed or higher in the East has a golden ticket to the second round. Unless the Heat or 76ers can’t overtake the injured Pacers, the top 3 seeds should have little problems advancing. That being said, if the Sixers struggle as bad as they have all year, then that 3 vs. 6 matchup may be all the more difficult. I don’t care how much Philly struggles, I would much rather face the Pacers if I were any team in the East. The one team that should feel the most comfortable, though, is the Bucks, who essentially can do as they please until the second round of the playoffs. Their worst case scenario is if the Magic somehow choke and fall to the 8 seed. Giannis has Milwaukee in a prime position for a deep playoff run.
I don’t know the NBA restart schedules by heart, but I do know that whoever gets to play the Wizards and/or the Nets in the first 8 games should be jumping for joy right now. Both are missing key scorers and are pretty much screwed for the rest of the season. I guess we’ll just have to see how it all turns out.
